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[1loudsti]

ok there are a couple designs out there for one of these but i havent seen one like this.....

parts you need:
(2) 1/4" male air line fittings
(1) 1/4" female air line fitting
(1) 1/4" to 1/4" male connector
(1) 1/4" regulator with gauge
(1) 1/4" air reel lead in line
(1) 2" to 1/2" pvc reducer (threaded)
(1) 1/2" to 1/4" threaded reducer
(1) thread seal tape

my total cost from home depot was about 40$






another thing i would recommend getting is a set of these:

nomex sleeves....i got mine from matco tools, these are what you see the ALMS guys wearing when they swap brakes during a race...they work that good!

ok you have made your boost leak tester now disconnect your IC piping from your turbo and put the pvc fitting in its place and tighten the clamp:



now connect your air line with the regulator turned ALL the way down
now very slowly open the regulator until you hear air hissing into the system...go check your boost gauge and slowly increase your pressure until you hear a loud hissing...it will be very obvious if you have a leak
make sure you dont exceed 20 psi unless your system is designed to handle it....i started to pop vacuum lines off at 22 psi

other things to check:
cap your intake pipe off, the vacuum lines will bleed air into the pipe and you will think you have a leak
watch where you put your hands and head, if something pops off it comes off with authority
you can tighten the piping if you have a leak with the system pressurized, just listen for the leak to stop

any other questions feel free to ask or pm me

btw i found 4 leaks with this setup that i couldnt find with a normal evap smoke test machine

good luck be safe

[bluedemon_II]

Extremely good wright up! Now for those of us that still have a tmic and may find it hard to sneak that coupling to the turbo outlet hose, Can we do this same test threw the inlet and just cap off the bretaher hose lines? Just the breathers since the PCV will not allow air going into the crank case. I know that the inlet is not desing to hold say 20 psi "or any psi at all" but to find leaks on a top mount setup it would be nice to do this.

So to re cap my quesiton, would you think that this would work on an stock inlet tube with the properly capped off hoses?

[1loudsti]

you could do it that way however it may not work as well, you could loosen the elbow and turn it slightly to allow you to get the tester in there, as you said the inlet isnt designed to hold pressure, i wouldnt recommend it it would be easier to just loosen the elbow since its just an elbow with a hard pipe instead of plastic like the wrx...its been ages since i have looked under a top mount but i seem to remember there being room in there

[Deuce Cam]

1loudsti, in your write up you say, "cap your intake pipe off, the vaccum lines will bleed air into the pipe and you'll think you have a leak."

I'm not grasping what you're talking about; what do you mean by this? What intake pipe are your referring to and what exactly needs to be plugged?

[Boostinduced]

excellent write up, I made one up similar and it works great.

[Chris05STi]

Originally Posted by Deuce Cam

1loudsti, in your write up you say, "cap your intake pipe off, the vaccum lines will bleed air into the pipe and you'll think you have a leak."

I'm not grasping what you're talking about; what do you mean by this? What intake pipe are your referring to and what exactly needs to be plugged?

Same question for me.

[1loudsti]

sorry i didnt see this sooner, if you dont take off the air filter and cap the end of the pipe the vac. lines going to it will bleed off the pressure your putting into the pipe and you will have a constant pressure drop, when you put the intercooler piping under pressure your pressurizing the whole motor so you just have to look for all the spots that the air could escape from so you dont misdiagnose a leak

[Deuce Cam]

Ok, so you're saying pressurized air from the intake manifold, etc. will bleed back into the intake and turbo inlet through vaccum lines when doing this, thus the requirement to cap off the intake at the air filter? If this is the case doesn't that mean the intake/turbo inlet will see the same pressure as the rest of the system when doing the test?

This is what I'm wondering (assuming I'm on the right track), if you have to cap the intake at the air filter wouldn't it make more sense to make a pressure tester that connects to the afta MAF tube or turbo inlet, or am I missing something?

[1loudsti]

you could do it that way, i just find it easier to connect at the elbow for the turbo

[FleaDog]

We should compare this thread to this one below:

Pressure Testing

see post #14 and on.

I was about to get started on my own putting ~ 20 psi through the intake...

heres my pvc 'cap' i was going to attach the air fitting to: