Originally Posted by
MetalMilitiaSRT
I don't know enough about these engines to provide a real answer, but those manis look gross. When I pulled mine off to send to Rob @ NW there was nothing in them.
That looks to me, (my not-so-professional opinion) like an oil/coolant mix. I wouldn't imagine coolant alone would coalesce on the walls like that. Maybe some combo of poor seals/gaskets is allowing the two to mix???
I've been texting Rudy and he agrees it's 100% an intercooler failure. He guesses it has been that way for a while, although Steve and I pulled the manis at the 45,000 mile mark to install the NW catch can, and I recall a light oil residue (normal) but not this "guacamole" that's in there now. So, it's been within the last 8,000 miles that the failure has taken place. As for the oil still being present, that's a dilemma because I'm running Rob's catch can and it seems to be retaining some oil. But there's clearly oil in the mix. This CAN'T be helping my performance.
When I bought the car, it had the upgraded I/C pump on the unseparated system. I knew the high-pressure system was a ticking time bomb, but I figured since most I/C failures are at around the 80,000 mile mark, I had some time. Guess not.
Note that mine won't have the normal green tint, since the original owner swapped the fluids.
Any chance I could buy some time and simply separate the system, making it a low-pressure system? I can't eat $900 for a new intercooler just yet. Would this potentially harm other systems downstream?
Racing in three weeks, damn the luck.