products for cleaning heat exchanger

[lordofthepies]

That's great to know, thanks guys. Citric acid it is.

[HDAV]

What concentration of citric acid% how many g or kg per 10l? Would you use?

[jeffstevens763@g]

i put 1kg/ plastic dustbin full but mine is a new engine to be honest its just like descaling your kettle the heavier the deposit the more you'll need get a bit of limestone and test your mix.

add to water not water to it

[craig_c]

Today was the day! After removing the pipes with the heat exchanger in situ it was very clear that the unit was going to have to be removed and inspected properly.



Bringing it out of the boat I removed the end caps to see the extent of the build up





As for cleaning it I went with Beamishken's suggestion of the ebay brick cleaner and it is wonderful yet frightening stuff. I put one end of the unit back together and a bung in the outlet. I placed the whole shebang in a builders bucket and poured away.

Its amazing how fast this stuff works. Make sure you are outside and have full protective gear on. It bubbles up very violently and you can see a lot of vapour coming off so I would suggest you stand up wind. I am very impressed with the results and as he mentioned it only took 5 mins. One 5 liter drum was more than enough to complete the task.




Next stop the intercooler!

[Bushrider]

When was the last time the heat exchanger was cleaned ?

[craig_c]

Originally Posted by Bushrider

When was the last time the heat exchanger was cleaned ?

Pass...

The boat is over serviced and had its timing belt changed twice in 12 years but I think this has just been missed as its never caused an issue during normal everyday running.

Only at WOT would you see a rise in temps which is very rare for Crusader to ever do