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.

Ultrasonic cleaning uses high frequency sound waves to agitate in an aqueous or organic compound. Cavitation bubbles induced by the agitation act on contaminants adhering to substrates like metals, plastics, glass, rubber, and ceramics. This action also penetrates blind holes, cracks, and recesses. The intention is to thoroughly remove tightly adhering or embedded particles from solid surfaces. Ultrasonic cleaning can be used for a wide range of workpiece shapes, sizes and materials, and may not require the part to be disassembled prior to cleaning.

So on your FD with a $10k race engine and hks t51r your not gonna spend the relatively small amount of money for a ultrasonic cleaning on your intercooler. :lol:
Hope your other plan works out. :icon_tup:

If I could find someone in my area that would do it, of corse I would! Im not that fond of throwing money I have worked my ASS off to earn down the drain. Everyone I have spoken to have said no as soon as I mention an intercooler.

Man people on forums are awesome sometimes :rolleyes:

Anyway, here is one in Brisbane, Australia that would and can do it. http://www.ultrasonic-cleaning.com.au/index.htm


Trust me I was thinking the same thing.

I cant really ship an intercooler all the way to Australia just to get it cleaned. It would be cheaper to get one custom made from scratch.

you have a point there ^. Good luck let me know how it turns out.

Ive managed to find someone in NZ that will do it =D.

So will add an ultrasonic clean to the list. Its probly gonna be over kill after all that.

Yeah but overkill is the name of the game with an FD. I had it done two different times and both times they sent me the crap that came out of it in a little ziplock bag.



It might of been some crap off the floor to make there customers feel like they did a really good job though. :lol:

You guys are funny....

how small is the "Dust"? Do you know that aluminum in powder form is actually extremely flammable? They use aluminum shot in quite a bit of applications because of this fact. With combustion chamber temperatures, the powder simply burns up.

Personally, just do the compressed air/whatever thing, then have the turbo push through whatever is left, and you'll be fine. It's not like you got big ass chunks of metal there, it's just powder.

A lot of people run unfiltered GT30's, gt40's and etc and that is even worse, but they get away with it just fine.

Now, were this a LIQUID cooler, such as an oil cooler, then throw it away or have it professionally sonic cleaned/pressure tested.... and even then just get a new one if you can afford it.

This is what I am relying on for anything that might be left in there.

I have had it solvant washed, ultrasonic cleen and done the 100 hammer tap trick and I cant get anything to come out of it so I would say its safe to use. Only one way to find out =P

I'd suggest Vacuum and Air compressor.

Yeah that's how they clean wedding rings.

I've got the same issue at the mo - can't find anywhere to ultrasonically clean mine.
Brand new IC, had it cut and welded.
I've filled it with about 2l of petrol and soaked it for about 8 hours, then given it a good hard shake, flushed it with water, done the tapping with a block of wood on either end, flushed it again, filled it with water, flushed it, poured 1l of petrol in from one end, flushed with water, done the same again, then repeated this on the other end twice.

Then stuck the jet wash in and swooshed it around for about 5 minutes. Repeated for the otehr end.
Then flung a load of washing up liquid in, and jetwashed to create a really thick foam. Upended, and then flushed with the hose for 5 mins.
Then upended the otehr way and did the same thing.
Then Filled with water totally, and suddenly upended to flush. Did this 5 times on each end.

Nothing's coming out at all now. Fingers crossed!

Simpler fix
 

Boyz,

If u dealing with alum, cuttings & filings, after the initial washout/tap/ shake exercise, the smaller particles which don't have the mass to unstick themselves need to be dealt with so they don't unstick in a hot vibrating engine.:scratch:

Ultrasound is nice, but there's a simpler way.:icon_tup:

Go get yourself some lye aka. sodium hydroxide from the drain cleaner section in the hardware store. Make a diluted solution of it. Test its activity with a bit of alum foil. It should take a minute or so to consume a bit of foil. Any faster , then u need to dilute some more.

Now seal up one end of the IC and fill'er up about 3/4 way. Be sure to wear gloves/goggles/mask. Shake 'er up for a minute then wash everything out for about 10 minutes with the hose. Wash it/slosh it in BOTH directions.:nod:

You have just chemically eaten & consumed all stray bits of alum. in the I/c AND chemically cleaned/etched the whole I/C internally, no doubt improving your heat xfer efficency. You can do an external DIP for external cleaning/etching as well.

BTW the gas produced is hydrogen, so don't do this near a flame. It's not toxic but it will burn.

Now that didn't cost u much did it? If u screw up and fall asleep :sleep:while doing it and end up with a hole in your I/C.....you're still better off having not screwed up your motor.
:lol:

Um...if its going to eat away at any stray bits of aloy.......whats gonna stop it eating away at all the thin little cooling fins inside the intercooler?? :scratch:

My thoughts entirely!

Ah well, 450 miles in and I haven't shat out a bearing. Obviously, that's a conclusive test...

If any metal made it form the intercooler into the oil/bearings, I think you would have bigger problems.....like a hole inside your engine haha.

But yeah Im banking on the fact that anything that might still be in there will just burn up when it enters the motor.

also, the gas thats emitted is hydrogen and some other gas. very dangerous.

Don't use sodium hydroxide on aluminum. For an NaOH solution, the reaction is: 2 Al + 2 NaOH + 2 H2O --> 2 NaAlO2 (aq) + 3 H2. Hydrogen gas is produced, but without an open flame, this will dissipate harmlessly. That's the part that's ok. But a concentrated solution can eat through aluminum foil in seconds. It would be very easy to leave even a dilute solution inside too long. As pointed out above, that could lead to some serious problems due to the inside of the intercooler being eaten away.