Heat exchanger and Oil cooler advice

[BruceK]

Okay - I placed the after cooler in a bucket of brick cleaner and after about 10 mins I thought there was a fire with the smoke from the cleaner - lifted the exchanger out which was very warm and thoroughly rinsed and found a couple of the side fins disintegrated - placed on 2 bricks and with the plug in placed I poured the brick cleaner in and left it for a hour.
then I rinsed it out several times and then several times more.

I will be ordering o ring kits tomorrow - does the plug that screws in at the bottom require any sort of ptfe tape or does this just screw in as is ?

Oil cooler next to strip down.

Jon

OMG Jon. I told you to stand it up and pour the descaler in like it was a bucket . The charged air cooling fins are not brass nor ever meant to see any cooling water, the core is and does. Were the fins corroded before you dumped them in acid? There was a pic posted in one of your threads by some chap whose cooling fins had rotted away. The core should be readily easily and cheaply repaired with new cooling fins from a specialist, particularly in the KVAC and refrigeration field. Post up pics please

Jon
With Rydlym you have the option of pumping it around insitu. From a................

Much better to strip and rod. You dont have to put items in a bucket per se to give them a rince in Rydlym or brick acid before rodding. They are a bucket of sorts already. Just stand them upright and fill. (Note I wouldnt use brick acid instead of rydlym when insitu on the engine, just on the brass cores)

......................... in efficiency

As for the plug in the bottom, that is a tapered brass bung. Check it very carefully for any dezincing (Like you'd do for seacocks). One of mine crumbled like kiln dried clay on removal. It was quite an eye opener.

 

[jrudge]

I guess the fins were aluminium. Brick cleaner and Ali ( and zinc for that matter ) are not good bedfellows.

i cleaned a tinyrib anchor with acid. Looked amazing. For maybe 2 mins then the rust appeared before my eyes. The zinc had gone. New anchor cost euro 7 !

I suspect fins will cost rather more

 

[BruceK]

I guess the fins were aluminium. Brick cleaner and Ali ( and zinc for that matter ) are not good bedfellows.

i cleaned a tinyrib anchor with acid. Looked amazing. For maybe 2 mins then the rust appeared before my eyes. The zinc had gone. New anchor cost euro 7 !

I suspect fins will cost rather more

Rydlym wouldn't have been any better. It is not safe with Zincs and aluminium. Has the same composition as mild brick cleaner Bostik Cementone which is 9.8% HCL as opposed to Rydlym's 5-9%

"CAS PRODUCT NAME: RYDLYME Marine % by Weight
7647-01-0 Hydrochloric acid 5-9"

 

[jrudge]

Agree. I have long pointed out they are the same stuff but Hcl is a euro for 1.5l I’m Spanish supermarkets !

 

[Mr Googler]

Is it though. Does it not contain other protective ingredient? I dropped my charge air coolers in Rydlyme....no smoke or heat.....just gentle bubbles. No damage at all. Personally......I wouldn’t risk put anything in brick acid that wasn’t a brick!

 

[vas]

silly Q,
since you took it apart and you ARE going to replace o-rings, why didn't you do the disassembly beforehand and dip only the core in acid, or am I missing something?

V.

 

[BruceK]

Is it though. Does it not contain other protective ingredient? I dropped my charge air coolers in Rydlyme....no smoke or heat.....just gentle bubbles. No damage at all. Personally......I wouldn’t risk put anything in brick acid that wasn’t a brick!

They list the active ingredient as HCL if they have any protective element in it you'd think they'd shout it from a marketing point of view but after the last round set of arguments I have chased down the CPL / tech specification and no mention is made there either. It does state clearly it is not suitable with anodes in place.

 

[Mr Googler]

silly Q,
since you took it apart and you ARE going to replace o-rings, why didn't you do the disassembly beforehand and dip only the core in acid, or am I missing something?

V.

it’s a complete unit...tube stack, fins and an outer shield. You can just fill the raw water side though as Bruce alluded to.

 

[BruceK]

silly Q,
since you took it apart and you ARE going to replace o-rings, why didn't you do the disassembly beforehand and dip only the core in acid, or am I missing something?

V.

Had he filled the core with acid he'd be fine. He put the entire inter-cooler cartridge into a bucket of HCL. This includes the core fins which is what Jon says a couple ended up being partially dissolved. This last is what cools the charged air and never sees any raw water flow. It does however get sooty with turbo oil residue and needs cleaning out when required. A degreaser / solvent is fine, acid not so much

 

[Mr Googler]

 

[vas]

gotcha, completely different to the ones I've seen

V.

 

[Mr Googler]

£2k to replace ?

 

[BruceK]

Oh b*****!

Worth speaking to specialists. Not a recommendation but the type of place I'm inferring to

Aluminium radiator repair

 

[Mr Googler]

I think a few fin ends missing is no great drama but must get it pressure tested now incase there’s a pin hole caused by the acid.

if you don’t, you could suck seawater through the engine when it’s all back in place

 

[BruceK]

I think a few fin ends missing is no great drama but must get it pressure tested now incase there’s a pin hole caused by the acid.

if you don’t, you could suck seawater through the engine when it’s all back in place

Now you're bordering on drama queen. Keep this up and you'll be relegated to the Marina Queen division. Did you pressure test yours after using Rydlym? Same stuff, bit of red dye, marine label? I know there is a comfort factor there, but it's delusional.

 

[BruceK]

https://www.rydlymemarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/RYDLYME-MARINE-SDS-1112017.pdf

 

[Mr Googler]

Now you're bordering on drama queen. Keep this up and you'll be relegated to the Marina Queen division. Did you pressure test yours after using Rydlym? Same stuff, bit of red dye, marine label? I know there is a comfort factor there, but it's delusional.

book of words says to pressure test from memory.....and yes I did!???

 

[jon and michie]

Right I have some pics of the Oil cooler (I will post pics of the after cooler in 1/2 hour I wish I had read your post thoroughly Bruce)

The mating faces had slight corrosion on them particularly on the at the end near the front of the engine.
I have cleaned up the housing and its ends ready for the O rings.



Now as for the Core - Do I dip the entire unit in the brick cleaner ?

 

[BruceK]

book of words says to pressure test from memory.....and yes I did!???

There is a berth with your name on it right next to Roy's on B leg. You'll be happy there with all the other compulsive fettlers and obsessive boat polishers

 

[jon and michie]

Right her are the after cooler pics - they are one of each side and one showing the plug.
what would be the best course of action with regards to the fins ?
jon