Intercooler leaking

For awhile I've noticed a thick oily gunge around the bottom of my intercooler and bottom hose, so I took the intercooler out today to clean it. I laid the intercooler on its back and filled it with white spirit, took the dog for a walk and when I got back I found half the white spirit missing! Well not quite missing, it was all over my patio table.

So I'm guessing the thick oily mess in the bottom of the radiator/intercooler surround is a result of a leaking intercooler.

Does anyone know if there is a significant loss of power with an intercooler leak? Ideally has anyone replaced a leaky one and noticed a marked improvement? Reason I ask is I'm wondering whether to just chuck the old one back in or not.

Small pinholes arent noticable (power drop wise) especially on a standard setup.

Some turbo cars ive had that run high boost had a small hole in the bottom of the intercooler, a weep hole for any carbon/oily residue to be forced out.

If its a small hole it wont make a difference at all, but replace the cooler anyway, they are cheap 2nd hand.


My turbo to intercooler pipe (the metal one) had rotted through, leaking boost through two or three pinholes, I patched it up with some quicksteel and noticed not much difference if any performance wise, still fast!

tdfive said:

Small pinholes arent noticable (power drop wise) especially on a standard setup.

Some turbo cars ive had that run high boost had a small hole in the bottom of the intercooler, a weep hole for any carbon/oily residue to be forced out.

If its a small hole it wont make a difference at all, but replace the cooler anyway, they are cheap 2nd hand.

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What he said ^^^^^^
I had a small dribble of oil at the bottom of mine. I replaced it with a second hand one that showed no signs of a leak and didn't notice any difference in performance, but at least I had one less leak