I am going to pick up a used perrin fmic, I want to clean the inside to make sure there is no debris in there before I put it on. I have googled it and a lot of hits were to use gasoline or diesel shake and empty let dry. Another was to use diluted simple green wash rinse and dry. I could use compressed air i guess, Just seeing if there were any other options. Thanks.

 

I would follow the steps we used to clean lab equipment to ensure no residue was left behind. Residue on the inside will decrease cooling ability. If it was me I'd plug one end and fill it with distilled water. Let it soak overnight. Drain water. Then fill with Acetone, let it sit overnight, drain halfway, then plug both holes and shake vigerously and finish draining. Acetone was all we were allowed to clean lab equipment because it left no residue to affect any future experiments when re-using that same equipment.

 

I like to stand the IC on end vertically, with the inletend tank up and the outlet endtank down. Then I spray a few cans of carb cleaner through it followed by compressed air.

EDIT: Yeah, ditto I followed dyezak's advice and plugged the IC outlet and filled with 3-4 spray cans of carb cleaner. Then shake and drain followed by compressed air.

 

Cool I forgot about acetone. I have a few gallons of that stuff, cleans electronics perfectly. I used to use it on boat electronics. Thanks

 

I agree with the Acetone, used this on my sidemount intercoolers on my T/T Stealth when I rebuilt the engine in it. Works great, and it should all evaporate, and leave no residue as stated.

 

+1 on the carb cleaner....... carb clean, brake clean, any of that stuff will work, your just going to need quite a bit so buy whatever is cheap.

 

87 octane. most practical. cuts oil fast. and you dont need to worry about it not drying out on the inside completely.

 

nvm. lol

 

i had to clean my stock IC long time ago,, and picked up some orange spray degreaser at wall mart and with water flushed the IC,,, but i had oil in there from the crank vent being connected to the intake and getting oil in the IC,,, thos process cleanned the IC spanking nice.

 

btw, polishing the IC helps it retain heat. probably not a good idea unless you're really into bling.

 

^^ really, i'm surprised most intercoolers are offered polished then.

 

I used to use Fuel on my 1st Gen IC. My only problem used to be what to do with the used fuel that you pour out.

 

I don't think it makes a big difference. Heat transfer takes place at the fins, not on the end tanks and top/bottom of the core. Even if you could polish all of the fins you wouldn't lose enough surface area to make a noticeable difference in the cooling ability of the core.

And after reading this I'm considering cleaning mine out, even though my intake and turbo inlet always look really clean when I pull off the intake pipe. I'm sure there is gunk down in there.

 

I used gas as well, capped it and shook like crazy then dump and rinse with water and repeated about 4 time till no oil came out with the water

 

Ipa?