Intercooler Cleaning

[supercharged]

Need to clean whatever oil and crud has collected in my intercooler. Going to remove it from the car, anyone got any general advice on best way/products to do it?

[dmitsi]

There are some good sprays about(formula 88 is good), or a chemical bath. Attack it with an airline first.

ETA; With a spray you need to spray it directly onto/into the intercooler, rinse and repeat until you're happy. 8-10 times should make anything shiny again.

Edited by dmitsi on Tuesday 22 August 17:19

[dmitsi]

Oh and don't use carb cleaner, a decent safe gegreaser will work much much better, you may not find formula 88 in the UK. Or possibly use some nice clean diesel.

[stevieturbo]

You can buy gallons of de-greaser for around £10 in most motor factors. Works just fine.

[combemarshal]

I'd try rinsing it first form the rear (engine side) that should dislodge most things as the probably got drove in from the front!
You can get little comb things too for cleaning the fins (normally used by aircon engineers on condensers if they get picy consultants!) but thats a tad picky for me, just buy a new one!
And maybe, fit some fine mesh to the front of it when you cleaned it to keep the worse out.

[stevieturbo]

combemarshal said:

I'd try rinsing it first form the rear (engine side) that should dislodge most things as the probably got drove in from the front!
You can get little comb things too for cleaning the fins (normally used by aircon engineers on condensers if they get picy consultants!) but thats a tad picky for me, just buy a new one!
And maybe, fit some fine mesh to the front of it when you cleaned it to keep the worse out.

He is talking about inside the IC.

For cleaning the fins, steeping teh core in hot soapy water can help soften bugs or other crap lodged in them.