Gunk in Oil Cooler - What Cleaner Can I Use?

[mca]

Was hoping to get some of the gunk off of my oil cooler fins.

From underneath the car, I would like to spray some degreaser/cleaner into the bottom of the cooler (onto the fins) and then hose off.

What cleaner should I use?

Will this even work?

[emcon5]

[euro911sc]

There are probably a dozen cleaners that would 'work' but you have to make sure that the cleaner gets off the aluminum cooler or many of them will corrode the AL. There are a bunch of threads on this in the engine rebuild forum.

Find some here:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/search.php?searchid=31758

Best regards,

Michael

[mca]

bump ...

I am pretty tired of reading through other posts and getting no certain answer on what to use to clean the oil cooler ... in fact, I read some comments that said it was a bad idea to clean from underneath b/c it could pack the dirt and grease farther into the depths of the fins.

Anyhow, still looking for an answer so that i can get the gunk off of the cooler this weekend.

I also need to clean the oil lines ... so looking for same advice here.

[Mo_Gearhead]

Have never done this but I too would just be certain the 'chemical' you are using is safe for use on aluminum. I assume it is just road grime (oil, dust, dirt etc.) that has built up in the fins?

Easily fixed with a good detergent and low pressure washing. Good luck.

[Early_S_Man]

You guys should be very, very careful what water-based cleaner you spray on the cooler ... it is annodized to protect against corrosion, and that Castrol purple stuff will eat through annodizing in about five minutes! I found that out the hard way, by accident, on a rear wheel on a mountain bike when all I was doing was trying to degrease the sprockets! When I rinsed off ... clear aluminum spots all over that wheel that used to be dark gray!!!

[fireant911]

mca,
There are many possibilities that will work for this project; however, I do have first hand experience with the suggestion by emcon5 - Castrol SuperClean is great for this very task. What I did first was to remove the cooling fan so I had better access to the target area. I doused, via a spray bottle, the whole insides of the cooling shroud to removes years of gunk. It worked very well. I rigged up a wooden dowel / nylon brush combination to reach the recesses especially in the duct work leading to the oil cooler. I sprayed, allowed a soak time, and rinsed until all water coming from the cooler was clear. This process took a couple of hours as I was in no hurry and I wanted it to be thoroughly clean. After finishing from the top side I went underneath to give my best attempt at back-washing the cooler (garden hoze nozzle directly against the face of the cooler). Conceptually, this was to hopefully blow off any larger debris that may be in lying horizontally on the top surface to the cooler. You will get wet and dirty from this project. Wear eye protection because Castrol SuperClean does not belong in the eye. Do not do this in your driveway (out in the yard is better) - you may may want to temporarily use your oil changing container as a trap to catch the gunk. It is surprising how much 'stuff' I got out of mine.

I have been using Castrol SuperClean for years and have never seen any of the purported corrosion / discoloration as some have reported. Do not let it dry on the surface.

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

What about plain old kerosene, i.e. what New Englanders call "range oil" (from the old days of kerosene stoves) or "white gas"? Certainly isn't gonna hurt anything.