Q on Intercooler Flushing

[SpoolinUpGN]

Hey guys,

As the title says, this question mainly revolves around intercooler flushing. In the 87,000 miles on my grand national, the intercooler has never been removed, so you can imagine how much oil and crapola was comin' out of the hoses. Anyways i replaced the hoses to ensure that i would not blow them off under WOT, so those are good.

My question is what is the best/easiest way to flush this intercooler? I've heard you can do it while the intercooler is in the car, or you can pull it out completely. If it can be pulled out completely, is it a big job, or something that i can figure out on my own ( <-- inexperienced mechanic ). Thanks for any input or ideas about flushing the intercooler, just looking to get the car running good again.

Joe

 

[77tech9]

easy to take it off after you take the intercooler scoop out.

clean it out with some o2 safe carb and then use a shop vac to dry it out.


When I cleaned mine, it had oil covering it, so I painted it a little once I had it out and cleaned all the rocks out of the fins.

 

[scottyb]

Removal is a breeze.
Remove the shroud.
Then there are 2 bolts on the driver side, 2 on the passenger side, and one on the bottom.

I put gasoline in mine, shook it up, dumped it out. Crud.
Then I did it again with fresh gas, but I saved the gas for the mower.
Place a rag over one neck, just to use as a filter, then shove a shop vac in the other with a "rag gasket" and let it run for a while. Viola!

 

[Ormand]

I don't see how you could flush it without removing it, since both the inlet and the outlet are at the top of the IC. I have thought about drilling a hole in the bottom of the inlet air chamber, and threading in a plug. That way, I coud dump cleaner in through the "up pipe", let it soak, then unscrew the plug and drain it out. Never have done it, but I have thought about it. Seems to me it would work Ok, as long as I didn't let it get really nasty inside before cleaning.

 

[turbo nasty]

BE CAREFUL with the carb cleaners.

Last I used attacked the paint on the IC and it started coming off.

 

[microELVIS]

What can be done with the dirty carb cleaner that comes out of the ic ? Im somewhat environmentally concious, I wouldnt wanna just dump it in the sewer or in the grass or something.