Good info man thanks.

 

Simply remove your IC, pour some gasoline in, cover the Inlet/Outlet with your hands and shake it around for awhile,Drain, Repeat until the gas thats coming out is clean.

 

Great thread David. I used used to clean my Talon's intercooler on a frequent basis, but have neglected to clean my Evo's. Thanks for the reminder.

 

Like dissolves like

You will still want a solvent that will dissolve the oil/gas and at the same time soluble in water to get the inside of the IC "de-oiled/gased"...eg IPA, acetone

A unique property of acetone is it forms an azeotrope with water, when it evaporates , it takes water along with it - helps you dry the inside out

 

+1 For Brake Cleaner.... but your brain cells will hate you if used in a poorly ventilated space.

 

The cleaner we use is water soluable. I figured most guys new what Greased Lightning was. We take a bunch of it, dump it into the intercooler capping off each end with your hands or duct tape them shut. Then simply run the solvent front one end to the other. When your done take HOT water and do the same thing. It will be sparkly clean. Tolulene is flamable. I won't recommend using an oil based solvent. Some dumb *** will blow himself up and sue me. As I said, I use to use gasoline myself. This time we used a water based solvent and honestly, it does a better job. Simple Green is pansy cleaner, too weak. Don't waste your time with that.

A few bent fins or even a row of bent fins, I don't see it effecting the performance.

Evoscan does not log intake air temps after the intercooler. The air temps with Evoscan are at the MAF sensor, they tell you nothing about the intercooler.

 

When I changed my clutch I used the opportunity to clean my I/C plumbing. Here it is:

Hook a shop vac up to a 5 gallon air tight container used to collect cleaning agent
Hook this collecting contraption to the input of IC by any rigging means you choose.

Open the post IC duct, turn vac on and slowly pour about a gallon of 91% isopropanol through the system.

When solvent is gone, turn vac on and have a hair drier send hot air through to dry

 

I agree with Tyler. I don't know why people seem to have this "stigma" about using gasoline to clean out their intercoolers. Gasoline is simple, easy, and effective. It's really that simple. Unless there's some chemical reaction that needs to be taken into account, or if it somehow possibly corrodes the inside of the IC (which I highly doubt) then there should be no reason to not use gasoline.

 

thanks for the info. i'm going to clean my IC since i'm in the process of pulling the tranny and t-case. it's nice to have data log to back up your prediction.

 

since it seems like you know your chemical, what do you think about using brake cleaner?

 

I used gas when I cleaned the IC from my GSX back in the day...worked like a charm

 

What about laquer thinner?

 

Brake cleaner evaporates really quickly, it might be hard to get enough of it in there to totally clean the inside and carry the dirt out before it evpaorates.

 

Thanks for the reminder and little motivation for me to clean my intercooler. I just recently put a catch can on the intake side after I took of my intake and noticed the little puddle of oil sitting on the silicone hose between the turbo and intake pipe. I also discovered that the bypass valve had been splashing that oil onto the backside of my MAF.

After I cleaned everything off and put the catch can in the turbo spooled faster and was noticebly louder. Butt dyno shows a difference too. ...and gas mileage improved.

I'd put this on the "maintenance" list of things to do on your car if you haven't done it.

 

brake cleaner is tetrachloroethylene - vapor pressure too high, evaporates too fast to do anything.

To cut thru the heavy oil/gum - nothing beats toluene, gasoline......*keep away from spark/fire*