I was towing the 5th wheel yesterday to get it set up for the wife and kids to camp in, and while I was going up a hill I lost turbo boost and my EGTs went up.  Pulled over and discovered that the first intercooler boot had blown off of the intermediate pipe.  My guess was that the clamp wasn't tight enough or had backed off, so I put it back on, went back at it and half hour later it came off again!  Hasn't come on since, but it did seem like it was a little stretched out.  I'm thinking I should replace the boots.  All I've found is Vulcan or factory boots.  Which should I go with?

 

I have a BD Modified HX35, which I believe is essentially an HX35/45 Hybrid.  The one thing is with the larger compressor housing the turbo outlet elbow and the intercooler piping don't line up bang on, they are about a quarter inch to half an inch out if I remember right so it puts a small amount of pressure on the boots.  I don't think I can really do much about this.  Should I just buy the boots?  Run keep this one on and watch it?  Vulcan?  Mopar? I'm surprised I was unable to find OEM style aftermarket ones for a good price.  Money is tight right.  Well always, but especially now haha.

 

Thanks!

I would look towards the Vulcan boots. I'm running set and never blew one off even with boost pressures up to 45 PSI. No issues to report. 

Thanks a lot. I think it's a good idea. Get it all done at once and tighten the finances elsewhere. I was only at like 22lbs boost. Probably a combination of bad boot and clamp not tight enough.

 

 Not boosting as high or as fast as I should so it's leaking somewhere. I hope the turbo didn't over spin. I couldn't feel any play and there wasn't any oil so I'm thinking I'm safe. 

 

I had a set of aftermarket ones from Geno's years ago on the 99. Overall the boot was higher quality construction and the clamps were actually designed to hold. I don't think it matters what aftermarket ones you go with, you will be much happier. 

If you get the spring loaded clamps, don’t over tighten or they’re done and they’ll leak. I went back to stock stlye clamps and torqued to spec and haven’t had any issues since.

Thanks for the input. I ordered the Vulcan set. It was on sale.  Just checked and it does have spring clamps so that's very helpful to have the warning not to overtighten. Sometimes I tend to do the 200 lb gorilla tightening.  Nothings tighter than stripped, am I right? 

19 hours ago, Timburrr said:

Nothings tighter than stripped, am I right? 

There was a old duffer at work who's motto was tighten it to one turn past stripped.  Trashed a lot of stuff. 

On 8/28/2018 at 5:07 PM, Dmaney said:

There was a old duffer at work who's motto was tighten it to one turn past stripped.  Trashed a lot of stuff. 

 

What us locals out here in Riggins Idaho call Guy tight. There was a guy name Guy Eggert nice friend of mine but he never used a torque wrench. Just broke out the 1/2 breaker bar and the cheater bar till either it was stripped out or broke the bolt in half.

 

Me... Ill rather use a torque than guess. Even scrappy low budget torque wrench is better than guessing.