Radiator and Charge Air Cooler Cleaning

[markletheridge]

I have a 2008 Fleetwood Discovery, Freightliner Chasis, 350 hp Cummins.  I had overheating issues on my last trip, primarily on grade. Temperature increased when turbo kicked in hard. If I kept the turbo pressure below 20 psi temp was OK but that is hard on a grade. 

I read a number of posts about cleaning the charge air cooler and the radiator from the inside using Extreme Simple Green and normal water pressure. I go offroad a lot so there is a good chance of a buildup.

I accessed the engine from under the bed but can't get close to the radiator area easily. Is there possibly additional access through the rear closet? I did find a screw like in the other opening under the bed. Or am I just going to need to be a worm and crawl over the motor to it?

Any insight would be helpful.

 

 

 

[dickandlois]

8 hours ago, markletheridge said:

I have a 2008 Fleetwood Discovery, Freightliner Chasis, 350 hp Cummins.  I had overheating issues on my last trip, primarily on grade. Temperature increased when turbo kicked in hard. If I kept the turbo pressure below 20 psi temp was OK but that is hard on a grade. 

I read a number of posts about cleaning the charge air cooler and the radiator from the inside using Extreme Simple Green and normal water pressure. I go offroad a lot so there is a good chance of a buildup.

I accessed the engine from under the bed but can't get close to the radiator area easily. Is there possibly additional access through the rear closet? I did find a screw like in the other opening under the bed. Or am I just going to need to be a worm and crawl over the motor to it?

Any insight would be helpful.

 

 

 

The key is to clean them every year. How long has it been sense the last cleaning job? 

Is your coach setup with the rear discharge system? Should that be the case and you drive off road as mentioned. The best way to clean things would be to have it steam cleaned. Then do the yearly Extreme  Simple Green cleaning and through in the steam cleaning every other year.

You might try to minimize the heat by dropping down a gear or to to increase the RPMs and lower the  turbo boost.

Cleaning the CAC and Radiator can require flexibility and a small waist.

Rich.

Edited August 26, 2020 by jleamont

[markletheridge]

Thanks too all so far. Rich, do you have access through the closet area or just the hole under the bed area?

[dickandlois]

15 hours ago, markletheridge said:

Thanks too all so far. Rich, do you have access through the closet area or just the hole under the bed area?

Got lucky, The engine is directly under the bed in our case. Things depend on where they placed the large ward room or bath in some cases.

Rich.

As a side note! I get to the inside surface of the CAC from under the Coach. Using a small pilot drill, placed a pilot hole in the lower right-hand corner of the fan shroud( That is the passenger side) - then used a hole 3/4 in. hole saw(to drill a hole on the curved corner of the shroud) to allow me to use a engine cleaning wand to spray the  aluminium friendly Simple Green at 80 to 100 psi in the hardest corner to clean and carefully wiggled into the engine compartment. Working not to damage a number of hoses, wires ,AC compressor lines, and chassis air lines. to wash the fan and the remaining CAC area available because of the fan blade pitch / angle.

This was done with the coach aired up, park break on and engine off. A wet dirty job and safety googles required.

Edited August 26, 2020 by DickandLois

[wildebill308]

7 hours ago, markletheridge said:

I have a 2008 Fleetwood Discovery, Freightliner Chasis, 350 hp Cummins.  I had overheating issues on my last trip, primarily on grade. Temperature increased when turbo kicked in hard. If I kept the turbo pressure below 20 psi temp was OK but that is hard on a grade. 

I read a number of posts about cleaning the charge air cooler and the radiator from the inside using Extreme Simple Green and normal water pressure. I go offroad a lot so there is a good chance of a buildup.

I accessed the engine from under the bed but can't get close to the radiator area easily. Is there possibly additional access through the rear closet? I did find a screw like in the other opening under the bed. Or am I just going to need to be a worm and crawl over the motor to it?

Any insight would be helpful.

My last coach had acess through the closet floor but you still could not get good acess because of the fan shroud. The battery compartment was where the air filter was If you took the filter out you could get some acess from the side.

Bill

[markletheridge]

thanks. guess i will put on my paint suit, goggles, gloves and get to work.

 

 

[markletheridge]

So I am ready to do the CAC and radiator cleaning. I got the Simple Green Extreme. Does anyone have recommendations on mixing ratios for this? Bottle for general engine cleaning says 1 to 3 gallons of water. That seems a bit high.

saw another post somewhere of 1/13.

[rossboyer]

The 1/13 ratio is the ratio Simple Green Extreme states to use for aluminum. Don’t let it dry. Search for a lengthy post that I made detailing the process for a rear CAC/radiator cleaning. Side mounted should be very similar. 

