Re: 87 5kTQ Intercooler

[rdh@sli.com (Robert D. Houk)]

   OK, so I went home last night to do a timing belt in the TQ.  I disconnected
   the two hoses to the intercooler, and I found OIL inside!  Or at least
   something slimy...  I also found some grit in the lower hose just past where
   the intercooler lip was.  Is there supposed to be slimy stuff in there?  How
   about the grit?  I thought this was supposed to be just air passing through!
    There wasn't enough oil to make a drip or anything, just the whole intercooler
   innerds seemed to be coated with the stuff.  Is this normal?  Also, what do you
   do with the intercooler once you get it unhooked?  There is a sensor bolted to
   the thing, which I was afraid to fool with.  Right now the intercooler is
   resting on my front bumper and roped to the right headlight assembly for
   safekeeping.

The "slime" is normal, although you seem to have "a lot of it" (more than
I would have thought "normal") just from your description . . . or at least
it's normal if your "crankcase breather" vents into the air upstream of the
intercooler (as it does on my UrQ - vents on top of the air metering plate,
and gets glop over everything too!). Might be worthwhile to "rinse out"
(with some suitable highly-volatile-solvent) the intercooler. Then again,
maybe the slime will help trap stray cockroaches that get into the intake
stream . . .

"Grit" on the other hand would have me $everly worried. I'd check the turbo
very carefully as long as you have everything apart - see if the input
vanes are nice and smooth, or are chewed up (at 150,000 rpm even "grit" aka
the proverbial "grains of sand" do quite a number on that "soft" alloy).

A pre-emptive replacement of rubber hoses in the air tract may be called
for, and are a *LOT* cheaper than a new [or even rebuilt] turbo!

					-RDH