The oil cooler fins on the blue car are pretty beat up. i used to go through American Cooler, and they'd do a full refurb on the coolers for $125/each. Now, American Cooler seems to be absorbed by another company and they don't answer my phone calls or emails. i also reached out to QAA and ATS, two other aerospace companies, and they declined.

i have tried various "condenser brushes" for commercial A/C systems, but the pitch and blade width has always been too big. Our oil cooler fins are quite small and tightly spaced.

checking to see if folks these days have a good company they are using, or whether they know of any good tools that work on our coolers. (i searched amazon at length for tweezers that looked like they'd work, but wasn't completely satisficed. i think the best way to straighten severely damaged fins would be to push an object through from the back side rather than try to pry apart at the front side.)

 

I straightened my fins with a ziptie from the backside last year... and I get to do the same this year or buy new cores.

 

for all the time i spent searching for a small thin long tool with a rectangular cross section... The thought to use a zip tie never crossed my mind!

I'll give it a try! Thanks Doc 😉

 

had mine done at American Cooler, bummer if they’re not doing it any more because they did an awesome job. Way better than I have patience for, but then they internally ultrasonic cleaned them as well.

ps: I can try swinging by there, they are local to me.
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the new American cooler management just got back with me and said they don't do these anymore. :-(

As an update to the DIY alternative, i'm using a very small flat blade screwdriver to handle severely bent fins and a ziptie to help straighten them and clean out debris. if the fins are really destroyed and torn, i simply rip out the damaged portion and straighten the remainder (i figure clear airflow does more for cooling than retaining extremely damaged fins that obstruct airflow.)

I spent about 1.5 hours and did about half of one cooler... so i'm budgeting 6 hours for the pair.

One of the companies got back with me and want almost $400/each to restore. That's almost as much as new with the MS racer discount. So i think DIY or new seem to be the leading options at this time.