Cleaning Intercooler

Soo,

Whats the best way to clean an old top mount, I have used carb cleaner in the past and tried to use something that would evaporate,

I have an old one which has been lurking in the garage for years and wanted to clean it up.

Any ideas?

When I bought my Radtec intercooler from one of the lads on here, I filled it up with white spirit sloshed it about for a few minutes then poured it out. Loads of shite came out! Kitchen roll, old oil and a tywrap from what I remember. Only did it as looked like it had blown turbo so was full of oil, but I bet the kitchen roll must have affected it's performance. Left it too vent of for a day then chucked a bit of petrol in and did the same. That came out clean so reckon it did a good job. Hope this help seemed a good idea to me at the time.

Plus white spirit is cheap!

Best thing I've used is petrol as it breaks down oil .... I've used it for intercoolers and old mucky water reservoirs when head gaskets had gone came up a treat .....

So what would folk use to clean the outside then? Or easier just to spray it?

That's a tricky one as you can only clean the end tanks or use a pressure washer to clean the fin section just dont go to close with it and make sure to tape up the holes on the end tanks

Could you use a liquid aluminium cleaner on the outside? Never tried it.

To clean it up except the fins obviously, use a wire wheel in a cordless drill

I bought some aluminium trailer chassis cleaner so will give that a try this weekend. It claims to be an acid based cleaner which you can use on bare aluminium, alloy and steel wheels...and that you can dilute it up to 10:1 ratio!

I'll try the underside first so if it discolours it I won't notice

If it's tfr or similar as it will look ok but after a while will turn your fins to dust

Tfr?

Traffic film remover ....

Yes as Leighton says traffic film remover . Like most products some versions of tfr or similar products are not as strong as they used to be or if u buy the cheap stuff it's not the same but the decent stuff you do need to watch how long it's left on if used neat or the dilution you use as it cleans very well but if not rinsed totally ( even if you do sometimes) it's a acid so fins on the intercooler would after washing look super clean but soon start corroding and go like for example a car alloy dose when salt off the roads gets in turn white ish and been so thin the fins will just go like dust and that's it trashed

this is the stuff I've bought:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aluminium-cleaner-ally-bright-aluminium-trailer-chassis-body-cleaning-solution/122460445338?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I reckon i'll try it diluted to heck first on an end tank or the very back edge of the cooler. If that doesn't work increase ratio until it either cleans or dissolves it

It also mentions it can dissolve rust too, might try that out as I've got LOTS of rusty (ex-mini) nuts n bolts