I have my 2.0L engine apart and one thing I want to do is clean the engine oil cooler that mounts to the side of the bellhousing. Specifically, I'm referring to the oil side of it, not the antifreeze side. You can't get your fingers or any cleaning tools inside it. So you can only rely on filling it with a cleaning solution, slowly sloshing it around, and then repeatedly rinsing it, to ensure no contaminants are left floating around. So far, I've filled it with a water/degreaser mixture about half-dozen times. I've then drained it and rinsed it with the garden hose sprayer. Then I found a bottle of clean engine oil and have filled the cooler and drained it a few times, to hopefully further remove residue and contaminants. Each time, the oil comes out milky, indicating it's removing contaminants. I'm curious if anybody has tips on a better chemical to safely flush it out. My guess is that some sort of oil-based cleaner (so that the remaining residue is a close match to the actual engine oil) would do the trick, but I'm not sure what that might be.

(and yes, after startup, I plan to run the engine a couple hundred miles and then change the oil)

Thanks in advance!
M Ridzon

 

The milky stuff your looking at is the water mixed with the oil. Take the thing and put it in a bucket of straight mineral spirits and move it around. If you have a cheap fish tank air pump you can put the hose in one end and let in bubble for a while. Keep the hose to the bottom and stand the cooler up. That will force the water out of the cooler along with any dirty oil.

 

Mineral spirits sounds like a great idea! Thanks for the tip!

 

See if you can get a cheap fish tank pump. Maybe a friend ? Maybe Ebay ?
Here $7.00 free shipping. With the U.S. plug on it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fish-Aquari...-/223343257052

 

I conjured up a similar idea. I have a small air gun that connects to my air hose. And it "unscrews" to allow a metered amount of air flow out of it. So I'm going to find a scrap piece of hose to slip over its end and then immerse the other end of the hose in the mineral spirits in the oil cooler. I'll unscrew it a tiny bit and just let the air seep out, enough to create bubbles for an hour or so. It'll create the same effect, and I won't have to stand there and babysit it.

 

 

Whoa! Steep price! Haha! I think I'll stick with my OEM one. Haha!