Long story short, I am in the process of swapping an engine in a 04.5 due to excessive blow-by. It appears to have been caused by a faulty filter seal. There is a large quantity of dust in the intercooler and pipes.

How do you clean the inside of an intercooler?

 

I had a turbo leaking oil in one of my trucks and it coated everything in the intake system with oil so I pulled it out and poured a 5 gal pail of lacquer thinner (gun wash) into it, swished it around a few times and than drained it out and let the rest evaporate over night before reinstalling it. Cost me $30 but I saved the thinner for cleaning parts after.

 

just cleaned one from a rollover truck. poured buckeye blue degreaser in it and sloshed it around and run a steam pressure washer through it. seemed to work pretty good.

 

turbo went on the 03 used cleaning solvent from the parts house

 

WARNINGO NOT use mineral spirits, combustion cleaners, flammable cleaners, or
equivalents to clean the charge air cooler and hoses. Residue from these
chemicals may enter the engine combustion chamber, cause the engine
to over rev, and may damage the engine. clean the Charge Air Cooler and connecting hoses with a non-caustic
solvent (i.e. dish soap or laundry detergent and water). I use Cascade works really well.

 

Just get you some simple green stuff, hot water and pour it in, then wash it out good. If you have access to a hot water pressure washer you can clean it faster. No big deal, just do not use anything flammable....bad things man!

 

The PSD IC in my Dodge was full of oil from a bad turbo seal when I got it. I did exactly what DragonSlayer suggests with good results. A couple passes with the Simple Green, then some heavy rinsing, then blew it out with compressed air in both directions and left it to drain overnight.