Long story short, my I/C has not been holding liquids for very long. I decided to condemn the I/C core, then proceeded to order a new one with all new silicone tubing. Over the weekend, I pulled the blower and I/C.
Needless to say, the I/C core was indeed leaking. It was leaking BAD. There was over 1/2" of tubing damage. Here is a video of the pressure testing.
andy Ajl227 :: blowntubeinzzpgen5iccore.mp4 video by JAWSengine-uity - Photobucket
Pulling apart the I/C core...WOW. ZZP sure did a retarded job sealing these I/C plates. There were over 3 huge vacuum leaks between the intake and PCV passages, including one minor external. Thus, ever since I've had this I/C, it has been one big air/oil mixer vacuum leak underneath my blower...great. Thanks ZZP, ****ing amateurs.
Enlarged the PCV passages...and resealed the new core between the plates.
Cut the FelPro gaskets, and we were ready for re-assembly.
After she was back together, we started pulling off the old I/C plumbing and planning out the new hose routing...
The core outlet hose was crimped by the battery edge going into the fenderwell, so we drilled relocating bolts for the battery tray, and we were able to move it over a full 1/2". We added a T-Fill in the pump outlet/core inlet hose to bleed all the air at the very top of the system, above the fusebox. Needless to say, it works a whole lot better at bleeding air out than zzp's lame t-fill off the heat exchanger ever did.
Now the car has a full 100% efficient intercooler once again.
I will be taking her to the track on September 10th or 11th.
It is a Buick Oldsmobile Pontiac car show/test and tune track day at Byron Dragway.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for a few 12 second passes.
Right now the car is set up on a 3.2" pulley, 7 PSIG, 12.5 AFR with 21* ignition advance burning E85.
It pulls nice and hard for a conservatively lean / low boost tune.
