Cleaning radiator fins?!?

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SumpChump

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I saw my neighbor with his hood up on his corolla and a hose and bathroom brush so i walked over. He said he was cleaning his a/c and rad fins with dish soap and the brush because it helps the car run cooler. We have bugs here but nothing like this southern love bug phenomenon i hear about. So i think its more mental.

Is this a real thing? Are there real rad brushes for this?
 
To do this with anything aggressive will risk bending the fins. The fins are made with aluminum just slightly thicker than the foil your wife has in the kitchen drawer.

Getting bugs out will help cooling, but any scrubbing might negate the benefit if the fins are even slightly damaged.
 
I had a very hot running muscle car years ago and had to result to every advantage I could find. I kept my recored 3 row radiator scrupulously clean. In fact it came out every year for a full cleaning, inside and out. To ensure that organics and debris didn't reduce air flow, I put a flexible piece of screening (cost 25c) in front of it. I'd shake it off weekly. Kept the bugs out too. These days I still use one on my Camaro, though the tortuous flow path up to the radiator collects very little floating material.

Once you straighten out the fins, you shouldn't have to do it again. I've done it with numerous metal radiators from the 1960's to 1970's without incident....most of them being 25-30 yrs old....but, never with the newer all aluminum radiators.
 
Bugs are bugs, and don't belong in or on a radiator or AC. Regardless, of the kind they are, over time, they can accumulate and cause problems. Over the past 40 years or so I get ahead of them by buying a small roll of fiberglass window screening, cut one piece to fit, and attach over the front of the radiator using locking ties. The bugs hit the screen, dry up and fall off...never reaching the radiator or AC. No clogging, no over-heating ever. Problem solved before it can begin.
 
If I ever feel like cleaning the bugs out, I just use a hose and spray the rad from behind with fairly low pressure water.

Honestly, do it mainly to get rid of cooking bug smell. Echt.
 
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If the radiators are so stuff with bugs that it's effecting cooling performance, then yea, I can see how cleaning the radiator will help restore performance but if he's out there weekly just scrubbing the rad, that's weird and a bit too anal for me. I have bought many used cars with 10 year + old bugs in the radiator... no heat issues.
 
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
... To ensure that organics and debris didn't reduce air flow, I put a flexible piece of screening (cost 25c) in front of it. I'd shake it off weekly. Kept the bugs out too.
Once you straighten out the fins, you shouldn't have to do it again. I've done it with numerous metal radiators from the 1960's to 1970's without incident....most of them being 25-30 yrs old....but, never with the newer all aluminum radiators.


I do the same thing and got my idea from the big rigs. All my A/C condenser/radiators fins are in like new condition...and consequently I have never had an engine cooling issue. It is one of THE FIRST modification I perform after acquiring a vehicle.

Radiators as we all know are only effective if air can flow through it. A few hundred mosquitoes, flies, moths grasshoppers over the course of a summer jamming up in the fins really add up to a potentially significant amount of reduced airflow. Having a screen in front of the radiator literally screens all incoming objects out and the dead bug corpses just dry up and fall down off the screen leaving the radiator clean and free to do its job. Most of the time the screen cleans itself.

Straightening radiator/ AC condenser fins is an arduous, time consuming process that should be done with radiator fin comb (yes there is such a thing) or a plastic tipped tool, never metal.
 
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I've used a soft brush attachment on a vacuum cleaner to clean off my intercooler before...when it was cooled down, of course. The vanes haven't seemed to pick up any damage.
 
Yes, air-side fouling of the radiator is a real thing. I was having trouble with my diesel Ram running hot when I was towing with it in Louisiana earlier this year. The cooling fan was on all the time, and the coolant temp was hanging around 230F. I looked at the front of the radiator, which is behind the AC condenser, and there was a thin layer of fur (dust clinging to road grime) on it that had built up over the years. There was not enough room behind the condenser for me to get a brush down there, so I went to the local WalMart and bought an $8 shotgun cleaning kit that had a brass bristle brush that was about 1" diameter. This did the trick for cleaning the fur off the front of the radiator. I also got behind the radiator with a garden hose and sprayed water through the air fins, back to front. This flushed out a LOT of garbage. The truck ran much cooler after these cheap and simple operations.
 
I would still clean the condenser on a yearly basis. As seen in the video I linked above, the condenser being dirty will cause AC pressures to be higher and affect the life of the compressor. A quick rinse would do wonders to keep your AC system happy for years to come. The one in the video didnt even look that bad.
 
Originally Posted By: SaturnIonVue
Bugs are bugs, and don't belong in or on a radiator or AC. Regardless, of the kind they are, over time, they can accumulate and cause problems. Over the past 40 years or so I get ahead of them by buying a small roll of fiberglass window screening, cut one piece to fit, and attach over the front of the radiator using locking ties. The bugs hit the screen, dry up and fall off...never reaching the radiator or AC. No clogging, no over-heating ever. Problem solved before it can begin.
Right on Saturn. I made a screen out of the same stuff, used grommets mad for tarping in the screen and mounted some wire clips to secure screen with ty-raps. Condenser looks like new after thirteen years.
 
When I replaced my timing belt last year, I decided to clean my radiator while the fans were out of the way.

I picked up a bottle of coil cleaner at walmart, hit both sides of the radiator, let it soak for about 10 minutes, and then rinsed it off. Seemed to do a really good job, personally I'd stick to something like this instead of using a brush.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Frost-King-Air-Conditioner-Foaming-Cleaner-19-oz/20703057
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
I often presure wash radiators and condensers to fix a car that runs hot or an ac thats not cooling well
.

I found out the hard way that using a pressure washer is a really bad idea after cleaning an aluminum race car radiator. Spent almost a week straightening all 1400 fins I had flattened on the front, and backside with a pressure washer!
 
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