Cleaning out intercooler after welding - full of metal filings
 

Hay all,

Whats the best way to clean out an intercooler after it has been all cut up and welded. Its full of metal filings.

Just use water and air?

use a vaccum cleaner on one end and vaccum the metal crap as you lightly brush it with a plastic brush?

Then use compressed air, wear some safety glasses, and blow out the metal flakes.

Find someone that does ultrasonic cleaning.

I wouldn't use it, period. I have rebuilt engines for people who have destroyed bearings in the motor. The trash (shavings) get into the intercooler, lines etc. I have told them to toss the intercooler and the lines. They just flushed the intercooler and lines. After 2000-3000 miles the rear bearing goes as does the motor and then it's the engine builders fault. Flushing, even special flushing for aircraft usually will not work.

Metal shavings from the intercooler get to the rear bearing? Sounds like a larger problem than the intercooler to me...

I was thinking oil cooler. One of those nights...

Air compressor, use a garden hose? its not like its going to rust right? spray the crap out of it with one of those hose ends with the jet setting from both sides. then go at it with compressed air?

I might try and find an ultrasonic cleaner, but failing that it looks like it might be hose running throught it for an hour or so and compressed air.

Its Aloy filings from when the pipes were cut off with the grinder so no worry of rust, I just dont like the idea of that much metal going through a brand new $10k race motor.

I don't think an ultrasonic cleaner would not any better job than a hot tank for this. You could always disconnect the outlet before you run the car and briefly boost it to blow everything out.

Now we're thinking :icon_tup:

Remember to air filter the (would be) coldpipe. You wouldn't want to suck up any metal shavings.... Think of the irony.

Might even try a leaf blower haha

Ugh, might want to just scrap it if alot of shaving went in there. It will be next to impossible to get everything out. All it takes is a small shaving to get unlodged and there goes a housing/rotor.

Flush it with degreaser a few times.

Then blow it out properly using a good compressor that can pressurise the cooler up.

Then put it on the car and leave the outlet open and take the car around for a few drives and get the turbo winding abit.

THIS IS NOT A GURANTEED METHOD AND DEPENDING ON WERE A FILING HAS LODGED ITSELF THE COOLER MAYBE RUBBISH.

way I see it, is there are a LOT of coolers out there that are modified/custom made etc and there is next to no way of making/modifying one without cuting it somewhere. And cutting = metal dust. So there must be a way.

You're right -- there are many modified intercoolers, but you can almost always find a way to block off the inlet and outlet while modding one. On mine, I used masking tape and a plastic bag carefully taped inside the pipes. I ground to prep for welding, blew the shavings away, then untaped.

I think it's going to be very difficult to get all the shavings out. I think I'd bite the bullet and get a new IC before risking a $10K engine.

The problem that I had, it I had to cut the intake and outlet, further down the pipes then I could reach to put anything in there. Otherwise thats exactly what I would have done.

i just filled mine with soapy water shook the shit out of it if and then flushed it out with the hose for about 10 or 15 turning it to empty it and move it about to ensure everything was out of it.

Brad.

Ive had a tip that the way to go, is to get it solvant washed to get rit of any oil residue in there, then to hold it verticly and tap it 100 odd times with a nylon hammer and it should all come out. Apparenty you can hear and filings falling through the tubes.

.

DO NOT USE THAT INTERCOOLER, please, you will blow your engine.
I work at a heavy duty truck and equipment repair shop and anytime there is metal in a cooler it is scrapped, no questions asked, if the customer is not willing to pay for a new intercooler/oil cooler then the job is not done at the shop.
Any bearing failure in an engine is a scrapped oil cooler and engine block flush, any turbo failure is a scrapped intercooler with flushed pipes.
Your 10k dollar race engine is expensive and worth a lot, but here we are talking about a 20 to 30 thousand dollar Detroit, Cummins, or CAT, of sizes that are much less likely to be damaged by a small piece of a debris from the intercooler. Think about what that would do to the rotor housing and then your turbo as it exits.
Buy a new cooler, its not worth the trouble.

The problem with that, is if I buy a new cooler, that one will have to be cut and modified and the same thing will happen. Just to clarify, im not talking about litteral shavings of metal. Im talking about grinding dust. Smaller then a grain of sand kinda stuff.

Surely there is a way to modify an intercooler without ruining it? How do people cut off end tanks and make new ones? How do people change the location of intake/outlet pipes etc etc?

I see where you are coming from, and I will tell you the best bet is to do more than one thing for the sake of being paranoid. First plug one end, fill it with water from a hose, shake it around and empty it, that will get most of the dust out. Then go to any shop that does serious AC or heavy duty diesel and ask them to flush it. I tell you this because AC condenser coil cleaner (which doesnt really work to flush a failed ac compressor btw) gets into crevices and its made to lift stuff out of there. If you can find a truck shop even better, because intercoolers from engines which suffer dusting (air filter failure) are flushed out safely, we have done it at my work with two firetrucks and they came out squeaky clean.
Just make sure there are no metal shavings left, then like they said go ahead and blow it out however you can, weather it be the turbo or a air nozzle.
They might be able to do all this for you at the diesel shop but they will probably not give you a warranty, its very tough to do.
Whoever did your intercooler work should also be able to clean it out for you.

What I have done when I was unable to block off debris from a core or in an end tank is to put the suction from a strong shop vac on the IC port while cutting (by hand or on a bandsaw), and where possible, use gravity to have the swarf fall away from the core. This seems to work well and minimizes cleanup afterward if done properly. I still recommend a thorough bidirectional flush using solvent, then soapy water followed by a high volume air source (clean shop vac outlet or leaf blower, etc.) I've never had any issues following this procedure.

Good luck.

Thanks RNZ520. I did the modifications myself so cant really go complain to myself :P.

I think I will do a bit of everything. First get it solvent washed, then do the 100 hammer taps, then water, then air, then try and find a truck servicer for the final flush/blow out. I might even use my pressure tester I made to pressureise the intercooler to like 50psi then pop the hose ends off. Bit dangerous, but no better way to fill it with lots of air and release is really quickly at home haha.