Intercooler Maintanance

[Mazda626turbo]

Hey guys i was just wondering how the hell you clean an intercooler?.

mine has oil splurts all over the front from another car, or just old age i guess, just not sure how to clean it

ive been told water with a soft brush(maybe toothbrush for small tight areas) for outside which is fine

but im also looking to clean the inside and see what comes out out of the sucker,

not sure if water would do the job, what do you guys recomend?

i was fiddling with pipes today and seemed to have a minor layer of oil on the inside, im pressuming the old turbo leaked some oil and threw it into the cooler

any help would be great,

CHeers, Nick

P.S: Its a tube - fin, type

Edited November 14, 2005 by Mazda626turbo

[Bass Junky]

Outside.

Some sort of thinners or cleaner that wont react with Aluminum.

Inside.

Kerosene. Buy enough to fill the thing up. First swish some aroun on the inside, then fill it up, let it sock and then pour it out.

Repeat until the kero comes out the same colour as it went in.

[Tangles]

This is how Ive cleaned my 'coolers (a R34 GTT smic and now an Apexi fmic).

Outside - can of degreaser, cloth with bucket of water. Degrease, leave it to sit for 5mins, then sponge off the degreaser with the clean water.

As for the inside of the cooler, I read a post saying 50% Kerosene and 50% Metholated Spirits (i think a SK suggestion).

I can assure you the 50/50 mix works wonders! Tape up one outlet hole, pour in the mixture (say 500ml a time, x 4), cover the other hole and shake like crazy.

Should do it every 20000km say, as part of normal maintenance. You'll be shocked how dirty / bad the first 2 flushes are! By the 4th flush should be very clean inside.

Brendan

[Mazda626turbo]

hey guys,

thats for the information

i will be ripping off the cooler today, and the looks of it, it definaltly hasnt been cleaned in over 6 months so i should really get down to the closet bunnings and pick up some supplys.

I might take some photos of before and after to show everyone just how dirty intercoolers get, and to show everyone that maintanance is really needed

Cheers guys

Nick

[SLIPPERY]

noticed a bit of performance increase when i cleaned my cooler too!

didnt last long tho

[Mazda626turbo]

still havent done it yet, might have to wait til lthe weeknd,

il be sure to post the photos so everyone can have alook

cheers

nick

[croat]

why dont u just spray it with degreaser and polish the tank?

[Mazda626turbo]

yeah but got to do the inside aswell,

was out driving last night all night, having some fun on winding roads in the mazda,

we then i begun hearing this strange noise from the engine bay, not ticking or anything, just like a continoues noise whenever i put the foot down, it sounded alot like wind,

ohwell so we opened up the engine bay after the mountain run and what was there,

GLOWING, bright fricken red, turbo and exhaust manifold GLowing, many people say they havent seen it in person but what i saw last night was pretty cool,

thats what u get for having a t23 sized turbo revving at 4500 for longer than 5 minutes

well we let it sit for 10 minutes to get the nice glow dissapering

it was interesting because it seemed like boost was coming on better and stronger with it glowing

ohwell what can you do

cheers nick

p.s i think we took some photos but they are shit and cant see anything in the engine bay besides small glow behind heat sheat

ill post em soon

cheers

Edited November 17, 2005 by Mazda626turbo

[Coupe-This]

mmm glowing turbo, ive done that before, is an awesome site to see at nite. Never did it in the skyline but my other turbo vehicle, I also wished i had my camera. On a bad note, the turbo was that hot it burnt ALL the oil in the engine and boiled the water... heh, f**king vls

[Mazda626turbo]

Hmm, Coupe-This thanks for the heads up,

yeah it was glowing for a good ten minutes so left the turbo timer until it lost the glow,

got home at 4 in the morning and and switched it off after the ten minutes then all i could hear was boiling so it was probably oil/water/anti-boil (Bloody false advertising)

i havent driving it today but i might just have a look at it tomorrow and give it an oil change and check the water levels and radiator might give it a flush but it is only new (20,000km old)

i might just go out and spend alot on oil and a high quality oil filter, i want to see what the oil looks like,

crap i have alot of photos to stick up and i cant find the time to do it, the weekend should give me some time hopefully done by sunday

Cheers

nick

P.s Would anyone know if running rich might have a effect on glowing turbo, im looking for a tune next week but its really running rich and backfirng on, oh i dont know every 10 or so gear change might just be me thrashing the poor thing

Cheers

Nick