I'm looking for a Southern California Company to ultrasonic clean and test my oil cooler and hope to find someone reasonable that does not charge the "Aircraft Certification" prices I found.

Thanks in advance

Hi Rick, why not just remove the oil cooler (I beileved can be remove without dropping the engine) and clean it with diesel or some other cleaning liquid? And why do you need to clean it? Lots of old grease and dirt?

I believe both flushing with clean solvent and also ultra sonic are best
The 2nd cleaning certainly won’t hurt
Especially if there is a chance of debris what so ever

If you know it was on a blown motor in a previous life
Replacement is the most safe option

Sorry I don’t know providers for that service
My engine builder always takes caution with used coolers

I'm rebuilding my engine (138,000 miles) and this the perfect time to have the cooler cleaned and tested.

I've always read that on rebuild it's best to replace the oil cooler. They've gone up a bit since I read that but they're not that expensive. Busdepot sells oem ones new

https://www.busdepot.com/021117021b

Check with some local hotrodders for the best radiator shop, cars & coffee is good for research.
Cleaning oil cooler is the same process.
Be advised the cost to clean will be the same as buying new except the tax and shipping, funny how it works out that way.
If you decide to buy new, they are all made in China, go with a known company with customer service.

What are the dimensions ? I’ll see if it will fit in my new ultrasonic …
And you might want to consider the Tangerine Pressure Relief Valve,
See: https://tangerineracing.com/shop/ols/search...escend_by_match
I put one in at last rebuild….

Don't know if this is still current advice, but this post from one of the foremost type IV experts caught my eye on the older thread that was revived as part of this convo.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&...t&p=2437822

It's hard to tell if Jake means new aftermarket when he says new, or if he means new oem.

Busdepot does have the cheaper aftermarket, as well as the oem

https://www.busdepot.com/021117021bmy

Jim, the dimentions are 8 1/2 x 3 3/8 x 3 3/8 deep. I found a old thread-comments are OEM units cools 10%-20% better than aftermarket. Would it fit in your cleaner?

Thanks Brent, I read the same information from a very reliable source and have to follow the experts.

I am new to ultrasonic cleaning so please excuse my ignorance, but if only the one part of a system is ultrasonically cleaned won't it soon be contaminated with the debris from the other parts that have not been cleaned as such?

A lot of the crap that comes off the oil cooler is the collected dirt and grease and general smut from between the cooling vanes, not from the interior oil passages.

Zach

Hopefully the majority of the crid is captured in the filter.
Great time to buy an ultrasonic cleaner.

All the more reason to buy new or to take special care during cleaning to keep interior plugged with silicone plugs while cleaning the exterior.

Makes no sense to “clean” it and let exterior crud get into the cooler internals.

Usually the internals are just oily. If you just want to clean the fins, plug up the cooler and his it with some brake clean, carb cleaner, whatever and rinse off.

Hate to admit, but the last engine I built I plugged up the suction(intake) side of the oil pump to keep the crud out. Worked great until I forgot about it and could not get oil pressure when cranking on the test bench. I fired it up and ran it for about 3 seconds, still NO oil pressure. Broke the entire thing down to discover a small piece of paper towel in the suction side. Put her back together and has been running strong with 55ish # of oil pressure. That was about 2k miles ago. One of the best things VW did was to incorporate a full flow oil filter.

Good advice-Thanks for the tip

The places that special in aircraft cert type cleaning do follow a process that involves an ultrasonic step + flushing, and maybe at the same time?

Pacific Oil Cooler used to do it, may still. https://www.oilcoolers.com/

Another is Piranah https://www.facebook.com/piranhaultrasoniccleaning/

A proper cleaning isn't cheap, unfortunately.

Rick if you’re rebuilding buy new I did on my 2056 rebuild. You need to look at everything that will make that new motor run cooler and last longer…..drive on Paul

I always use Pacific Oil Cooler.
Fair prices, quick and they do great work.
I send new coolers there before mounting them on my cars.

@raynekat
Has anyone had bad luck with new oil coolers and is that why you have them cleaned?
I spun a crank bearing at 300 miles and am trying to figure out whether to have mine cleaned or replaced.

North east of your back yard:

Pacific Oil Cooler Service, Inc.
1677 Curtiss Court
La Verne, CA 91750
909-593-8400

Just let them know you need service for ground vehicle and no certification.

Sorry, I haven't been on this site for awhile.
I just thought it was cheap insurance to be assured that I had a perfectly clean oil cooler that held pressure (no leaks).
Never had a problem with an new oil cooler such that this was a necessary step.

I have serious experience cleaning heat exchangers...

Mine are usually AC system evaporators.

The condensers are uncleanable dues to their construction, and I just replace them.

I go to great lengths to get OEM compressors and condensers.

A three week wait and shipping from another country are common in my world.

Raby is RIGHT! Aftermarket stuff is almost always less efficient than OEM stuff.

Relying on a single method of cleaning is extremely short-sighted IMO.

I'd clean a 50 year old oil cooler as follows.

Drain cooler (look at what comes out) and do a preliminary flush with Berrymans B12.

Fill the cooler up and let it sit for 1 hour with the B12 in it. Seal oil passages and shake the piss out of it every 15 minutes. Rotate it every which way. I will leave a bit of space in the cooler to assist in the sloshing around.

