Coolant in my intercooler? WTF?

[goodhart]

Ok, so last night I finally got the talon in the garage where I could work on it and maybe get some of my new parts put on, and figured I would start with taking off the bumper off and take off the FMIC and all the piping since all of that is going to be replaced. I pick up the intercooler after unbolting it, and whoosh! out comes....antifreeze? WTF?!?!

Now, before the car went down last summer, I figured either the turbo or the headgasket was junk, so I decided just to replace them both since I wanted to go bigger anyways. Now I am wondering what exactly this could be and what kind of damage it may have resulted in. I am just hoping it didn't wash out the piston rings too bad to casue damage.

So what do you guys think?

How exactly could coolant get all the way in the intercooler? (there was about enough to fill half a soda can.)








p.s. 95tsi and myself wil lbe pulling the head off tomorrow to see what things look like, I will have more pics and details tomorrow, but I am still curious in the time being as to what it may be.

[Swifty1638]

I'd guess blown turbo..?

[Matt D.]

Cold side of the turbo leaking cooling into pipe.

[goodhart]

I can't remember if there was any coolant in the turbo or not... Maybe Julian could chime in, he has it now.

[asshanson]

Yep, coolant leaking from turbo into IC piping.

[jhaan_dude]

nope, center section was undamaged and the seals were blown but only oil flows up against them...

i didnt see any cracks in the center section and when i pressure tested it nothing was leaking...strange...

[Pushit2.0]

The coolant passages in the turbo would not leak into the compressor housing, unless it cracked the center section. Good luck tracking down the leak, the issue may become obvious while you pull the head off.

~John

[Halon]

Damaging your turbo to the point that coolant begins to leak into the intake side is fairly unlikely. And if that was the case, I'm guessing you'd be able to tell pretty easily as I'd think the turbo would be completely toast.

But really, I don't know how else there could be coolant in there. Unless you're confusing your IC with your radiator? haha.

Only other thought is if your headgasket went, head or block cracked, anything that may have caused your coolant to mix with your oil, and then that fun mixture made it's way past your turbo oil seals and that is what was in your intercooler?

[jhaan_dude]

i rebuilt the turbo and there was nothing in the intake side. i had some play and the exhaust seal was going but nothing extreme that would suggest the coolant issue...

[twack]

what about your throttle body. thats on the intake track and it has coolant in it. maybe that is leaking into the intercooler, check that before pulling the head.

[goodhart]

Well I am doing a head gasket today anyways, thats why I'm pulling the head. 95tsi is on his way over to give me a hand/do it while I bother him trying to help. lol I just figured I would see what other people thought it may be because I'm sure we will know before noon today. I will update later this afternoon.