Ford 6.4 Diesel EGR Cooler Counter Flow Wort Chiller

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jetgorilla

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im building my brew stand today and im thinking about wort chillers. i look at a ford 6.4 liter diesel egr cooler sitting on a shelf and the bulb goes off. why not use that as a counter flow chiller? i will try to prototype that tomorrow. Can anybody think of a reason why that won't work? I'm going to collect the run off water in a barrel for re-use for watering my garden for a green effect.

I have 50 of these units sitting on a shelf. Seems like a good use for them. thewheels are turning.

Pictures Tomorrow
 
Depends on the construction and what's been run through them (if anything). Almost certainly NOT constructed in a food safe manner...
 
stainless steel case, stainless steel liquid to liquid heat exchanger, and i have an autoclave. i am totally new to home brewing, just one batch so far so i'm looking for every word of caution etc. thanks.
 
Pretty creative for someone with only one batch under their belt-more power to ya! You are definitely thinking "outside the box"
 
stainless steel case, stainless steel liquid to liquid heat exchanger, and i have an autoclave. i am totally new to home brewing, just one batch so far so i'm looking for every word of caution etc. thanks.

What is it soldered/brazed with? A picture might help. Sounds like you have a good chance of being ok. Could ya post a pic or a link to a pic of what you're using?

I do hope these are new....
 
490 bucks for a cooler is a bit steep. If they were surplus and going for scrap value it would be much better. Fos as much as they are asking for the EGR cooler you can buy a purpose built plate chiller and call it goor without being concerned about soldering materials and food safety issues. Just my .02 FWIW from a noob.
Bob
 
it would be interesting to know how much surface area that thing has inside of it and therefore how quickly it would cool the wort.
 
490 bucks for a cooler is a bit steep. If they were surplus and going for scrap value it would be much better. Fos as much as they are asking for the EGR cooler you can buy a purpose built plate chiller and call it goor without being concerned about soldering materials and food safety issues. Just my .02 FWIW from a noob.
Bob

He has a point.

The question is: You say you have a bunch sitting on a shelf, could you sell them for more than you could buy a plate chiller? I think the answer is yes....
 
i have dozens of them laying in my shop. we take them off when we do an engine mod.

cost=0 minus modification costs

So they're used, which means they've had exhaust running through one portion, antifreeze through another, right?
 
I thought about that with a 6.0 DIT EGR cooler, but after being a Ford Diesel tech for several years now, I'd stay far, FAR away from them. They break and leak all the time. If they are brand new, maybe you could get away with it, but I would be worried about what type of solder International uses when building them. They aren't intended to be used with food, so why would they waste their time with food grade solder?

I'm going on the assumption that its new, but if its used, one side would have had toxic coolant running though it and the other side is probably coaked up with exhaust soot.

It would be interesting to see how well they could cool liquid to liquid, but they are intended to be cool liquid to gas, so that may affect the performance.
 
Oh, another note. The cooling system is only 16 PSI, so I'm not sure if they would stand up to house water pressure of 30+ PSI, so you may have to regulate the pressure down.
 
I love how we are always looking at stuff with DIY in mind.

Personally, I have busted my arse replacing these ( 6 liters anyway ) far too often to want to see one strapped to my brew rig- free or not! lol

Even a "take off" is bound to have been run though, no?

Points for the thought though, let us know what you find / decide. :mug:
 
ok, took all your points thoughtbit through. I took two stainless housing cases and TIG'd them together and 30 ft of copper tubing inside the stainless housing. I noticed that of the five i cut open, three had stainless cores and tig welds but i think the plumbing is to small. the housing mounts very well to the square tubing on the beer sculpture and is 28 inches longnand 2.5?inchesnin diameter. Im going to run a test this afternoon on its cooling capacity. I pressure washed the housingnand it came out shiny and clean.

total cost: $16 in copper tubing, $6 in fittings

the outflow water goes to a barrel outside and will be recycled into garden water.

whether it works or notnwont knowmuntill tonight. thanks BYW for the opinions. I am a total novice at this but my mind goes crazy trying building gadgets. Maybe this will be a total fail but i figure i can take allnthose spares, make em, and give them to people here if it works.

payback for all the help i get on here.
 
The copper pipe inside sounds like a much better idea. I know I wouldn't want to run my beer through either side of the original EGR cooler, especially a used one.

So how did you run the tubing? Did you coil it run it straight? Maybe some pics?

Also, don't reuse the original mounting clamps, because Ford says they are not reusable. ;)
 
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