This is my first post! I want to remove the intercooler from my Defender TD5 to clean it out. But aircon is fitted - and I would greatly appreciate the wisdom of you good people out there as how to get the intercooler out, before I dive in. Thanks all.

You have to remove the intercooler complete with the cooling system radiator before you can separate them as there is just not enough room to manouvre things.

Unfortunately you will also have to discharge the air con and remove the condenser radiator before you can get the radiator/intercooler out. You should note that it is illegal to discharge the air con to the open air. But I wont tell......

Believe me I've tried on more than one occassion to get the radiator out with out messing with the air con. My final solution was to ditch the air con and fit a larger intercooler as the air con was ****e anyhow and took up too much room in the cab. I sold the air con parts on eBay which paid for the intercooler and some.

Thanks Shifty - I was rather afraid you'd say something like that! I'm very glad I asked though. Perhaps I'll leave well alone, for the time being anyway. Unless there's a way of cleaning out the intercooler in situ? I plead guilty to being an eternal optimist

I guess you could make up some pipes to try and flush the intercooler in situ but it would be a right pain as the oil would tend to sit at the bottom of the intercooler. You would also need to make sure that the intercooler was completely dry when you reconnected it which would not be easy with the intercooler in place. Any petrol or solvent left in it could damage your engine.

I used stale petrol then paint thinners to flush mine but it was off the car and a quick warm up with a blow torch evaporated/burnt any residual off.

Thanks again Shifty. As I said, I am an optimist!