johninar

I pulled the radiator today. It's full of grass, oil dry etc. I've tried blowing with air, and using water. I can't get it clean.
Suggestions?

ICaughtVetteFever

What did you use the blow air through it with? A good compressor should have no problem cleaning anything off. You can use a soft brush too, the one I got from home depot for heating ducts lets me clean it on the car.

AU N EGL

I went to Lowe's and bought a long thin brush used to clean dry vents.

Between this brush and a high pressure air hose with a long thin metal wand, I can gets lot of crap, sand, dirt, grass, and other things out.

freefall

I found a garden hose with a high pressure nozzle to work the best...still couldn't get everything out, but the water worked much better than air. I shy'd away from using a pressure washer though, to not bend anything.

Bill Dearborn

I paid a shop to clean mine while I cleaned the A/C condenser in the car. They guy at the shop did several things to get the oil dry and rubber out. First he dropped it about 8 inches on its face. This got a bunch out, then he hit it with compressed air, then he dropped it again, then he used an ice pick to clean and straighten the fins, then he dropped it again followed by more compressed air followed by the ice pick treatment again, more compressed air followed by the ice pick until no more dirt moved forward in the fins. There wasn't much grass in the radiator but it was filled with oil dry and rubber from the track.

He told me to basically do the same with the condenser although I couldn't drop it. I used water from the rear, compressed air and the ice pick and repeated the sequence about 5 times to get it almost clean. The oil dry is especially miserable as it doesn't blow out very well (the air will move it forward in the fins but will not blow most of it out) and a pick is usually the only way to get it out. What amazed me was how the oil dry could get through the condenser and into the radiator fins if it took so much force to get it out of the condenser fins. Condenser also had big gobs (quarter size) of gooey rubber blocking it in some places.

Bill

johninar

Thanks everyone for the replies. Some good suggestions.

I may try the "drop" method.
Our data center guys suggested using a condenser cleaning solution they use for our Equipment condensers. My air compressor is set for 125 lbs and I don't think I should go much above that. I found a thread warning about too much pressure pushing the fins over.

Funny thing about projects like this. Now that the car is up on stands I'm replacing a couple of wheel studs, and since I have my stainless brake lines I'm doing that as well. And since I'm doing that I am ordering new front calipers (too much pad taper). It never ends does it??

johninar

I've spent about 3 hours cleaning the AC condenser. resorted to a toothpick to get all the oil dry and small particles out. Next time I will just trade the car for a new one.

Using a combination of several methods above, I have the radiator pretty clean. Now if I can just get all this back where it came from.

Kinkajou

I found that using a waterpick ( for dental use) is very usefull. Problem is that you have to let it rest for a while before starting again or you can burn the little electric motor in it. If there was some kind of industrial grade waterpick, it would be just great.

lbarnard

I use the brush that is for cleaning under your refrigerator. It is tapered and gets a lot of the debris out; do that first then hose or whatever. Bring it to the track and check at the end of your day at the track. Lowes or Home Depot sells these.