Flushing your intercooler

Simon Hi,

using a can of spray carburator cleaner will do a good job. If this is not handy then use some of the diesel you burn in your 110. Lay the intercooler flat, pour a bit of diesel in it, shake it well, empty it and repeat. Then fill it up, let is stay for a few hours and then pour some of it out and shake it well again. then empty it and try pouring some fresh diesel in it and shake again.

It must be clean by now. If now repeat above procedure.

LR sells a special intercooler cleaning fluid but I do not see a reason to pay for it.

Take care Pantelis

That sounds like an expensive way to clean it, I bet it would take more than one can too.

I didn't realise you could use diesel to clean things too, could I put it back in the tank after using like this?

Didn't know it was something that should be done regularly, just looked in my workshop manual and in there it recommends using Genklene. Isn't Genklene a solvent that has been withdrawn from use?

I was going to use a detergent water based cleaner, bad idea??

Simon Hi again,

The main reason I am using diesel fuel is because it is readily available and extremely cheaper than the LR stuff.

I do not thing using diesel will harm the engine as the engine runs on diesel and fresh air. Exactly the kind of thing that will come out of the intercooler after you fit it in the car following its cleaning.

I do take extra care to remove as much as possible of the diesel fuel used for cleaning the intercooler before fitting it back.

I clean the intercooler of both my discos since 1996 like that and have not yet had a problem.

Water based solvent is something that I have not yet used and can not comment.

Take care Pantelis

LR said Genklene, which if I remember from a past posting is simply an organic solvent that quickly evaporates from the ic when it has been flushed out. I would imagine they supply it or a substitute still. You could use almost any organic solvent that evaportes similarly, providing you are aware of the hazardous nature of most organic solvents. Personally if I were to do it I would stick to the LR product simply because it should be safe to use and effective. I've got a degree in chemistry and a very healthy respect for solvents, so I'm a bit paranoid.

May be worth trying an indipendant garage and see what they use, I think thats what I would do. I suspect that whatever is used, if it is effective it will cost.

Incidentally the flush is part of the maintenance schedule listed by LR for

Good Luck, let us know how you get on as I might have a go myself

John H

Do as we do and be cheapskates by using heating oil.

Hé there,

For a TD5, it is sheduled to be done at 80.000 km The product mentioned in the manual is Unicorn Chemicals 'C' solvent. In Belgium, it would cost around 69 ? (From Land Rover) for 5 Liter.

Lieven

"Hirsty's" schreef in bericht news:HCTKc.811$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe6-win.ntli.net...

lol An excellent idea. Only problem is that now it is summer here in Greece and heating oil is almost the same price as diesel fuel.

Take care Pantelis

I've used parafin to clean my intercooler, comes out ok.

JInx

-- Jon

Neither are ?1.20 I'll bet, which is about the cost of white diesel in the UK, heating oil comes in at something like ?0.30

What exactly is the 'hazardous nature' of organic solvents? I am carefull when using solvents but I wouldn't recognise an organic one if it came and slapped me round the face.

Good idea.

I know that now I've read my manual but it doesn't say how often, it just lists it as a service item.

I might get round to it at the weekend, the intercooler looks easy enough to get out, only about eight bolts and the hoses. I'll probably try to clean the hoses too.

Cheers.

Hi,

Does much muck come out and is there a noticeable improvement after the flushing?

Thanks.

I used parafin for mine - worked fine.

I had to use 2 or 3 lots of parafin till it came out clean. Then left to dry in the sun for half a day and put back together again.

Also, make sure to clean the pipes to and from the intercooler, they will probably be oily as well - it would be a shame to let oil run back in once youve cleaned it!

The biggest difference I found was putting a K&N air filter in - made a bigger difference than cleaning the intercooler.

Slightly off topic but I have found that the K&N's are excellent when clean but you can really tell when they need cleaning - which reminds me i really must get a cleaning kit for it.

Jon

The web, stick your solvent name into google, preferable the chemical name if you know it and safety or "COSHH" (COSHH = Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health), is generally pretty good at this sort of thing as long as you have your twaddle filter (mental rubbish sorting) turned up fairly high. If several sites are in agreement then you probably have the right answer.

Alistair

Seems to work out surprisingly well! I looked up my chemo drugs when I was ill and bored and found one of them was Birmingham (I think) University Chemistry Depts "Molecule of the Month". Was actually quite interesting!

Alistair

Mammals are organic ( basically any carbon/ carbon bonded, based compound eg. alcohols, ethers, benzene family, petroleum derivatives etc. ). Being organic we bond quite well with similar compounds and hence dissolve; many many are carconegenic, irritate the airways and breathing mechanism. As "dirt" is usually greasy ( organic based ) then usually solvents used to disperse them contain an element of organic nature. This is the principal of detergents, one end of molecule is attracted to water and the other end is attracted to grease and hence when agitated in a mix eg washing machine will drag the dirt from the clothing. Problem is many solvents are being determined as a danger to mammals and hence banned ( used to wash my hands in benzene as a student, now the same action would result in suspension)

As to what is organic, take a look at the container and it might state this, if not use the help number they give ( or should give ), in the extreme any university chemistry department will help with a few polite questions.

What an idiot, I totally forgot about that. Show's how bloody old and in the past I am. :-))

I did exactly the same with my first Chemo blast. The results were something like "WARNING - this can be lethal" - which I thought was quite funny, actually!

Yes, you read the list of side effects and you read the list of heavy metal poisoning symptoms and go; "tick, tick, tick, tick, yup thats the lot!"

Alistair