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.
Hope your other plan works out.

 

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 *** 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

 

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.

 

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 *** 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!

 

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.

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

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.

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 while doing it and end up with a hole in your I/C.....you're still better off having not screwed up your motor.

 

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??

 

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.