Cleaned the side mount intercooler, got some ideas...

[Buller_Scott]

hi guys. first off, sorry- no piccies. the light was bad when i was doing it, and i managed to take one CRRRAP pic before the batteries died.

cleaned my side mount and piping yesterday. i hate the ring clips that VW use for their pipes- they are a pain in the ass, and i will soon be replacing them all with the tighten-by-twist-knob kind from the bunnings gardening/plumbing section.

so here's what i did:

1. because i have a polo, and it has a side mount intercooler, i removed the driver's side wheel fender arch, granting me access to the intercooler. with the hood popped, i removed the last two pipes leading into the inlet manifold post-intercooler. underneath the car [hot side] i removed the last two pipes leading into the intercooler. i sprayed a small amount of carburettor spray cleaner into the pipes, let them sit for a couple of seconds, then flushed out with hot soapy water until clean, followed by hot water.
>> i was surprised to find that there was only really a thin film of oil in the pipes. i wouldnt go so far as to call it ''sludge'' so much as ''collateral''. this is after 60,00kms, 30,000kms of which, have been on an aggressive tune [for my tiny turbo]. but given how easy it was to at least remove the piping post-intercooler, i think i will be giving the intercooler>turbo pipes a flush out every time i change the oil, from now on. the o-rings that vw use to connect the pipes/ hoses together, are a total bitch, so i will be shortly replacing them with the twisty-lever tightening kind from the plumbing/ irrigation section of bunnings.

2. intercooler cleaning: sprayed carby cleaner into the top most pipe when looking downwards, with a funnel leading into a bucket down the bottom. after a few seconds of spraying, a fair bit of sludge came out down the bottom. i continued spraying until the liquid coming out the bottom was no longer visibly dark/oily. flushed out with a bucket of hot soapy water, which produced SOME more black stuff, then flushed again with just hot water. in order to get any leftover water out of the end tank, i shoved a cloth in there- it was quite damp when i retrieved it.

3. looking into the intake manifold: after 60,000kms, with all the horror stories out there, i didnt really want to look into the intake as i figured i'd have a heart attack. i was pleasantly surprised- there was no sludge at all, merely a film of oil. no buildup to speak of in the intake mouth, and no obstruction whatsoever. there WAS a little bit of gunk on this little flappy thing about halfway into the intake, positioned above the main pipe thingy leading to the four pipe thingies that bolt on to the engine [excuse my intense technicality, folks], and whilst im not too concerned with the film of oil in the intake, i WOULD like to get that gunk off Mr. Flappy-Thing. dunno how im gonna do that- i was thinking about simply getting a cloth wrapped around a shish-kebab skewer and positioning it below the flappy thing but above the hole that leads to the four pipes that lead to the engine [in the manifold] but i dont know if that's just asking for trouble.
>>whaddya guys reckon- would my car blow up if i stick that shish kebab stick wrapped in cloth, into the manifold, to clean the gunk off the flappy thing? my concerns were a) is it dangerous for that flappy thing to be moved at all [would it mess with any alignment/timing mechanisms integrated into the turbo/manifold set up, and make my car explode?]?; and b) what if i were to stick shish kebab into there and managed to get some gunk off the flappy thing, but it dropped down into the intake... upon start up, would it spit those small fragments into the engine, and make it blow up? your thoughts here would be great

4. put it all back together, and turned the engine on. the article on tdiclub that i referred to, suggested that you should let the engine idle for around 15 minutes WITHOUT ONCE stepping on the accelerator, as you dont want the turbo forcing any residual moisture into the engine, but rather, simply letting the system heat up and evaporate that moisture as gently as possible. i let mine idle for two cans of soft drink and 3 cigarettes [im all about health], roughly about 40 minutes. took it for a drive, and nothing out of the ordinary occurred, so at least i didnt screw anything up or make anything explode. the whole job took a mechanical kook like me, with some torch-holding and tool-passing assistance from my kid sister, it took about 3 hours, but more importantly, it really inspired me to follow [to a minor degree] in the footsteps of you guys who are brave enough to start optimizing your tdis, and get your hands dirty for the greater good.

the amount of crap that came out of the intercooler was, i will admit, not as much as i was thinking would come out, but there was a 10L bucket of black crap [carby cleaner+soapy water] all the same, so im happy i decided to just get in there and do it!

couple of other things i learned:
>lol! my turbo is tiny! it's seriously around the size of a clenched fist. tiny! come turbo-go-boom time, it'll be hard not to just get a vnt17 to replace it [i like the idea of underpowered-but-ridiculously-superior-handling cars, thanks to initial-D].
>pipes. the ''large'' pipes in the system look fine, but what bugged me [and got me to actually read all of greg's ''let the tinkering begin'' thread] was the fact that the in-between pipes that will connect two ''large'' pipes, are really friggin small. it inspired me to get under the car and try to replace with silicon hose and metal pipework from the local autobarn- not the whole set up [yet], but at least these small-diameter pipes that just HAVE to be a restriction. the set up works fine, sure, but then why are [for example] peeps in the states so willing to replace the pancake ic pipe with bigger ones? it must do SOME good when flowing more air.
> ic placement. there isnt much room to play with in the tiny engine bay/ behind the bumper of the polo, but having seen the mounting tabs etc etc, im starting to toy with the idea of moving the intercooler to a more centralized position in the big scheme of things [e.g. from the side, closer in towards the radiator, or even flipping things upside down, getting tabs welded on, mounting it on the front bar behind the main lower grill, and simply extending pipework a few cm's with the kind of pipes and silicon hose you can pick up from autobarns]. ARE ic's directional in flow? i.e. if i flipped it upside down and re-attached the pipes, would the car blow up?

so yeah. that's my write up. sorry that it was riddled with technical faux-pas' and that it read like i have no frigging clue what im talking about, but i kinda dont, im just inspired now to start getting my beautiful, vw hatch back driving, manicured hands, dirty.

one other thing: next on the cards FOR SURE is the removal of the MAF grid. at the moment, i cannot remove the grid as i simply have a BMC panel filter in the stock air box. but seeing as we're talking pipe work, would it be possible to retain the stock air box etc etc, but position the maf further down from the air box, and THEN cut the maf grid out? or is it more or less the same as having the maf in the stock position, and needs to be cured with a decent pot/ heat shield/ cylindrical shield set up?

at this stage, and in the very short term, im going to be replacing the smaller diameter pipes with larger metal ones, joined with silicon hose and clamps, and i really, really want to get rid of the maf grid and the trumpet air cone inside the airbox [post filter]. so yeah- maf repositioning- yay or nay?

if it's a nay, then off to bunnings i go, as im gonna fab up a heat shield cylinder, feeding it to the front grill, surrounding a K&N/BMC pod.

cheers guys!

scotty