Flushing supercharger coolant system?

[Crazjtk]

I have to bleed my coolant system. The bleeder screws broke. The only way I could get the broken screws out was to drill, so now I have bits of plastic in my supercharger’s coolant jacket. Is there a way to flush those coolant channels out? Disconnect the front hoses and pour water in? Squirt water in the bleeder openings? Something?


In related news, I hope whoever decided to make those bleeder screws out of plastic has a very bad day.

[RoofRails]

I have to bleed my coolant system. The bleeder screws broke. The only way I could get the broken screws out was to drill, so now I have bits of plastic in my supercharger’s coolant jacket. Is there a way to flush those coolant channels out? Disconnect the front hoses and pour water in? Squirt water in the bleeder openings? Something?


In related news, I hope whoever decided to make those bleeder screws out of plastic has a very bad day.

Did you put the plugs back in and drive the vehicle with bits of plastic in the little end tanks ? If not, the best way to fix that would be to prime the coolant pump with the bleeder screws out. Put some rags out because it gets messy in a hurry. My pump is depinned, so it primes any time I hit the fob or open a door. I can't recall if the OEM pump control configuration acts in the same way.

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[ccssid]

I have to bleed my coolant system. The bleeder screws broke. The only way I could get the broken screws out was to drill, so now I have bits of plastic in my supercharger’s coolant jacket. Is there a way to flush those coolant channels out? Disconnect the front hoses and pour water in? Squirt water in the bleeder openings? Something?


In related news, I hope whoever decided to make those bleeder screws out of plastic has a very bad day.

start at about 20 minute mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc7u...dex=17&t=1192s

[SwankPeRFection]

I can't recall if the OEM pump control configuration acts in the same way.

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Audizine Forum mobile app

It does.

FYI to the OP, the water channels within the IC cores are very small/thin. The chance of plastic shavings flowing through them is pretty remote unless they’re super fine. All your shavings will be trapped in that back reservoir section if this is the case. Flush that out and you should be good.

Also, you guys need to start using the right sized phillips screw driver if you insist on bleeding your system that way and you won’t be stripping screws all the time.

[ccssid]

It does.

FYI to the OP, the water channels within the IC cores are very small/thin. The chance of plastic shavings flowing through them is pretty remote unless they’re super fine. All your shavings will be trapped in that back reservoir section if this is the case. Flush that out and you should be good.

Also, you guys need to start using the right sized phillips screw driver if you insist on bleeding your system that way and you won’t be stripping screws all the time.

^^^THIS, #4 phillips with a lot of downward pressure when unscrewing

[LowKeyLoki]

Same thing happened when I first bleed mine, tried hot screw driver method broke the tops off. Ended up using drill bit slightly smaller diameter to drill out remaining plastic and just flushed the shavings out by activating the secondary pump. I looked at the towel I set around the bleeders and would say I got 99% of the plastic bits out.
My recommendation is if you are above 80k miles is to go ahead just replace both ICs. My 2011 at 60k miles they looked toasted completely. Replacing the ICs is easy since damaging the old ones doesn’t matter, just use a mallet to gently tap them out.

[Crazjtk]

The engine and cooling system has not run with plastic bits in the coolant. It was drained prior to this project, so it’s sitting there with no coolant in it. In theory the shavings are sitting in the supercharger just below the bleeder openings.

I’m not looking to replace the intercoolers, I’ve spent enough time on this project already.

@swank, yeah, flushing out the back section of the supercharger is what I’m asking. How do I do that?

[SwankPeRFection]

You can always find yourself a Y with hose barbs on it and attach it to BOTH front coolant barbs on the supercharger cores. Hook the 3rd part of the Y to a garden hose and take both bleeder screws out. Technically speaking, this should force the water in through the cores and not cycle back out except through the bleeder holes so that there’s no chance for the bits to cycle back through either core since water is being forced only backwards through the cores. This is similar to what others have suggested, but this way guarantees the water travels only one way and out the bleed holes on hopes that it carries everything out with it. Hopefully you don’t have a leaking core on either side and try not to get too crazy with the water pressure.

Other option would be to try a vacuum with an attachment on it that can fit into that bleed hole and suck stuff out. A detail vac sometimes has those types of attachments.