copied from ARE.com intercooler site;-
"Intercooler Maintenance
An intercooler that has been in service for a couple of years will definitely provide more cooling if it is cleaned properly. That is, soaked in a degreaser bath to remove the interior oil film that has accumulated (which may be ever so thin with a new turbo), then power flushed with water. The exterior fins should sprayed with a proper aluminium acidic cleaner to remove the surface oxidation that will have formed. Both the oil film & oxidation inhibit the transference of heat to the ambient air.
If not sure of the proper procedure & products to use, we strongly recommend having this done by a professional business.
Please see the below picture, which is a 9 month old intercooler that was soaked in a water based degreaser mixed with kero. The caustic base of the degreaser attacked the alloy & rendered the core completely useless, a new core being the only alternative - expensive mistake. Specific acid cleaners must be used on the external cooling fins as the average thickness is only 0.08mm - that's paper thin. Any bent over fins should be straightened so full air flow is allowed through the core. Last word. Intercooling a forced induction intake charge is a compromise. We direct all our energies at minimising the negative compromises & maximising the positive compromises!"
Commrcial type Air conditioning air movement heat exchanger cores are cleaned externally with an aluminium suitable acid and a variety of softish brushes to agitate off the surface corrosion and seeing as the cores look almost identical I see no reason not to follow this procedure externally for car based cores. I also wonder if a 2 or 3 stage internal cleaning procedure should be adopted.
1 - clean in ultrasonic degreasing bath
2 - power flush
3 - final clean with fresh petrol
just suggestions, if it is that bad then it may need to soak for some time.
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IIRC Rene used petrol to flush out a WTA IC on his ST185CS but had to repeat the process four or five times before it remained clear(ish) I was wondering if you could use something like a chemical bath like you use for cleaning old engine blocks.
