I hate leaks. Boost leaks. Exhaust leaks. Water leaks. Oil leaks. "Leaks" the vegetable. I have yet to favorably cross paths with a leak and enjoy the experience. On turbocharged engines with high-boost levels leaks are inevitable. The high pressures find their way into places they are not intended to reach. For the past few years, I've also been fighting an issue with my oxygen sensor. The sensor tells me whether the car is getting too much or too little fuel. It is rather important since too much fuel will cause the car to lose horsepower and too little fuel will cause it to break something. In the gear-head world we call this running "rich" or running "lean." The general philosophy is that "lean is mean."
Through our diagnostics of the Capri after it's initial startup Jim and I discovered the exhaust clamp between the turbocharger and the exhaust system has been leaking in a very serious way. In such an obviously serious way as to cause me to feel embarrassingly stupid. Thus began my quest to track down a clamp. I have not been posting updates because of one, silly, but apparently significant clamp.
For a bit of background, various items on a car are held together with clamps. Just about every car has them holding the hoses onto various places, keeping exhaust components together, and performing other various clamping tasks. Specific to the Capri, the turbocharger has a type of clamp on it called a "V band" clamp. This style of clamp is used to put two flat surfaces together very tightly to prevent them from leaking any air. Upon additional investigation of this specific clamp I've discovered a few things:
1) The surfaces on the Capri are no where near flat.
2) The clamp on this turbocharger (HY35 / HE341) is non-standard. I could not get one from Holset/Cummins or a diesel specialty shop. To get a replacement I was forced to a Chrysler/Dodge dealership.
3) Chrysler/Dodge has a pretty arbitrary pricing scheme for this clamp ranging from $30 up to $90. I didn't bother traveling to the dealership wanting to charge $90. The parts desk guy must have read into the desperation in my voice.
4) Even after some flattening, the clamp still did not provide a seal on the Capri.
After spending $30, probably a full day worth of phone calls and traveling, and even more time in the garage test fitting various arrangements I still had an exhaust leak. In frustration, my Dad and I stared down all the parts in the garage and joked about how "aluminum has a melting point of 1600 degrees, if the exhaust gets that hot, there are other problems." Literally, stuff some aluminum foil in the clamp and hope for the best. It seemed more serviceable than the "weld everything together" and cheaper than "screw this turbo I'm buying a new one" strategies that also popped up through the evening.
This solution, while creative and seemingly innovative seemed a bit hackish to me and I decided to spend a few more hours googling how others spent their time and money to fix V-band leaks.
Hours later, and a few more phone calls, it was suggested to me to use aluminum duct sealer. This is essentially a thicker version of aluminum foil with some mild adhesive on the back. Yes, my wild-ass guess of using aluminum foil was not only limited in its wildness but an accepted fix for these types of clamps.
