This past weekend I was installing my new Banks Techincooler in my 03 Lb7 and was quite surprised when i pulled the stock intercooler out and saw that about 25% or more of my rad was plugged solid with a material that resembled thick dryer lint. There were also bugs and feathers completely plugging the cooling fins up. I keep the engine bay of my truck pretty clean and quite often use the garden hose to spray the oil-a/c-intercooler and radiator out from both sides removing bugs and other foriegn material.

This might be a saturday maintenance task others may be interested to do before we hit the hot summer days. To pull the stock intercooler to gain clearance and replace it would take about 2.5 - 3 hours to do. I pulled out as much I could by hand and then flushed every square inch of the rad out from the engine bay side. I would imagine my engine temps will drop slightly :)!

Here are some pics of the debris plugging the rad, a couple of the technicooler and oem intercooler side by side and some of the final installation. Notice on the last picture the gasket that instals between the rad support and the shroud. This shows how much thicker the technicooler is over stock.

I couldn't believe it either when I pulled mine. It ran much cooler on mountain passes after the cleaning. I wonder if a screen on the front of the rad would help or hinder the flow? I know of a few old timers that used to put the fine mesh screen in the front of the radiator.

Rick

I couldn't believe it either when I pulled mine. It ran much cooler on mountain passes after the cleaning. I wonder if a screen on the front of the rad would help or hinder the flow? I know of a few old timers that used to put the fine mesh screen in the front of the radiator.

Rick

The original owner of my truck did that and when I peeled mine down last summer to check it out, it was clean all the way through.

Were you able to remove the intercooler without taking out the condensor coil and transmission cooler? If you were was there anything special to getting it out and were you referencing any instuctions for removal?

Thanks,
Brad

Few bucks worth of fiberglass screen door screen on mine since new.

Large grasshoppers and assorted other carnage since.

** PRICELESS **

If you go online to Banks power website you can download the installation instructions to remove the intercooler. It was not hard to do at all. You do not have to disconnect the tranny cooler lines. You just have to lift it out of the mounts and pull it aside.

Jaris

oh wow...born and raised in the 'wack....head back there every month to see the family....great place and great corn..lol....

nice truck and it is amazing how much crap is in there....

kgt, well stop in some time, I'd love to see your 2010!

If you go online to Banks power website you can download the installation instructions to remove the intercooler. It was not hard to do at all. You do not have to disconnect the tranny cooler lines. You just have to lift it out of the mounts and pull it aside.

Jaris


Thanks, the instructions look great! Were you able to get to the majority of the radiator to clean it out with the intercooler out of the way? Everyone keeps telling me that you need to remove the radiator to clean it and I think thats nuts...

Jarasic

So how has the new Banks intercooler worked out? Is there a noticeable difference in the truck's performance or cooling or ?? What improvement did you expect and did you get what you expected? Did you install only the intercooler or other components from Banks at the same time?

I think that when I do the EGR bypass, I will pull the intercooler out and clean the oil out of it. Was your stock intercooler coated with oil? I've read that they can get pretty clogged and cause the intercooler to work as well as they could.

That leads to a good question: Whats the best way to clean an intercooler?

I bought the intercooler for $950 from a guy on DP who happened to live 30 mins away from me. It was new in the original box. I noticed lower egt's (around 150*+ during some conditions). I have been doing my mods one at a time and notice gains each time I do something else. I didn't notice any oil in my boost tubes or intercooler. I did the pcv re-route when I got the truck and my truck has no egr. I do know what oil you are talking about though. i just did a bunch of upgrades to my buddies LBZ and had to remove the drivers side lower boot and the oil was litteraly dripping out as I installed his new BD manifold. EGR block and pcv re-route is a must!.

Jaris

Thanks, the instructions look great! Were you able to get to the majority of the radiator to clean it out with the intercooler out of the way? Everyone keeps telling me that you need to remove the radiator to clean it and I think thats nuts...

Yes I was able to get it all clean. I used my garden hose sprayer and put it directly against the fins and moved it slowly around the rad (each side). It slowly broke the crap down and I could see the dirty water and debris running out.

As for cleaning oil out of the intercooler, I would think an aluminium safe de-greaser/solvent in it (sloshed around, dumped out and continued until it looks clean then maybe rinse whatever solvent residue out with water) and then stand it on end and blow it out from the top with the blower attachment on a shop vac for a while to make sure its dry. While it's blowing out you could be cleaning the rad.....Might work?

Awesome! I was hoping I would be able to do that with the radiator.

Sounds like a solid plan to me. I'll prob just use carb cleaner. Thanks again for the help.

Brad

RV bug off works good on the radiator, wet fins, spray liberally with bug off and let sit for 5. Stuff comes flyin outta there when sprayed from the engine side. I now have the summer screen buttoned on the grill. Used to use aluminum window screen in my jeeps.