hole in intercooler, can it be welded?

diesel_importer

diesel_importer

Active member
I pressure tested my system last week and found a pinhole in the intercooler. It is where one of the tubes meet the end tank. It's almost like it may have had a leak since day 1. Can it be welded? Will it have to be Tig?

I'll post a pic from my phone.

Thanks for any input,

Brett
 
If it's in the tank ends I'm sure you can, could maybe spool gun it but would better to clean & Tig it.
 
A quality epoxy may do the trick if the hole is small enough.
What psi did you leak test to? Hopefully about the same as you run. Otherwise you could be overlooking several leaks.
 
Take it to a shop that specializes in aluminum welding if you have one close. There is a local guy here that can weld up aluminum A/C lines so i'm sure a intercooler wouldn't be an issue.
 
I've only tested to 20 psi so far. I'm going to back off some rockers so I can test at higher pressure. I'm not sure what my home made tester will hold. It was swelling pretty good at 20. I'm going to pull the intercooler and test separate, also.

I have a friend that has a radiator/muffler shop. He only brazes stuff though. I'll look around to see if anyone Tig welds around here.
 
Why not get it brazed? Brass is plenty strong for that leak, you could even soldier it with a $50 turbo torch from Home Depot.

Maybe even try the aluminum welding rod technique in the video below:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHvrE1Cd5Eg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHvrE1Cd5Eg[/ame]
 
Had a buddy try and weld up a leak in mine in the same spot. The problem was the tank is so much thicker than the tube. The amount of heat to penetrate the tank was enough to blow a hole in the tube. I'd second the brazing or soldering of the tube instead. At least a botched job is less likely to make it any worse.
 
^^^ I've been thinking the same thing about the major difference in thickness of the tube vs tank. I'll take to the muffler/radiator shop. Cool thing is I won't have to remove it! Just pull the trans cooler and have at it.
 
Not the place for a tig weld in my opinion, the alloy used to braze the core to header will likely cause some serious weld contamination. If it were mine I would use a low temp aluminum braze rod 800 degree or so. I have repaired a few aluminum radiator cores this way, but never tried it at the core/header joint, should work as well though.
 
Tate said:
Had a buddy try and weld up a leak in mine in the same spot. The problem was the tank is so much thicker than the tube. The amount of heat to penetrate the tank was enough to blow a hole in the tube. I'd second the brazing or soldering of the tube instead. At least a botched job is less likely to make it any worse.
Click to expand...

This is still a problem with brazing, although brazing will be more forgiving. Find someone with experience repairing aluminum & you should be fine.
 
I just found a set of pliers between my core support and intercooler, they rubbed a 3/16th" hole in one of the tubes. I cleaned up the area with my dremel and heated it up, molded some epoxy on it and let it set for 12 hrs before i ran it. Its been three weeks and its still good, egt's dropped, boost is up, and no more smoke.
I'll replace it when i get around to it after work dies down in late winter.
 
I used 3m devcon metal welder, 2 par epoxy in the little gun..
I haven't used it for pressure piping repair, but it has held everything i have ever glued together, including rust repair, plastic on my console, gas tank on the lawn mower, my fan shroud on the car, blinker switch on my wires old car..
Used it in place of jb weld on countless projects, dries faster and stronger..
If you are thinking if the epoxy route, i recommend this.
 
Yup, i put over 11k miles on it so far and its still solid and undisturbed looking. No smoke, good boost, and low egts, i didnt psi test it.
 
Ive used those aluminum repair rods a bunch of times to patch dirtbike cases and all sorts of other parts. Stuff is incredible for what it is. Stainless steel brush and some contact cleaner, then just use a MAPP torch on it.
 
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