I did my cooler a couple days ago on my 07. It was 99% plugged, shining a bright light thru the opposite end only revealed 4 pin holes that I could see thru. Bypass tube going to turbo was very clean tho, everything was dry thankfully and high air pressure from a 1/8" id tube connected to the air chuck blew out alot. I will attribute the dry and easy clean up to using the Redline for the last 8-10K miles, atleast thats my opinion. I did notice the back end at the bypass valve was very powdery and much easier to clean with air only. Closer to the EGR valve was caked and more difficult to clean up. I will recommend trying to clean as much as you can with air, and slight tapping with a solid mallet or ball peen hammer just enuff to make it ring, makes alot of small chunks fall out. I made up a 6" piece of PVC with cap to fill up with simple green full strength to soak in, takes 2 gallons to fully submerge. A piece of 5" SDR might work, make sure you seal off the coolant openings. After 90 minutes of soak, ( 30 minutes would've done about the same) I flushed with a hose and spray. Then tried some fresh simple green and it only removed a little more. At this time you could see thru about 75% or better. Then I switched to Krud Kutter which I used for grill or stove cleaning ( great stuff for soot). Its very safe and biodegradable , at this point I was just spraying it into the fins and letting it run thru. A LOT of black came out, so I kept spraying till the color became light brown to clear. Did a final flush with plenty of water and then the air nozzle again. Then the light test and you can see very clearly the details of the fins all the way thru. Small pieces will show up easy. Total clean time about 3 hours for the cooler itself, but it came out shinny as new. I also cleaned both ends, EGR housing and bypass housing. Pulling the bypass valve and around the valve flap was the only semi difficult spot, but what was tuff was very thin not caked. The only thing I did not remove was the back pressure sensor, I thought it was a coolant temp sensor, my mistake. I was surprised how easy simple green cleaned everything up perfect with just a toothbrush. No hard scrubbing at all. I would say that the difficulty level on this is pretty low. ( I was able to do it) Took me about 4-5 hours at my leisure. Soak time is the majority and being very thorough. I would say its like doing your EGR valve 3 times in a row. Its only 12 bolts to remove plus 4 for the EGR ( nothing tricky and requires no cussing), about 1 quart of coolant comes out and you can catch almost all of that pretty easy , ( just think about what order to pull each hose off to put in your catch can). A "Gear Wrench" (brand) ratchet box end wrench 8mm and 10mm is very helpful for tight areas and perfect fit for those male torx bolts. If anyone buys the female torx bits, I highly recommend 1/4" drive as 3/8" drive sockets are too fat for many of the bolts ( very tight areas). Atleast my black snap-on ones are and most of these bolt torque specs are in in/lbs. I would not remove the front bolt on the EGR housing facing or closest to the radiator, it should be left in while removing and reinstalling the cooler, as its too long to pull out without removing fan shroud. The exhaust bypass tube connected to the bypass housing going to turbo was very clean and so was the exhaust temp sensor in my case. I also would recommend inspecting with a plumbers inspection camera or equivalent via the EGR hole every 30K miles maybe less. Both of my cameras fit good enuff to see the fins. Both cameras were the Rigid brand, micro see snake, and mini inspection camera. Color view helps. Van ran very noticeably better.
I unfortunately got my hopes up real high after seeing how plugged it was, I thought for sure this would be the fix all for my truck. The best thing is I know how clean everything is and I know my EGR system is in like new condition and have eliminated this component from being a problem in diagnosis. I will suspect many others will greatly benefit from this, or even solve their problems. The EGR alone is not enuff.
I have plenty of pictures, but not sure if I will be able to resize them to be usable, will see... it added quite a bit of snap and power back to the van. No more hesitation or jerky situations.
I unfortunately got my hopes up real high after seeing how plugged it was, I thought for sure this would be the fix all for my truck. The best thing is I know how clean everything is and I know my EGR system is in like new condition and have eliminated this component from being a problem in diagnosis. I will suspect many others will greatly benefit from this, or even solve their problems. The EGR alone is not enuff.
I have plenty of pictures, but not sure if I will be able to resize them to be usable, will see... it added quite a bit of snap and power back to the van. No more hesitation or jerky situations.
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