So I was doing a little work on the car getting ready for the MYMini Dyno Day (01/20/07) and removed my DFIC and found this crap INSIDE the DFIC on the small opening side blocking atleast 30% of the air pathway. I spoke and passed pictures to Peter (M7) and it appears to be Supercharger coating .

Whats interesting is as I pointed out that it was found on the small opening side plastered and stuck in the air pathway as if "blown" into the IC.
BUT the air flow from the SC is from left to right facing the car - correct? So this part confuses me because there was nothing on the big horn side which I would expect.

I know enough to know I have a problem. The car is an 03 w/ 27,000 on it - this should not be happening. So off I will be going to the dealer for a chuckel.

 

So you found this stuff on the outlet side of the DFIC core? But it looked like it was forced there as if it was the inlet side?

 

If this material was on the outlet side it did not come through the inlet. The OE IC is like a large partical air filter. The pieces in the pic would not pass through.

This is an 03 with the OE SC? If so there is no coating ( not like the JCW or the newest OE piece )

The pic looks like some kind of melted plastic... Just for kicks, see if it melts like plastic or wire insulation

 

Early model supercharger lobes are coated with an anti-friction material that is light grey in color; I’ve seen flaking lobe coating on both the early and late model superchargers.

Does this DFIC have external coatings? If so, suspect an application error.

 

I would wonder if there wasn't more of that stuff that followed the intake tract out of the IC.

 

Correct - strange isn't it. Does the air counter flow when not on boost or on vaccum?

The large side opening had nothing.

 

The IC is a basic DFIC w/ no fancy options.

 

Yes, very strange.
I don't know about the counter flow theory. I've never seen or heard of a reverse flow of air on the intake side of any kind of engine, boosted or n/a. Unless of course, it's backfiring due a serious timing problem.

 

Thre car runs fine - I have felt that its been "off" from peak performance - using the butt dyno and my boost guage indicates a bit less boost.

It seems to have gotten back some boost but really need to get to the highway.

 

After thinking about this more, and contrary to what I posted above, it may be possible for those bits of stuff to have gotten sucked up the IC outlet horn after letting off the throttle at highway speeds. But, that is the cold side of the IC, so I can't see how the stuff would have stayed there and not got blown back out when boost was generated.

Did it look like it was "melted" on there?

 

Hard to tell from a 2 dimensional photo, but could it be remnants of a sticker of some sort that burned off?
Odd that being on the outlet side, it didn't carry further downstream. Good luck getting it figured out.

 

If the material in the picture is as big as 1/6" & larger it would not pass through the IC, not OE or 1 of similar core density. Getting sucked in from the intake side would be a not likely. The Lobe material coating is not a dark material as the picture shows.

If you want, I can post an interior picture of an M45 ( entirely coated in & out ) that is part of a Scion project.( it's on my bench)

The material looks like a plastic - see if it melts like a plastic, smells like a plastic or wire insulation.

 

I put a lighter to a large piece and it caught on fire and burned!! SO I guess its safe to say that it is not the SC coating - good news. But exactly what it is and how it got there is still a mystery - bad news. Now I also have to wonder if any of this stuff went down the small horn . Any suggestions - perhaps a flexible vaccum hose and see if it sucks anything up?

Welcome any advice here.

 

How about this. Was the material loose in the IC? Or was it stuck to the core?
If the material burned the engine would just burn it up without any damage. IMHO all is well.
With a shop vac & some "duck, love the duck" tape, some 5/8" hose, I would think you could clean the intake no prob.

 

The material was stuck to the core. Came off easily with compressed air and then an exacto knife to get the corners clean. My plan is to run the car this week and on Friday - pop the IC again and take a looksie. I will also do the vaccum down the horn at this time.

Then on Saturady - Dyno Day . I have a large shop fan and my son and I added a plastic tarp w/ duck tape to the fan and the other end we ducked taped to the DFIC - creating a tube effect. We got a nice air flow thru the DFIC . Hopefully, the dyno guys will let me use it to address heatsoak.

 

This is a good thing. The material could have been a piece of plastic that fell into the IC while it was cooling off during assembly. No biggy. It would not harm the engine in any way.
Best of for the dyno day. By Saturday we should have some snow or frozen ice pellets to play with. I'll email as many digital ice pellets as possible to pack in the IC if dyno guys won't let you use your system.........

 

had a chance to drive the car - when i jump on the throttle the boost guage goes straight to 10lbs and then very slowly builds. This guage when isntalled was dead accurate - max reading 14.5 lbs and in the past when i would jump on the car it would shoot to 14lbs.

so either the guage is no longer reliable or i have lost 4 lbs of boost.

 

Where is your gauge plumbed?

 

Guage is plummed in what I will call the std location just underneath the large horn. I'm bumming because this saturday is dyno day.

 

Sounds like a leak.
"when i jump on the throttle the boost guage goes straight to 10lbs and then very slowly builds"
OE boots?

 

Maybe there's a chunk of the aforementioned "mystery substance" in the gauge or associated plumbing? I'm fairly certain that a loss of 4 # boost could be felt in the seat of your pants..

 

It would for me!

 

No, aftermarket heavy duty boots. The clamps have been shaved to clamp down even further. They are in good shape but I also have a new set from M7.

 

At this point paranoia and doubts have set in so I can't trust my BUTT Dyno.
I worked on the car this weekend getting ready for Dyno Day this saturday and I now have a squeal, the engine seems to shake a bit and a bit of an engine smell.

On the smell, I re did some zip ties and I know 1 fell and disappeared into the engine compartment. I also put thermo-tech on the underside of the header heat shield - so perhaps one of these is causing the smell. I also removed the plugs to see their condition - cause of engine shake? The squeal ? When I rev the car it disappears - cause?

So at this point I am driving myself crazy.

 

"So at this point I am driving myself crazy."

Don't do that. The squeal could be the SC belt. The smell - if you droped a zip tie somewhere near the exhaust & it stuck to a pipe - the smell will be there for a while.

Put the M7 boots on. They are far superior to the OE boots & they will secure the IC much, much, better. Then see what you got.........