Thread: What dis I do today? the damn intercooler.

After all this "drama queen" carry on about the intercooler flush I though it was time to bite the bullet and flush the damn thing.

The worst part of the job is that it is time consuming first time through. You don't need to hacksaw anything, you don't need to swear at things, and you definitely don't need a menagerie of pigs, dogs and cows to describe it.

I followed the revised RAVE procedure and the whole thing took about 2.5 pretty leisurely hours. I reckon if you follow the process to the letter you can't go far wrong. It's worth pulling the fan and lower cowling, and lifting the radiator out of the chassis mounts allows you to move the bottom of the radiator forward and gives a pretty decent amount of room to work in.

The intercooler came out with a little bit of manoeuvring and went in the same way. The drivers side locating peg is a fairly tight squeeze when you try to realign with the cutout in the radiator but only need a gentle push to get everything lined up.

I used a litre of shellite to flush (it did a wash and a rinse) and it seem to work reasonably well - there wasn't much in the way of gunk, and the rinse only had a faint taint.

Anyway job done and I have 80,000km to wait before I need to do it again.

I also picked up a damp swage on the Auto cooler line while I was doing the job - I'm always suspicious that disturbing the radiator triggers follow up hose replacements. Anyway if moving the radiator was enough to tigger a leak it was on it's way out so better to do now than on a roadside in the middle of whoop-whoop.

cheers
Paul

Originally Posted by OffTrack

After all this "drama queen" carry on about the intercooler flush I though it was time to bite the bullet and flush the damn thing.

Paul

Good for you, just another job, sport, all you need is time, Bob

Why would one attempt to remove intercooler without first removing the fan
I had a wet fitting on the trans cooler quick couple connection, I found I could push the fitting on about 5mm more thus solving the leak!
Regards

Originally Posted by northiam

Why would one attempt to remove intercooler without first removing the fan
I had a wet fitting on the trans cooler quick couple connection, I found I could push the fitting on about 5mm more thus solving the leak!
Regards

Because people read Urban Panzer's site and follow his how-to's rather than reading RAVE:

Originally Posted by Urban Panzer

The official workshop manual tells you to remove the viscous fan to get the intercooler out, how ever I have recently done this job without disturbing the viscous fan.

I'll have to double check on the connection. I had left the intercooler hose in place and I noticed it dripped a few times. I've got my fingers crossed that it just happened to drip on the swaged joint. I'll wash the engine bay and keep an eye on it over then few days.

cheers
Paul

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

I pulled an intercooler out of a D2 once...

I clean them in place now.

The only way I can see how to do it without removing the fan is to pull the radiator and all its interfering gear.

Clean them in place----great mate but how???

Originally Posted by greg smith

Clean them in place----great mate but how???

I suspect for most people it will be simpler and quicker to remove the intercooler:

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

you can clean it in situ, and I have twice.

fit extension tubes to the intercooler hoses so they stick up nice and high,

fill it with diesel or the gentle solvent of your choice and let it sit.

drain

fill with hot soapy water and then using a cooling system flush gun blow air through it

rinse with hot water and blow the air through again till it comes out no longer soapy.

if the rinse water comes out dirty repeat the wash again.

once its got clean rinse water coming out plug your wifes hair drier into the thing and let it blow through it for a couple of hours.

done

Originally Posted by OffTrack

Because people read Urban Panzer's site and follow his how-to's rather than reading RAVE:



I'll have to double check on the connection. I had left the intercooler hose in place and I noticed it dripped a few times. I've got my fingers crossed that it just happened to drip on the swaged joint. I'll wash the engine bay and keep an eye on it over then few days.

cheers
Paul

I followed Urban Panzer's way of doing it, and re-installed a D2a intercooler without removing the fan at all. It was a little bit tight and required some wiggling but went in without damaging anything. The biggest prickle was re-attaching the Davis Performance Landies auto cooler I have - needed the wife to start the small bolts holding it in place coz my hand are too big.

But that's it. Do people find it hard to follow Urban Panzers tutorial? I thought it rocked. I have rave too but found his way much easier.

The only difference between the current RAVE procedure and UPanzers method is the UP doesn't remove the fan or lower cowl. For the 2-3 minutes extra it takes I can't see the point of not removing to be honest. You have far more room to work with the lower cowl and fan out of the way.

The problem I find with workshop shortcuts in general is more often than not you trade X minutes disassembly and reassembly time for spending X minutes or more messing about due to reduced access.