480CE Aftercooler DIY

[Nicholas]

I had new aftercoolers installed about 2.5 years ago, so its time for them to come off for their first service. They were ordered from here, so they should have been greased up properly, etc., and not to bad to service (fingers crossed), so I’m planning on doing as much as possible myself.

In terms of soaking the cores – is it worth taking them to a radiator shop to have them soaked and pressure tested? Or can I just soak them in simple green, and skip the pressure testing since they are less than 3 years old?

Most of the use has been in the Chesapeake bay, which in my area is about 1/3 the salinity of the ocean, if that matters at all.

Topic

[Rob Schepis]

Nice. Serviced the Seaboard way and brackish water. Do them every few years and they will last forever. I think mine are on their 18th season – also in brackish water and proper servicing every few years. (And mine are the aluminum finned type.)

[Nicholas]

First core is out. Wasn’t too bad.

[Nicholas]

Do the heat exchangers and oil coolers typically need to come off and be disassembled and soaked as well on the same interval as the aftercooler? Or is a back flush in place per the o&m manual instructions usually sufficient for those?

[Nicholas]

ok thanks will do. i’ve already ordered the service kit and its supposed to arrive next week.

i re-read the article on using brake cleaner and simple green – so will follow that protocol on the cleaning.

thanks!

[Rob Schepis]

Start by pulling the coolers, removing the cores and posting pictures of all. You should not need the services of a radiator shop at all. You’re only out of pocket should be the purchase of the o-rings and grease. They should come apart without issue, clean them up and reassemble with new o-rings and grease. If you wish to pressure test the re-assembled units there are several posts on this forum about doing such simply by capping off the ports and lightly pressurizing the units … you can search those out.

[Author]

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