Replacing the Intake Elbow

So for the Porsche I’d read a bunch of different offerings on the internet, find a consensus and order a finely crafted part. This is doubly true for something in the engine.

This is the factory intake elbow. Normally the engine sucks air through it. In my case the turbo pushes air through it and the compression can cause it to burst.

For this Toyota, given that its already running a rubber intake elbow that the previous owner reenforced with tape, I’m going to do better at the parts counter at NAPA. Consensus on ih8mud was to use either silione or radiator hose.

I swing by NAPA and give the parts lady the rough measurements. 2.5″ inside diameter, about yay long, and yay high? What cha got made from radiator hose?

She finds a part available from Georgia, straight from the manufacturer! Arrived late last week and now its time to install.

First I remove the old elbow, no issues there except that the red hose clamp isn’t actually connected and comes loose in my hands.

Intake elbow removed.

Next I layed the two parts next to each other on the garage, and taped the new hose where I should cut:

Pic of the old elbow:

The old elbow with nice tape job.

The new elbow about to receive its second cut:

New intake elbow, made from radiator hose, about to receive its second cut.

Interesting tip for cutting this stuff. The knife wanted to skid and smear and it was really hard to cut. I put some fluidfilm on the knife and it cut like butter.

Since the old clamp was shot I went to OReilly for a new larger hose clamp, cost $1.63.

New intake hose clamped in place.

Including the drive to OReilly this all took 45 minutes.

Engine shot of Turbo 3B with new intake elbow. Can see the plumbing that connects the turbo to the intake.

On a drive later that day my younger son commented that the truck seemed to be running better and faster. I notice I can actually rev the truck above 3k rpm now. Sweet!

 

 

Intake Elbow

Engine runs on air and fuel. The Air enters the airbox, goes through air filter, then goes to turbo. Turbo is an air-pump which sucks air in and jets it out the other side. The far side of the turbo is a tube that runs across the top of the engine, it rounds a corner and heads down into the engine intake.

Air cleaner is the source of the air, its the big black thing on the front left.

The turbo is forcing air into the tubing that runs between the turbo and the intake and that means pressure.

See the tube that leads air acorss the top of the motor to the intake elbow.

The pressure causes the engine to consume more air, which means it can consume more fuel and that means it can make more power.

Mister Turbo is what the air cleaner feeds into. You can see the same side as the air cleaner input leads across the motor to the intake. The other side of the turbo is driven by the exhaust.

The corner leading to the intake is known as the Intake Elbow, its an original part made from rubber, and its a failure point for the 3B when a turbo is installed. It was designed to support a little suction, but not a bunch of positive pressure, so it eventually fails.

Here’s the intake elbow, reinforced with black electrical tape…

Lots of stories on ih8mud about needing to repair the elbow with endless applications of duct tape. Sure enough, mine has been repaired and looks to be leaking. Might be because it was fixed with strands of electrical tape? Leaking means turbo isn’t working as well as it should.

View of the intake elbow with context.

So… seems like a good idea to get a better intake elbow. Choices are:
– Silicone Tubing – that stuff is expensive high temperature tubing
– Radiator Hose! It can also handle the moderate temperatures and pressures without an issue.

Napa looked up a compatible part for me, $15, part number NBH9348.