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How do you clean a heat exchanger while attached

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steve hale

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Can you clean a heat exchanger

Can you clean a heat exchanger with it still attached to the engine? How do you do it. Do you disconnect the hoses? Won't the buildup go into the rest of the system once it is dislodged? Does it have a drain?
 
"The dirty side is the raw wat

"The dirty side is the raw water side, so let the crud fall in the bilge (and into a bucket if possible). Better to remove it completely and let a radiator shop boil it out for you. They can also pressure test it.

Jeff"
 
"I had taken off the ends of t

"I had taken off the ends of the heat exchanger adn revealed the honeycomb core. Tried to use a .22 cal cleaning brush to run through each hole BUT....the holes were too small. Since they did not look to bad, I ran some water thru, removed the chunk of zinc that had been lying on the bottom and installed new rubber gaskets...

I would imagine maybe a .177 caliber brush may fit better BUT BE CAREFUL as when I tried to reverse direction, the stud broke off the thin aluminum brush. Thank goodness it was able to be reached and removed"
 
"Acid wash it in place if you

"Acid wash it in place if you want. Use Muratic acid with water 50/50 put in bucket, get spare bilge pump and put it in the solution. run one end to the heat exchanger and then attach a return hose to the bucket. run it until it quits foaming on the return side then immediately flush with plenty of clean fresh water. Have a second bucket ready that has the fresh water and simply put the pump in it and the return. Do the oil cooler the same way. You may need to make adaptors. Sounds like alot of work and it is the first time but you can make a kit and keep it and then do it every year or every other year.

Last time i did this i did the whole raw water system at once, pulled the exhaust hose and used it as the return. connected the acid pump discharge to the water inlet on the oil cooler and let it circulate. I did cap off one riser and elbow and cleaned them separately. Also took out the zinc from each cooler first."
 
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