IC maintenance

[Brett Dikeman]

So the replacement o-ring arrives and I pull the IC out; the old
o-ring is, drumroll please...

70x3.5mm!

not 70x4mm.

So much for the "oh yeah, its the same size as the o-ring on this
here BMW oil filter!" from my mechanic, 4 years ago.  No wonder the
damn thing leaked...and no wonder the car is peppier.

FYI folks...if you see oil around the clamp on the inlet side of the
IC, you've got a leak and its time to replace that o-ring.  Part
number N 904 324 01.  List is $3.71, Clair got it to me for $3.15.
While you're in there, you can clean up the IC which should be done
every few years anyway; it's right up front and sees a lot of crap
coming its way.

Basically, it goes like this:

-pull off the lower rubber trim
-undo the couple of screws holding the flat chrome trim on
-pull just the front piece off
-remove the metal chrome trim top+bottom
-remove the grill(2 screws, both center, one top one bottom)
-detach the michellin man
-remove the two 10mm screws that hold the metal boost pipe in place
-loosen the hose clamp(probably 6mm; I strongly recommend using a 6mm
socket driver over a screwdriver whereever possible on our cars!),
remove the curved clamps w/fingers
-push the IC towards your right to get it out of the two grommets,
and turn the IC out(swivel it out on the pipe) then lift up+off the
metal pipe.

Once the IC is off, remove the old o-ring, and flip the IC front-side
down and blast the sucker for a good long while with a sharp stream
of water; put it over a bucket, and look at all the bug guts, sand,
etc that come out; I had about a million little mosquito parts
gummin' up the works, and I cleaned mine less than 2, maybe 3 years
ago!

Now, grab two sandwich baggies, a couple of rubber bands, some dish
soap(minus the girly hand crap) or something like P21s total auto
wash(I don't really recommend simple green, since the IC is
aluminium), and some nice hot water.  Seal one end, dump water+soap
in, seal other end, now swish that stuff around for a while(stupid
intercooler tricks: with the IC full of hot water, put it in front of
you at arm's length and take a quick step or two forward for a big
surprise.)

   Repeat until you get water w/no brown color to it; an overnight
soak wouldn't be a bad idea.  Hose out the soap, shake the water out,
yadda yadda.  I once touched mine up -very- lightly with some flat
black spray paint lying around, just enough to cover up the silver
spots where the original paint wore off.

Clean out the channel the old o-ring was in, completely;  qtips are
the perfect size for this.  Also clean the metal pipe up...I then
lightly lubed the channel, new o-ring, and pipe with mobil 1
synthetic grease, reassembled, and tested with my pressure
tester...not a peep from that joint!

The only mildly difficult part is getting the clamp all assembled
again; small hands work well here.  Getting the clamp tightened again
is also kinda tricky, though elbow joints/flex shafts will certainly
help.

FYI, Paul Royal reported good success getting at the o-ring from below...

Brett
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