Removing oil from heat exchangers

[denson]

I had both heat exchangers looked at and found they are in good shape, or so we think.

My mechanic advised that I had a leak coming from the oil sump line. I have had the car for six years, so I know the leak has gone on that long, if not longer. He tightened it and believes the leak is gone. Clearly this leak allowed oil to go into the exchanger through the gaps that exist. He used a citrus degreaser to try to clean them out. He advised that there was oil in there and that after hosing the exchangers out, that oil residue came out. This is a very tough area as it is sealed, could have much more oil in there that we cannot see and there could be a crack in the header (hidden by the exchanger) which could be complicating this. We did not take the exchangers off the car during this process.

Does anyone know of a process, that after removing the exchangers could clean them out 100%. Or am I dreaming, and should I just go buy two new Dansk exchangers?

Thanks,

John

[304065]

Soap and water or a pressure washer can help if you have them off the car. Or even engine degreaser like red-hot.

Once that's done you could bake them in a powdercoating oven, that would probably remove any residual liquid.

So where was the leak in the oil line? The scavenge line has an aluminum crush washer between the case and the union. The M26 fitting for the oil line goes on the other half. Just torquing it might work temporarily but you should really remove the HE to clean it and change the crush washer.

[tfiv]

I take them to the local NAPA machine shop and have them "tanked" in their heated chemical bath. Even the nastiest ones clean up.

[kenikh]

I take them to the local NAPA machine shop and have them "tanked" in their heated chemical bath. Even the nastiest ones clean up.

Any radiator shop will be able to do this, as well. You could eat off of them afterward.

[jtkkz]

I used some GUNK degreaser and a high powered washer. After washingit I used a wire brush wheel attached to a cordless or corded drill and cleaned /polished up the whole HE's..

It looked like new afterwards...