HELP! Used t-shirt as temp air filter...it got sucked in!
 

I need serious help, first of all: I tried to use a t-shirt as an air filter, not smart, i'm aware...flame away

secondly, i'm screwed! I noticed at first my secondary went, I could only hit 0psi in the freeway, then the primary went, it makes a whistling sound went they *should* spool

anyways, I drove my cripled ass car home and now I'm confused, I just did a whole lot of work to the engine, and now this :(

by the way, I did this because i had a coolant leak, had already removed the airbox and needed to drive it home, I wasn't trying to use the t-shirts as a performance thing, just a temp-fix

so here's my thought path: could they get past the compressor wheels? what would happen if they got tangled in the compressor wheels, what type of symptoms? secondly, the turbos spool when i rev, just when there's a load on the engine it makes the whistling sound, so does that mean they are stuck in the intercooler or the butterfly valve?

i'm so pissed...where should I start? the pieces of t-shirt were no bigger than the end of the airfilter and they were tie-wrapped around

please help guys

you used a shirt as a filter?....need i say more?

I am totally speechless..... I am so not even going to say anything jsut cuz I feel so bad.... For your car.

- James

Only one way to find out how far the t-shirt got sucked in ...start taking shit apart buddy.

I recommend beating your car with a bat. Failing that, you just need to take it apart and pick all the shirt parts out. I don't think any significant bits would get by the IC, but they are probably stuck in the compressors, the butterfly in the y-pipe, and the bottom of the IC. It is quite possible that the compressors were damaged when the shirts hit them, but you just need to inspect them to see how they are.

-Max

Re: HELP! Used t-shirt as temp air filter...it got sucked in!
 

It's starting to get late and your f*cking with us right?

:confused:

No, he's dead serious. I advised him to start with the intake on the turbos and make his way toward the throttle body.

Give the guy a break.

Max is right. Nothing probably got into the engine but the compressor wheels could be damaged from the t-shirt hitting them.

It all depends on how fast they were spinning and if the t-shirt actually made to the the compressors.

Take it apart and tell us what you find.

We all do dumb things, only some people are not scared to admit it.

Jeff
Once tried for 10 min to start an FD with a new motor. It'd crank but not start... ECU wasn't plugged in:(

I am really sorry dude but I had to get a rebuild when a rag got sucked into my eng.
the turbos shredded it into a million pieces and it DID go though the IC all the way into the eng. I had to get new housings and apex seals. I really really hope this is not the case with you. DONT run the car. Mine was smoking alot. I dont mean to freak you out. hope it did get stuck in the IC. Matt

yeah, it's not funny to me at all...and i'm looking for serious help, i prefaced the post with the fact that i am not benefitted by sarcasim and such, at least i didn't run without a filter....anyways, i checked everything i could here in the parking deck, there are bits and pieces in everything, the elbow, the upper IC pipe, lower IC pipe, the y-pipe seemed clean, CRV/BOV looked clean...LOOKED clean...the plastic piece that goes from y-pipe to IC, had pieces in it, i turned on the motor and took hoses off at differnet points, at the y-pipe, it blows air out, close everything up and undo the junction between the elbow and upper IC pipe, it blows air out....i'm confused as hell, where did they go/

took off the front turbo elbow, couldn't see any foreign material, but couldn't take elbow completely off...so I could be missing something

car smokes really bad when i run it for a while, smells like oil- any clues? it makes a funny noise when the turbos run...almost like the noise a cat makes when you step on it, i'm thinking the rear turbo is completely clogged somehow, any other ideas? what happens if it gets past the throttle body? just burn up?

Sorry to hear, man. 10 PSI would suck a hamster thru a straw. Take off the Y-pipe coupler and feel around inside the turbo intakes. How big in diameter were these pieces of *sigh* T-shirt? Like Max said, the intake impeller would leave shredded cotton downstream towards the IC if it actually did successfully shred it. Man, I feel for you.

no bigger than the intake hoses...just tie-wrapped them around and clamped really hard...they seemed fine

Wow, ruined a perfectly good t-shirt. I have an idea, but it's not as smart as the t-shirt filter idea. In fact your comment "flame away" was my inspiration.

