Cleaning out oil cooler after bearing failure?
 

are there methods for cleaning out an oil cooler after having bearing failure? or perhaps is it a professional job? Id rather reuse this one, than have to buy a new one.

Bawbers and I were just talking about this over the weekend... apparently the old school trick was to soak/flush them with kerosene then flush 'em out with oil.

We were talking about it because the oil temp in my bimmer is too high, figure there is buildup in my oil lines or oil cooler..

i could probably funnel it in there and slosh it around. repeat a few times til it comes out clear.

If your cheap use water then a dose or two of Kerosene and oil.

:suspect:

how did you know. Well, that would get more pressure going through...

Fluid is fluid. Normally you would want to flush your coolers with what your normal fluid is. Pressurize the system and flush away. Have to have some sort of filters to catch the bad stuff. Now the kerosene will cut the oil sludge that is in the cooler and flush it out when you dump it. All those microscopic pieces are the hard ones to get but it will work.

Water will do some of this. Not as well and will mostly float over the oil sludge that is built up inside. But it will get the big chunks out and then on to the other stuff.

I flushed many a hyd system on jets and god knows how many times on the radar cooling systems. There was a little easier since we had GSE to support the flush and fill.

yea i have a bucket, a hose, and a 5 gallon gas can. maybe a funnel

Trying to offer a good time?

mmmmmaybe

crap I forgot this isn't the lounge.... Sorry.

:rofl:

I used a cheap universal fuel pump and a large pan filled with a few quarts of kerosene to circulate kerosene through the cooler till the fluid coming out the other end was clear. Seemed to work well and I didn't waste much kerosene either.

I've used mineral spirits before as well, flush it good and call it a day. I would do an oil change within 500 miles after running everything though, just as added (cheap) insurance...

^ Good tip, I did the same. I checked my filter, cutting it open and found brass in the filter element even after flushing the crap out of the cooler. It was that way for a couple oil changes, gradually cleaner each change. I guess the flushing only gets most of the debris.

Where did you get the pump you used Zach? I had complete bearing failure due to (unknowingly) dumping all my oil while driving down the highway... I'm thinking that a flush like what you did would be just the ticket for me!