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« Last post by Richard Good on October 09, 2024, 06:22:43 AM »
I may have posted about this before, but here goes again. My Beaver is a rear radiator setup. The coolant radiator sits directly behind the intercooler and there is no access to the gap between them. I have read many posts about how this gap gets plugged up leading to expensive radiator removal and cleaning. Over several years my engine temps started to creep up when under heavier load. I used degreaser and simple green to clean the engine side of the intercooler with little understanding it was having no impact on the coolant radiator behind it. I replaced the thermostats in case they were the culprits with no difference. 2 years ago after reading about an expensive radiator cleaning bill I hit on the idea of using a cable tie and laboriously pushing it through each opening of the radiator. On realising how many of the tube passages through the radiator were blocked, I used a bottle of Awesome Orange and a garden hose from the back of the coach to try and blow through from the back. This worked, and my next trip through the West Virginia mountains resulted in mostly normal temperatures. As the air flow through both the intercooler and radiator is increased, this has also led to lower intercooler air temperatures. There are several small drain holes in the plate at the base of the radiator and intercooler which I have had to clear of debris which has fallen down inside. Since then I randomly check the passages from both the intercooler and the rear of the radiator side using this method. I clean both using a hose and a citrus based degreaser and clean out the drain holes at the bottom. When moving West this spring, we drove across Interstate 90 and even climbing over the continental divide, passing all the trucks( admittedly I was down to 45 to 50 mph) my coolant temperature climbed to about 215 degrees with prolonged climbing, but that was it. I just recently cleaned both sides again and found a few more plugged tubes, but basically this is no longer an issue and all it took was some Awesome Orange from Dollar Tree, a garden hose with a nozzle attachment and an electric cable tie.
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