radiator and after cooler cleaning

[mfancher]

Very easy job if you dont mind laying on your valve cover.
Just like all the posts say, 3-4 complete and thorough applications and garden hose sprayer flushes produces a huge amount of material. In my case, I think that I removed 14 years worth of grease and grime roaddirt mixture, well caked on aftercooler and radiator.
The issue here is that your after cooler block access to the forward side of your radiator...solution, use degreaser spray nozzle directed between the aftercooler and radiator, and apply degreaser to aft side of radiator to loosen the debris. FLUSH, FLUSH, AND FLUSH AGAIN AND AGAIN.
The reward, a MUCH cooler running engine, and proper heat transfer thru aftercooler.
Before and after pictures are attached.
Caterpillar wanted to remove the radiator and aftercooler and send to rad. shop for 11 hrs labor. Myself and helper, 3 hrs to clean.

[idroba]

When I had my 310 motorhome, it was a chronic marginal cooling situation, always on the top edge of overheating seriously. One day I bit the bullet and took the three radiators in front of the main one out (oil cooler, tranny cooler, and AC condenser). Wow, I could not believe how plugged up the main radiator was with cottonwood fluff, grease, and grasshopper parts as well as other bugs. A complete flush with a hose and careful power washing application and you could see through it. I put it back together and from that day on it never even came close to overheating, and the radiator fan only came on occasionally.

Funny thing is that the part of the main radiator you could see looked just fine, but the parts covered by the other coolers had almost no air flow.

[bnsonger47]

Thanks for sharing the photo and the hint to lie down on the valve cover. I have sprayed at it but haven't actually crawled into the well and done the deed. This next week I shall just as a preventative measure. My CAT 3126 ran on the cooler side of the gauge in our recent 34-day, 4,500-mile trek through a dozen states west of the Mississippi. Since there was a lot of dust on the LP tank and on other places I could see I figure it's time for some Dawn and a good flushing.

Speaking of Dawn, I'm assuming you've heard of Ultra Dawn - it's much better at getting the grease out. Lowe's has a 90 oz bottle available in some locations. Don't know about the competitors. Be sure to look for Ultra Dawn and not the standard Dawn Ultra which can be found in grocery stores, etc.

I haven't tried the Simple Green Motorsports. A guy on the CAT RV forum suggests it. It can be ordered directly from Simple Green Store since finding it is a real problem. The SG Motorsports comes in a 32 oz spray bottle whereas the Ultra Dawn comes in a normal bottle - no sprayer.