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Oil Cooler

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M

MikeH

Jedi Hopeful
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Hi All, Seeing the post about vping's gas tank, started me wondering about my oil cooler. What would be the best means to clean it and the hoses out? Thanks, Mike

71 MGB OD & Wires
63 TR4 Surrey Top ( now in paint shop ) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
My method would be to disconnect hoses at both the cooler and block, remove the cooler from the car, flush all with mineral spirits followed by compressed air (repeat as necessary until clean/clear). Then refit cooler, attach lines to it and introduce oil into one line until you have it coming out the other one and reconnect all. Start 'er up and check fer leaks.


Admittedly potentially messy, but that's what works for me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jester.gif
 
Another option would be to take the cooler to your nearest raiator shop to have it dipped and pressure tested. Otherwise follow the good Doctors plan.
 
FWIW , if you trash the bottom end of an engine a lot of bearing material will end up trapped in the cooler. It is about impossible to get it all out. For grins , I had one sonic cleaned and flushed but it still did not come clean enough. Years ago a customer noticed his oil cooler leaking and plugged the cooler hose. He reported great oil pressure....for about two minutes.

Alan T
 
Whenever I have an engine rebuilt, I throw the cooler in the trash no matter how nice it looks. You can never get them completely clean. During normal use I ignore it and let the hot oil take care of the innards. If there is any doubt, just buy a new one. They are very inexpensive compared to the cost of replacing engine bearings.
 
On a non-oil-cooler car like mine, there is a bypass hose that connects where the oil-cooler hoses do on cars so equipped. I would imagine that if you resricted this hose it would only take about 2 minutes to destroy the engine too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
If I felt like my oil cooler couldn't be used for whatever reason, I'd get one of those bypass hoses Kenny talks about and forget about the cooler. IMO it's not needed with modern oils (if it was ever needed). In cold weather the coolers probably do more harm than good anyway.....
 
One of the first things I did was change the oil & all I kept thinking was how does the oil cooler drain?
I'll probably do more frequent changes to try and clean sopme of the old oil out.
If there are any particles of anything sleeping quietly in some goo in there, I think I'd rather just leave 'em be.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Whenever I have an engine rebuilt, I throw the cooler in the trash no matter how nice it looks. You can never get them completely clean. During normal use I ignore it and let the hot oil take care of the innards. If there is any doubt, just buy a new one. They are very inexpensive compared to the cost of replacing engine bearings.

[/ QUOTE ]

Completely agree with this; it always astounds me to see guys walking aruond swap meets with used/dodgy ones under their arm. Not worth it.
 
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