intercooler seepage

[Brett Dikeman]

At 11:25 PM -0500 3/2/02, jason snider wrote:
>I recall seeing some posts about resealing an intercooler that has signs of
>oil leaking around it, but I'm not comfortable with taking apart my IC
>unless I have a good idea what to do.My IC has a little oil at the inner
>bottom right hand corner (viewed from under car). Do I need to get new
>gaskets? I've never had the IC off nor seen the inside of one.

Getting the IC out is pretty easy, just a bunch of trim needs to come
off the front of the car to get the grill out.  The top+bottom
-metal- chrome pieces come off first(pry and pull -carefully-, if you
break any of the little clips, they are quite cheap and you get a
whole bunch in a bag), followed by the rubber strip along the
bottom(again, careful!  The back metal part of it is very brittle and
does NOT bend very much at all!)  The trick with the black metal part
is to look and see where it clips into things, and only pry -right-
there.

Once that's off, remove the plastic lower trim, I think the center
comes off first; just undo all the screws that hold it in, it'll be
obvious.

Then the grill comes out.  Two or three screws in various places, and
then it just comes right out.

I don't recall how it goes on the 5000, but on the 200q20v, ther's a
big honkin' hex bolt that holds the IC in place from the top.
Disconnect both hoses, and wiggle it out.

Clean up the body of it completely; I used simple green on the tank
ends etc, and used multiple applications of foaming engine
cleaner(don't shake it too much, it needs to expand -after- it goes
into the IC!) applied liberally  from both ends.  Hose it out with a
LOT of water.

If you're anal, btw, pick the bugs and stones out -first-, or they'll
get knocked in further.

After that's done, touch up with a little spray paint if the paint
chipped.  Mostly cosmetic.  Don't use a ton.

Lastly, take it to the kitchen sink.  Use dish soap(not dishwasher
soap) and dump a healthy amount in along with hot water.  Grab two
plastic baggies, and put 'em over both ends, and use some really
strong or doubled/tripled over rubber bands to hold 'em in place
after filling it up with a couple of cups of water.  Now, have fun.
Shake, tip it side to side, up/down, left right :-)  Just start out
slow...the hot water will heat up the trapped air and if you shake
too hard+fast, you'll blow hot sudsy/oily water everywhere :-)

Do this a few times w/soap, then when it looks like it's coming out
clean, do a rinse or two with hot water.

Congrats, you have a squeeky clean IC with no nasty oil to hurt its
efficiency.  Now you can go about disassembling it...I think you just
pull the clips and then take the end tanks off, but I've never done
it.

BTW, if the IC has big leaks, the water will probably come out in
places it shouldn't, especially when you first start swishing around
and pressure builds up a little.

B
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