Removed/cleaned the intercooler today...

I got a wild hair up my arse today to tinker on the truck a bit and so I decided to remove the intercooler and intercooler tubes so that I could clean them out. I relocated my CCV some time (~3 1/2 years) ago, but there was still a noticeable amount of oil residue in the tubes and puddles (small ones) in the boots. Getting the intercooler out wasn't really that big of a deal, it's just that there is a lot of stuff in the way that has to be removed first. I didn't drain or remove the radiator, but I did support it with a floor jack and piece of 2/4 so that when I disconnected the supports it didn't fall (that would have been BAD). Once I got the intercooler out, I did what CHPMustang told me to do and made up a solution of degreasing dish soap and scalding hot water, filled the intercooler with it, then shook the intercooler back and forth for about a minute. I repeated that three times (the first 2 times, the water drained out visibly brown from 3 1/2 year-old oil residue ) since on the third go-round, the water drained out clear. Then, I rinsed it out really well and let it drain to dry for ~2 hours. After those two hours, I duct-taped a hose off of the big air compressor at the station (5 HP/80 gallon) and blew 6 full tanks of air through the IC to force out whatever water was left. After that, I figured that any water left was so minimal that I could ignore it. Reassembly went pretty well except for when I pinched the negative driver's side battery cable (preventing me from being able to reconnect it) and had to loosen the whole upper core support to get enough space to free the cable. That set me back about an hour (15 minutes of cussing, 30 minutes of trying to figure out how to get the cable out, then 15 minutes to actually do it) but other than that, reassembly was smooth and pretty much the reverse-order of disassembly.


Do I notice any difference at all in how the truck runs? Nope. It is a comfort, though, to know that the IC and tubes are now oil-free (as they should be).


Sorry I didn't take any pictures for this one. I did have the camera with me, but when I realized how involved getting the IC out was going to be, I didn't have time to take them and get the job done before midnight...

So about how much time did it take you to remove/replace the I/C? I just did the CCV mod Sat. and was wondering what I might be getting myself into with trying to clean it out.

Thanks,
Grant

Grant02 said:

So about how much time did it take you to remove/replace the I/C? I just did the CCV mod Sat. and was wondering what I might be getting myself into with trying to clean it out.

Thanks,
Grant

Click to expand...

I took about 6 1/2 hours to do the job, but I wasn't really trying to hurry since (1) I was trying to get out of going Maggie's co-worker's New Year's party (that idea didn't work--I had to go anyway), (2) I had my dog with me at the station so I had to take some breaks to take him outside, and (3) I wanted to make sure the intercooler was DRY before I reinstalled it. If I only had to R&R the intercooler and didn't have the dog to take care of, I could probably have the whole thing in/out in <4 hours, working at slowpoke speeds. Having the Tymar intake and a modded CCV helped save some time, since pulling the whole intake system out consisted of loosening one clamp at the turbo, pulling out the green wastegate solenoid line, and then loosening the clamp on the filter. It's a helluva lot easier to remove the driver's side IC tube with the intake ducting out of the way, but you don't absolutely have to since the tube can come out with the filter-to-turbo ducting in place.

After I got the intercooler out, washed out 3 times, then rinsed thoroughly, I set it to air dry and that's when I washed the boots and cleaned the tubes. I figured that would be more time-efficient since waiting for the IC to dry was dead time and so I made use of that time to do some other work. Even though it was a bit of a hassle to pull the intercooler/IC tubes and clean them, I'm happy that I did it (thanks to CHPMustang for giving me the idea) since now the IC is functioning as it should, with dry and oil-free air. I was rather suprised at how dirty the water coming out of the IC was, especially considering that it had been ~ 3 1/2 years since I removed the stock CCV.

Overall, pulling the IC wasn't particularly hard, just time-consuming since there are a lot of parts you have to remove just to get to where the IC is mounted. Once you've got them out of the way, removing the IC and cleaning it is relatively straightforward. There's one more thing you can do to save some time--(I did mention this in my original post but it's worth repeating)--you don't need to drain/remove the radiator. I had a piece of 2x4 that was ~18" long and I put that between the floor jack and the radiator so that when I disconnected the upper radiator support brackets (bolted to the upper core support), the radiator was supported and so I could lean it back against the engine vs. draining and removing it entirely.

I did mine a few weeks back. Y-pipe, tubes, intercooler, etc. It took me 5.5-6 hours

whatabudro said:

I did mine a few weeks back. Y-pipe, tubes, intercooler, etc. It took me 5.5-6 hours

Click to expand...

I didn't do the Y-pipe since I figured that any oil left in there would be very minimal and I'll be pulling it in a few weeks when I remove the turbo (WW install, valley cleanup, and pedistal O-ring replacement) so I could just clean it then.

jvencius said:

in a few weeks when I remove the turbo (WW install, valley cleanup, and pedistal O-ring replacement) so I could just clean it then.

Click to expand...

did that and HX mod today. It took 6 hours with help from Lance(Tbar) It was a pain in the arse.

whatabudro said:

did that and HX mod today. It took 6 hours with help from Lance(Tbar) It was a pain in the arse.

Click to expand...

The only part of R/R'ing the turbo that concerns me is detaching and reinstalling the clamp between the collector and the exhaust half of the turbo--other than that it seems to be a pretty straightforward procedure.

jvencius said:

The only part of R/R'ing the turbo that concerns me is detaching and reinstalling the clamp between the collector and the exhaust half of the turbo--other than that it seems to be a pretty straightforward procedure.

Click to expand...

The down pipe is easy to get loose, it was the up pipe that kicked by behind, and the getting the ebv connected again. It was Lance and I's first attempt, second would probably go smoother, but I hope I never do it again.

whatabudro said:

The down pipe is easy to get loose, it was the up pipe that kicked by behind, and the getting the ebv connected again. It was Lance and I's first attempt, second would probably go smoother, but I hope I never do it again.

Click to expand...

Since yesterday, I have since changed my mind about pulling the turbo. I will still pick up a set of spare o-rings, but if I pull the Y-pipe off, that should give me enough clearance to clean out the valley (my main reason for wanting to pull the turbo in the first place). Should I ever get the dough saved up for a BB turbo, then, obviously, I'll have to pull the stocker out, but if I can do the WW install with the turbo installed, that's what I'm going to do.