Do I need new intercooler boots or not?

[ISX]

I went to georgia pulling a trailer and around 40psi I ended up blowing out the intercooler boot and jesus that thing smoked The stock clamp is stripped out at a certain point allowing me to only get it so tight and now it only holds about 25psi before blowing it off again. I found the boots and stuff for $$$$$$$$$ but just the high tension spring loaded clamps are only $7 each so I was wondering if the stock boots really need changing. I know a lot of people switch to aftermarket ones but I have never read anything about the stock boots having issues but wondered if anyone on here knew anything about them. I don't really see a reason to upgrade but I think the aftermarket ones are thicker, I wonder if the high tension clamps will have issues with the thin stock ones

[Wild and Free]

If I read it correctly the boot just slipped off due to a bad clamp? If so then just upgrade to new better clamps and see what happens. I have seen many blown out hoses they usually deteriorate from oil which makes them week, the other thing is the lower driver side ones can rub through on the fender tin as its really close.

[ISX]

Yeah the clamp is junk. I didn't know if the stock boots weren't good enough for higher boost than stock but I guess they are fine. I have no oil whatsover in the boots. I'll get a new clamp and call it good then.

[dually]

I take brake clean to the inside of the boot then blow dry with shop air. Clean the tube the same way. Then take some hair spray...yes hair spray, and spray it on the tube and a small amount inside the boot then install. The hairspray dryes and gets sticky it will hold. I hit 60 lbs of boost with factory clamps and boots.

[ISX]

I take brake clean to the inside of the boot then blow dry with shop air. Clean the tube the same way. Then take some hair spray...yes hair spray, and spray it on the tube and a small amount inside the boot then install. The hairspray dryes and gets sticky it will hold. I hit 60 lbs of boost with factory clamps and boots.

I'm thinking it was just a crappy clamp. I have started to develop a hatred for impact guns because when they tighten (impacting) they beat the crap out of the threads. Nobody notices that since they might only do 1 bolt for the bolt's lifetime but I take that clamp off on a weekly basis to do my antics.. I usually tighten it fast with the impact then tighten it the rest of the way by hand but I was feeling a little lazy last time and I guess that finished those threads off. It had been holding 45psi fine up until then so I'm pretty sure of what happened. I really just wondered about if the stock boots were even worthy of still using but nobody has said anything and I haven't read anything but what you said just gave me basepoint so thanks! BUT! I learned something from it lol. I went another 5 miles with it completely blown off, no boost whatsoever, had to see what happened knowing me haha. Aside from the insane amount of smoke since I have absolutely no smoke control other than my foot, it was very interesting. At 65mph with that trailer (maybe 1500lbs enclosed TT) I was running 1200F. I couldn't go any faster or it would go over that. After putting the boot back on I was back at 650F at the same speed, amazing what a turbo does. As if that wasn't enough, since it was stripped I couldn't do much and the guy with me was egging me on to pass someone "carefully" as to not blow the boot off, well it blew off again but partially. Now I had a 10psi max boost, above that it was just blowing out the hole. That was very interesting because EGT's really didn't make that big of a difference, maybe 150-200F higher. I judged that based on doing 80mph uphill where it was normally running 20psi, so at 10psi it was running around 900F where the same speed/hill woulda been 750F. I actually ran it like that for at least 100 miles until the leak got bigger and eventually ran me down to 5psi max at which point I was starting to have difficulty going up hills and keeping EGT's in check. It finally blew completely off and eh yeah, fixed it and kept it under 15psi. It does make me wonder if it would be more efficient if it had a bigger turbo that would be running lower boost yet allowing the engine to breath better. I run low EGT's and a hotter engine is more efficient so if I could get them to maintain 1000F the entire time I wonder if I would get better mileage. It seems to me like I have unnecessary boost that is controlling EGT's a little too well and since it takes power to drive the turbo to make boost..I see it as wasted power. Probably overthinking this but I can't help it.

[JOHNFAK]

Good site http://www.siliconeintakes.com/index.php?cPath=1&osCsid=da50ae991433af0633ba168a75faaaa1