Oil Cooler Woes

Engines and Engine Systems
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iandvl
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Full Name: Ian de Villiers
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Oil Cooler Woes

Post by iandvl »

After replacing all the water pipes on my 4.5 recently, my father also decided that he would replace his... Well, technically, I was informed that I would replace them for him over the Easter Weekend.... :rolling: :rolling:

Drove through with all the various bits and pieces of water pipes, jubilee clamps and sundry on Friday morning. Had the pipes all stripped out around lunch time, and noticed that the right angled rubber pipe for the inlet to the oil cooler was all gunked up. No worries, though I, I'd just flush the cooler with the hosepipe... But that did not work...

The oil cooler sits on the driver's side of the block underneath the intake manifold. Basically above the oil filter (it screws into the bottom of the assembly). Highlighted in the image below.
oil-cooler.png
oil-cooler.png (114.79 KiB) Viewed 2871 times
Could not get the oil-cooler unblocked where it was attached to the vehicle, so started consulting the manuals and also gave Tinus a call.

From the manuals, I discovered that the top of the oil cooler can be removed. This is the bit where the water inlet and outlet are located (highlighted below).
oil-cooler2.png
oil-cooler2.png (58.94 KiB) Viewed 2871 times
It's very simple to do - 17 spanner and a single bolt that comes out at the top, and then you lift the cover off from the top. Be careful you do not lose the bolt (it is obviously part of the oil cooling "matrix" gathering by the holes in it) or the rubber "O-ring" which seals the cooler.

Investigation of the bit after removal indicated that all the gunk in the rubber inlet pipe had also found it's way into the oil cooler.

A 50/50 solution of swimming pool acid and water (on Tinus' advice), and a lot of patience saw us getting the cooler unblocked. After it was properly unblocked, we flushed the part with a soda-bi-carb mixture to decontaminate the thing after the acid. And then we flushed it liberally with water. After all this, we cleaned it all up with petrol and let it dry properly...

Reassembly is simple. Make sure the O-ring is clean and on the right way (you will notice that it fits in a specific orientation), place the top bit back on the oil cooler and bolt it down.

If you're replacing water pipes on an older vehicle, it is probably a good idea to check that the oil cooler is not blocked.

Apologies - don't have photos as my hands were dirty and I was busy. But the diagrams above should help in understanding the process.
Ian de Villiers

Patrol 4.5 GRX
Jurgens XT65 2x0 with Super Select Zero
ORRA: H80
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