Do not drain the B12. Blow that crap out of the core with the highest air pressure you can supply. I'm blowing cores at 175-190 PSI using oversized hoses and fittings.
You are after maximum violence here.
Catch your flush in a container. I use a WHITE 5-gallon paint jug from Tractor Supply.
Using a white container allows you to see the debris that is in the flush.

The B12 works far better if you give it some time to dissolve the oil/carbon deposits.

You've blown the core out and now you need to "pop" the core. Use a thumb in a nitrile glove to cover the exit hole and apply the air again. Thumb on/thumb off in multiple sequences. You will hear a popping noise every time you do this, and more liquid will come out (along with trash) Continue popping till you are no longer seeing little puffs of liquid.

Follow with alcohol using the same process (no hour long wait) let it sit in the core maybe 30 seconds before flushing it out. You will notice the alcohol will require more popping before it clears.

Once you get one direction to run clear alcohol switch directions.
Lather, rinse, repeat!

Got it to the point that you can run 8 ounces of alcohol both directions and the flush bucket is showing clean you've cleaned 95%+ of the trash out of the core.

I clean the flush bucket after every load with a white paper towel (Bounty only for me, much stronger).

At this point I deem the core "re-usable" and will seal the flow holes and clean the outside. Don't use 175 psi air in the outside fins, that can bend them. I'll use 90psi air some distance from the core. Hold the core up to light source so you can see through the external fins. It's easy to see where you still have blockage. B12, alcohol and dish soap are my go-to for external cleaning. The original Dawn is my soap of choice. Original Dawn is hard to find now. I use commercial "professional" Dawn purchased in 1-gallon containers at Sam's Club. It is the closest thing to original I've found.

They updated Dawn because the original stuff will suck all of the oils out of your skin and people complained...

This soap is killer for removing EVERYTHING including any wax from a painted surface.
I'll use it on the outside of a car before clay bar or any polish as it does remove everything. Do NOT use it if you're just cleaning the car.
It's the first step for a complete surface restoration.

So, you've flushed both the insides and the outsides of your oil cooler. You may be finished depending on how nasty the core was in the first place.

Only after the above would I consider sending off to have it ultra-sonically cleaned.
I'm a huge believer that the cleaner needs to be industrial and the cleaning fluid needs to be hotter than the cooler will normally run.

After I got it back, I'd flush it again (just with alcohol) and verify nothing else in in the core.

I clean brand new cores if I can. Sometimes condensers (with integral driers) cannot be flushed but every single tranny or oil cooler I've installed got hit with the alcohol before installation. It's not common now with modern building techniques but I've found way too much shit inside brand-new cores to not flush check them first.

You will see two types of crap in the flush bucket. Floaters are on the surface of the flush and the bad stuff will sink to the bottom. I prefer nothing but I'm far more worried about the stuff that sinks. This is almost always metallic and is the stuff that will eat your engine (or AC compressor). I "pan" for glitter just like gold miners from the distant past.
I find glitter I'm not done...

All the above (except for the Dawn) are flammable chemicals that you're aerating with high pressure air. Most of these chemicals burn with a white flame that is damn hard to see in bright light. Do this crap outside with good airflow; do not do this inside a sealed garage. Your wife will bitch about the smells and there is a small chance for a big fire or explosion. Use care here.

PPE is a requirement for this. Minimum of a protective face shield and gloves.
The first time you get a tiny bit of B12 in your eyes will be the last time you every let that happen again. It's far, far worse than being maced. I got doused once when I was 21. ONLY ONCE is the rule here. It still hurts when I'm typing this (memory pain/not real pain)


On AC cores I use three fluids: B12 flushed with alcohol, AC flush flushed with alcohol, and shitloads of alcohol at the end. I always finish with alcohol as tiny amounts left in the core will evaporate quickly and leave no residue behind. Finish with alcohol, let sit for any hour then pull vacuum for an hour will remove any residual alcohol inside the AC system.
An oil cooler I'd let bake in the sun for a bit before I installed it.

I call this "medically clean", even germs are removed.
The AC systems will last for decades if you're an anal pinheaded bitch regarding cleaning the cores...

Yesterday I finished a 2014 Ford Expedition that was one of the dirtiest systems I've come across. It took 1.5 gallons of B12, 1 gallon of AC flush, and 2 gallons of alcohol.
This is $150 in chemicals!
4 hours of flushing (not counting the soaking hour). Massively nasty became prefect and the truck went sub 40 with super nice pressure readings. It will last longer than the original system the truck came with IMO.
Two years ago a Ford dealer installed a compressor only on this truck without cleaning the system and it ate the second compressor so this puppy had the internals of two compressors in it. These are made from hypereutectic aluminum so it's a bit like having ground glass in the system.
I had to use "rabbits" in all of the hoses. Imagine large gun cleaning patches soaked in B12 and blown through the lines with shop air.

I did not have anything cleaned in a ultra sonic tank.

I would expect a Type 4 oil cooler would take 1 qt of B12 and 1/2 gallon of alcohol to clear. Alcohol from paint store/big box hardware store. Qt of B12 liquid from FLAPS; you might have to order this, the pressurized cans are too slow and expensive for me