ny father in law has a 2001 Monte Carlo SS and he was trying to boost it the other day and something just exploded in the hood...He was told it was the Intake Manifold that exploded..The oil Cap also Blew Off...would anyone know why this has happened to his Prize Possession...and what he needs to do to get it going again..

 

Are we talking about a turbo on the L36??

The UIM is made of plastic, and when you go turbo it is often good to convert to the L26 UIM

 

sounds like to much boost for the intake manifold to handle.

 

ouch.

 

Yes, you can't put a turbo on without changing out UIM to the non-plastic one. Who ever you got it from should've told him that. The plastic UIM isn't meant to be pressurized.

 

Boost it with what, and what exactly exploded. We need a lot more details to be able to help at all here. What turbo kit was he using, when did it explode- at idle, while it was running WOT, or what? Sounds like installer error here to me.

To me this sounds like something in the engine blew, or maybe backfired or something.

The plastic manifold doesn't just magically explode from a turbo install- there are many people running a turbo on the plastic manifold- normal boost won't break it. Think about it this way- its designed to take a good deal of vacuum inside, likely down to almost 0 psia. Meaning that it would have atmospheric pressure pushing on the outside- over 14 psia. So having atmospheric pressure on the outside and 14 psig (roughly 28 psia) in the manifold would be the same amount of stress, its just instead of being squised in, it is being pushed out.

Also, if you guys are thinking the intake blew apart from too much boost- then what about the oil cap also blowing off? If it was simply boost that blew it apart- there is no reason there could've possibly been enough pressure in the crank case to break the oil cap's threads and blow it off. I suspect something really bad happened to the engine, but without more details, its hard to pinpoint anything.

 

maybe the battery exploded, there hand was on the battery and oil cap when the battery blew up thus making the oil cap fly off!
problem assesed- exploding battery- problem solved- get a new battery.

 

you know i just remembered 2 stories like this, well, myth stories. 2 separate people/cliants.

couldnt get there old buick/GP going, had to boost it, (hooking 2 batteries in parallel) and the intakes blew up, now when there cold there extrmely fragile, and a backfire is possible with excess fuel in the intake due to the vehicle not firing, and then igniting in the intake thus blowing it to pieces. personally i think the people shot ethol (myth part) into the intake to get them going.

GM still has replacment intakes, there about 500$ but if your gonna get a used one, beware they can and will warp. i recommend doing the lower intake while your in there. Use felpro steel gaskets. and if you have to remove push rods,(i cant remember) Mac tools and Snap-on have a jiffy little tool to pry the rockers up so you dont have to loosen them and crap, its 15$, get it. hope this helps.

 

i am not sure on all the details...he had the car parked for most of the winter and today he went to start it and it needed a boost...he hooked up the Chev 2500 diesel truck to it and he said when he cranked...there was an explosion..the Intake Manifold Blew up..parts were scattered..he found his oil cap in the hood of his truck..by the time i got there...the tow truck already picked it up and it was on its way to the garage..i was reading online somewheres that it can be the Fuel Pressure pump or something like that..just tought i would get the answer here..not even sure if the car has a turbo or not on it...sorry for all the confusion..if it was my car,,,i would have told ya everything....

 

X2 on Bumpin's comment. Not enough data to go on. The battery may have been the culprit since it was getting boosted, may have put the cables on the wrong poles. Sorry to hear anyway.