HHHthegame said:
My car has lost A LOT of power lately(Can't even hit 10psi, used to hit 13 psi). I can hear a loud whistling sound in back of the inlet plenum, and we just replaced my blower a couple weeks ago. My buddy did it, and he said he used the copper RTV to "seal" it again. Is this the problem? Does it need a gasket, or does the RTV work? I think I'll take it to FORD and let them fix it. Any Ideas on price of this one? Thanks, Austin
I read that if you don't let the RTV setup overnight before starting, it will not hold. I personally didn't' want to use RTV, so I ordered IC tube gaskets from a guy in Texas. It's taken over a week for him to get them in the mail (they're in the mail now). I got tired of waiting, and decided to use Teflon tape (yellow case, which is the thicker type). I sprayed the male fittings with general purpose adhesive by 3M, and applied the tape, one fitting at a time (didn't want the adhesive to dry before I could get to it, so I did the spraying and applying the tape one at a time.
There were some imperfections like small wrinkles, but I did my best to stretch the outer side of the tape while applying it. I also overlapped it about a 1/8th of an inch. Once I had all the male ends fitted with the tape, I set the IC tubes into their respective joints and hand tightened everything, wiggling and pushing to be sure everything was aligned before proceeding to tighten anything. This means pushing and bumping the IC cooler as well. Once all the movement is gone from the joints, and your sure it's all aligned up, I tightened the large nut on the upper IC tube with the only tool I had that would work, a pliers type oil filter wrench. If you hook the top part of the wrench in a slot, and let the bottom jaw rest on the flat side of the nut, it will do a pretty good job of gripping the nut. I was able to pull straight back with all my weight and tighten the nut until it would not move any more. Since I can't torque it with a torque wrench, I went by feel. Trust me, it's tight and I'd guess about 100lbs or so.
I then tightened the upper IC tube to the IC. Be aware that one side may be closer together then the other, so tighten the side opposite side until the joint appears straight, and then tighten each nut alternately in small increments until the nut stops turning with steady force. What you are doing is compressing the tape. You'll be able to feel when the tape is completely compressed and you've bottomed out the joint by the resistance change in the wrench.
I then tightened the lower IC tube at the intake manifold, and then at the IC.
I then went back and gave a really good pull on the large upper IC tube's nut again to take up any loss of torque due to the tape spreading out. I was able to move the nut about a quarter of an inch (that's with all my weight of 220lbs pulling back and down). Who knows the actual torque, but it is tight.
I was not able to install the stud bolt on the upper IC tube (the one that screws into the alternator bracket), because the whole did not align up. If I had put the hold down bolt in there before tightening the upper tube down, I would not have been able to properly tighten the joint at the SC top. I believe this is what caused my leak in the first place, after ford did the head gaskets before I bought the car.
The hole needs to be drilled out larger to allow more backward movement of the tube. Just a note and a heads up for everyone, if you don't already know that this can be a problem.
I test drove the car, and it runs much better now. The car now idles smooth as ice, and throttle response is excellent now. Keep in mind that my boost gauge hasn't change in its maximum reading at WOT, it just gets there faster and stays there longer. The idling issues are gone, as well as the DTC 214 I keep getting. Apparently a leaking IC tube can trip any number of codes in the engine management system, hum I wonder how that is?
All I can say to anyone that hasn't done it yet, reseal your tubes before you do anything else, if you engine is running poorly. Don't assume the IC tubes are not leaking, or avoid maintenance of same. A half inch socket wrench, two med extensions, a swivel between them and a socket for the lower IC tube hold down bolt; a 13mm wrench, a 14mm wrench for the upper IC tube hold down stud's nut, and a 7mm wrench to remove the stud are all that's needed. Don't forget to spray all threads with penetrating spray before removal and reassembly to help steal bolts and aluminum to play well with each other.
Also, I forgot to mention that since I didn't have any anti-seize for the large nut on the upper IC tube, I used petroleum jelly instead. Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I just finished a couple of hours ago, and it only took me around 2 hours combined, as I wan in no hurry. If I had to, I'm sure it could be done in less then an hour to reseal the IC tubes.
BTW, don't forget to clean the old gasket from the IC tubes before you start putting on the adhesive and Teflon tape. I had some clear tape that was left sticking to the joint fittings that was hard to see. Had I not gotten that out, I would have ended up with an improperly seated joint.
discipled1
1994 SC
AODW
Keep'in it rock stock solid and purr'n like a kitten!