[dickandlois]

4 hours ago, markletheridge said:

So I am ready to do the CAC and radiator cleaning. I got the Simple Green Extreme. Does anyone have recommendations on mixing ratios for this? Bottle for general engine cleaning says 1 to 3 gallons of water. That seems a bit high.

saw another post somewhere of 1/13.

Ross's information is a good base line mix, but it can be stronger. Kind of depends on how dirty the CAC and radiator are.

One does need to use water generously when flushing the system. Water pressure at 175 lbs should clear all the dirt and grease from the spaces in the fins. 

Then repeat the job each year to keep the system in top operating condition.

Rich.

The attached picture is of a unit that is way to dirty and often beyond repair.

 

[manholt]

Yep, that will set you back more than any bottle of SGE...Even letting Cummins clean it, is cheaper than replacing!  

[rsbilledwards]

A mix of DAWN and hot water works well too.

[rossboyer]

Yes, Dawn will work, but if you check Dawn will corrode aluminum. I use to use Dawn and Simple Green mixture, but once it was suggested to me not use Dawn or Simple Green because they are corrosive, I now only use the 1/13 ratio of Simple Green Extreme. It is amazing the home remedies that are used without accurate analysis. 

[jleamont]

58 minutes ago, rossboyer said:

t is amazing the home remedies that are used without accurate analysis. 

Meet a guy once that washed his new Corvette with Cascade, only did that once, paint was destroyed. Slightly off topic but you are 100% correct.

[wildebill308]

But I saw someone use it on the internet.

Bill

[manholt]

Soap & hot water, pressure washer set at 400 PSI...works!  We keep a electric PW in bay, it can use hot water, 250-1,000 PSI. Very compact.

[rsbilledwards]

True, but who would think that DAWN was corrosive to Aluminum?????  Advice taken and will check it out!

 

[wildebill308]

The problem is most dishwashing detergents are fairly alkaline, probably at pH 11 or 12 or so and that will cause corrosion on aluminium. The key is to do a realey good rince.

Bill

[manholt]

KISS !  😎

[rls7201]

Dawn is a famous label that produces cleaning products. According to the Materials Safety Data Sheets, the pH level of Dawn dish soap is between 8.7 and 9.3 which makes this washing product moderately basic.Jan 11, 2020

 

If aluminium is exposed to very strong acid or alkaline environments outside the pH range 4 to 9, violent corrosion will occur in the form of metal pitting.

 

Richard

Edited August 30, 2020 by RLS7201

[rsbilledwards]

Five, I don't know that you are missing anything. If your system is running fine/ cooling as it should no need to worry. I would find a borescope and where you can, stick it up from underneath to the front of the radiator, generally in the corners and look see if there is any build up of debris.Then you will know which action to take.  THey are available on Amazon and will work with your smartphone.

[wildebill308]

The problem got better when they had to stop venting the crankcase blowby to the atmosphere. See all the post about "Slobber tubes".Not having a oily film to catch dirt and dust helped the radiator and CAC to stay clean. They still can get plugged up and it is in between the CAC and radiator where you will find the majority of the problem.

Bill 

[jleamont]

2 hours ago, WILDEBILL308 said:

They still can get plugged up and it is in between the CAC and radiator where you will find the majority of the problem.

YUP, and you don’t usually know you have a problem until you have a problem. The majority of the time it’s years of build that if routine cleaning had been performed there would be no build up. 

[TimeTraveler]

Kerosene would work well but how much would it take then the cleanup. Locl Fire Department in City where Mom and Dad lived washed the fire trucks with it. That was in the seventies and maybe the just the one fire house.

[rsbilledwards]

Time Traveler, If i remember back in those days at least before all the environmental issues truckers used to do what the fire department was doing to keep their rigs clean and SHINEY, It was the quick and dirty way so to speak of waxin the rig. Someone here will comment for sure to set us straight. 

[markletheridge]

I thought I would give an update after my cleaning chore. I had limited access from the under the bed and from the passenger side from underneath the coach. I used the engine cleaning wand at 90 PSI first with air only then with a 1/13 mixture of simple green extreme and did a thorough wash down afterwards. Without the wand, I could not have reached much of anything. Afterwards, I cleaned the same way from the back of the coach and rinsed until I did not see anything but clear water. I also got a fin kit and straightened some fins from the back side of the coach.

The result was a success in my opinion. I ran a similar route as I did when I had cooling problems. Outside air was about 5-6 degrees cooler. Prior to cleaning, temperature would range from 198 to high temp alarm which was 225 on my rig. The only way I could stay below 210 was to keep the turbo pressure below 20 PSI which is a slow climb on grade. After cleaning I ranged from 189 to 198 mostly and the maximum temperature I saw was 205 on an extended grade.

I go on a lot of dirt an caliche roads frequently so I guess I loaded the unit over time.

From now on I guess I will need to clean more frequently and for sure after I go on a long dirt or caliche road like I just did.