Heat exchanger cleaning

[Holy Shamolee]

I have taken my heat exchanger out. One end plate was leaking. Eaten away and will have to be replaced. While I have it out, I was thinking aboout dipping it in a bucket of muriatic acid that I have. Just wondering if it is too strong. Is there something else I should use. It is pretty clean, I can see through every tube but hell, while its out I think I should give it a little love. Just not sure if muriatic acid is love or not.

 

[Scott Danforth]

take it to a radiator shop
they will clean it, pressure test it and repair it if it needs it, all for a very little bit of money. they can also get new end caps and gaskets.

 

[FunInDuhSun]

When I went to do this I couldn’t find a radiator shop that would do it.
I used CLR cleaner in a bucket, did both of my Crusaders at the same time.
Took off the end caps and immersed the heat exchangers for a day, then carefully rodded out the tubes with a stiff wire. Put them back in the bucket for another 2 days, rinsed them completely and let them dry. Got new end caps, gaskets and caps.
I wanted to test them before re-installing, so I made plugs or caps (don’t remember which) for the inlets/ outlets. The tricky part was how to add pressure. I ended up drilling a hole in the old cap and adding a schrader valve using epoxy. Tested both of my units at 10 psi for 24 hours, both were good.

 

[Grub54891]

I clean the tubes with a gun cleaning brush.

 

[kvkon]

When I went to do this I couldn’t find a radiator shop that would do it.
I used CLR cleaner in a bucket, did both of my Crusaders at the same time.
Took off the end caps and immersed the heat exchangers for a day, then carefully rodded out the tubes with a stiff wire. Put them back in the bucket for another 2 days, rinsed them completely and let them dry. Got new end caps, gaskets and caps.
I wanted to test them before re-installing, so I made plugs or caps (don’t remember which) for the inlets/ outlets. The tricky part was how to add pressure. I ended up drilling a hole in the old cap and adding a schrader valve using epoxy. Tested both of my units at 10 psi for 24 hours, both were good.

I also fabbed up end caps from 1/4" SS plate and made gaskets from 1/16" nitrile material. The AL caps seem too flimsy to me.