Why don't you put everything back together, start the car, and light a blow torch in front of the air intake. This should burn away the bits of the t-shirt that are lodged in every component of your intake system.

Sorry about your car.

I hate to tell but I think your screwed, that T-shirts gunna be ruined. Sorry. I think you'd better pull the turbo's.

regarding the post about the rebuild....

why would this cuase my motor to need a rebuild? i understand that it isn't good for a motor to have debris in it, but being cotton, why would that destroy a motor?

i would think the heat would be more than the cotton could take, and it would just incinerate....am i wrong?

i plan to pull the turbos now

dang...u should just drove it w/o filter.. shirt won't filter out much $hit anyway..
Like other guy said, take it apart....if turbo is damaged somehow...
go with single.. lol :)

sorry bout ur car and hope u don't do that anymore ;)

good luck man

can't go single turbo on the stock ECU/fuel system can you? i can't afford a friggin single turbo setup, i can barely afford a good air filter setup

gawd

first i must say. . . OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!!! okay, i got that done. let this be a lesson. you could have left the filter off, stayed off the throttle a bit and driven the car where it needed to be. . . or just left the old one in there. damn man, i hope that wasnt a mazdaspeed t-shirt. id be pissed if i lost that shirt in my turbos. . .


this sounds like a good setup for bryan at bnr. send your turbos to him. . . dont tell him about the t-shirt. . . well, hell find out when he takes em apart. haha, anyways, just go ahead and get an upgrade on your turbos and do everything else cause you might just be replacing a motor. sorry.

oh, and one reason for the motor to be shot is all the back pressure caused from a turbine wheel not spinning could have fucked up your engine. good luck.

paul

you might try to hold onto those turbos and be a traveling warning . . . guy. "remember guys FOD is real and its evidently real bad in this case!!"
haha

. . . . . . . . man, a t-shirt in the place of an air filter. i think the only usage that a t-shirt has on any automobile (and this is usually only on rusted trucks) is in the place of the gas cap. im not sure though. . . ill have to check my redneck car manual. :D

okay, so backpressure would cause crazy heat...right?

that sounds about right, so if I can fix the turbine wheel and get it spinnin again, the engine will recover just fine

dunno if it means anything but the engine has 10k miles on it..just rebuild from maztech in tampa with 3mm seals

Yeah right Paul, the only place an old Tshirt has on my car is for removing wax. Why would you even bother putting a Tshirt in the way of a filter, you WAY better off leaving nothing. Well whats done is done so I wish you the best and the best in this situation is that you fucked up a good set of stock twins and the worse being you just paid a $3500 lesson and a new motor is in your near future, keep us posted!

hey now, im from tennessee. . . i think its a law to have atleast one vehicle with a rag as a gas cap. hehe.

paul

If you got lucky than maybe you only damaged the turbo. Pull the front and rear inlet pipes at the turbos and try to rotate them by hand. The sound you hear is most likely a bent compressor wheel rubbing the housing. Hope you didn't hurt the engine, the burning oil is a concern!!!

well, maybe if the rear turbo is jammed (which i think it might be, mainly because i put my hands over the intakes and the rear doesn't ever suck...just a concern

anyways, maybe the backpressure from it not spinning is causing the smoke...

The shirt may have damaged the turbo, causing an oil leak there. The cat noise sounds like a bent or out of balance (due to shirt build-up) compressor wheel hitting the housing, as jr426 said. The second (rear) turbo won't be sucking air at idle, so I don't think indicates anything. You might have killed the turbos, but I wouldn't think the cotton would damage the engine.

-Max

Were you trying to boost with that air filter?