External engine oil cooler failure
 

I've read in one of the threads on this forum that there has been failures of either hoses or cooler cores leading to loss of engine oil...I have been on this forum for almost three years and have never read of any such failures...thats not saying non have happened... maybe I missed them all. So I'm asking if any of the good buddies here on this great board have expirienced, or witnessed any such failures. Thanks

This post has sat here for several days with several views and zero replies...I guess nobody has witnessed or heard of any external air to oil coolers...Good to hear ...or not hear...:tup:

I heard there are giant alligators that live in the sewers and eat your hopes and dreams while you sleep.... all BS, IMO

maybe failure to pisspoor install

The search feature is your friend. That's why there are no responses... :tiphat:

I have. I had aeroquip socketless fittings and one slipped off and caused me to wreck at VIR. I have a thread about it somewhere

Living in FLA I've heard of them too...but again just rumors...You sound like an a/c wrench...same here...back to eating dreams and hopes...I'm hungry. Thanks for the reply...I've searched for failure threads and couldn't find anything...I'll ck again.

I have about 8k miles on my AE performance oil cooler and no problems so far. Stays at a constant 200F in 100-115 weather when cruising. No hard track days on it though, but I don't think it would bean issue if I did, it's way overkill. My oil levels stay constant, no leaks or burning.

Now with my Wife driving it while I'm in the armpit of planet earth again, that's a real test of endurance. Her foot is a lead weight.

:tiphat: F-16 crew chief here. I'm sure if you search long enough you'll find someone who had the one anomoly but if the kit is put together well, installed correctly and maintained properly you shouldn't have any issues. Mine is holding up well also and I beat the hell out of the car.

Just use high quality parts and a well done installation to have peace of mind. Cheap parts and ignorant mechanics is what leads to trouble.

People have had failures usually due to slipped fittings... you can possibly break through a hose if you have it laying against something for an extended period. A few people have used professional hydraulic lines to ensure the fittings stay tight. Still failures are few and far between as falcon stated.

Best thing to do is to get an accurate oil pressure gauge so you can hopefully avoid damage in the event something lets loose.

Yes sir...Nothing like a fellow wire twister...I installed a Z1 25 row kit but utilized aircraft adel clamps where applicable along with teflon wrap where contact was anticipated with each other and heater hose against the frame...thinking about safety wiring oil hose b nuts at cooler and sandwich adapter...Over kill???? perhaps :tiphat:

Better get a handful of 1/8 drill bits :eek: I got out in 09 and I still have rolls of safety wire laying around. Comes in handy for a lot of things. If you do safety wire the B nuts I'm in for pics

My friend did National Guard maintenance on helicopters. He makes safety wire look like art!! You should see what he did on my two-piece rotors.

I better not use cheap parts, then.

I hated lockwiring when i was in the navy. Still to this day I have nightmares about it lol.

50 plus I have to thread jack here....

It seems we have some aircraft wrench benders floating around in here. Haven't seen a thread on here (lounge of course) but it might be time for the a/c wrenchers to have a little nook to swap tales. Y'know like the, get me 50 yards of flight line.:roflpuke2:

Sorry OP. back on topic:tup:

Yea right...Still working for the airlines after 30 years and will incorporate aircraft materials or techniques when I mod or repair the Z...I'll post photos of the cooler install next time I remove the bumper...yea our stock room is a toy store for excellent hardware...matter of fact I used a/c SCAT-10 vent hoses and aluminum flanges for cooling air ducting for my CAI. As for stafety wire, I'll use .032 stainless for locking and .025 for witness wire. My son uses the .032 stainless for attaching the wrap on his headers and turbo scroll heat blanket... Yea when it's done right safety wiring under the hood can be pretty impressive. No more inconel wire...thank goodness.

Once you do it for a living and actually see how safety wire can prevent a complete failure of a system, you turn it into an art.

Never fixed them, only fly them. I was the branch officer in the hydraulic shop in the navy though. My 240z had stainless steel brake hardlines.

On topic, stay away from the press fit couplers for sure. The company says they probably failed due to hose shrinkage and engine vibrations, but the cooler had 3000 miles on it and I had just done an oil change and line inspection prior to the failure.

Mike so it blew out where the hose fits into the nut? Any others that you know of besides aeroquip that manufacture their hoses like that?

there was no nut, it was a press fit, socketless coupling. There have been a few others with failures, but its been a couple years. I think one other like mine, and a couple with early GTM kits, but they have since solved that QC problem.

I did it enough, rather it be flange shielding the fuel system/ oil system on the ship or lockwiring the fuel nozzle mounting bolts on our Allison 501k17. I truly is an art but an art that i had no desire to master. :tiphat: to you that still do it!

Thats the reason I went with a Z1 kit...I was impressed with the quality of the hose terminations. Good angles, both the 90 as well as the 60 degree angles. Only concern was the recommended final positions for the line attach points at the sandwich plate...You had to find a happy mid point between one fitting hitting base of motor mount and the other hitting alternator. My final position was approx. 1/8 inch from mount...I don't believe the mount has any movement at that point so like you for the first 1000 miles I'll be removing lower engine shield on my weekends and inspect the fittings.

Thats cool...It might come in handy in the future.

After my failure, I had a hydraulic shop make me some 3000 psi hoses, but then I needed a larger core, so I went with the Z1 race kit myself.

All the early failures led me to do a DIY

There's been a few reported here, if you search :). More importantly, there's bound to be more that aren't reported here. The bottom line of the situation is adding external lines to your oil system exposes you to an additional set of risks. Aside from having a high quality install with good fittings and hoses and inspecting it regularly, your best defense is an oil pressure gauge.

Again, a careful installation with good parts should be worry-free!
When driving hard on the track, on a road trip, or even just around town driving, one shouldn't have to constantly worry about parts failing and getting stranded.

Even push-fit hoses should have high quality hose clamps used on each fitting.

A careful installation with good parts is a pre-requisite to anything so important, of course.

Mine's been on for a little over 3 years now without issue, but I wouldn't call it worry free. I feel much better with an oil pressure gauge with an active alarm setting (+buzzer). Hoses can blow out. Things do happen. Without a gauge and/or alarm most likely it'll be too late to save the engine by the time you realize it. The stock car doesn't have this risk from the factory.

My point in bringing all of this up in the other thread was that I don't think (for the average person driving on the street) the risk tradeoff on the external oil cooler without a gauge is worth it, especially if you're just trying to cool things down for power and not really hitting dangerous temp levels to begin with. Half-limp-mode kicks in at 280, and I wouldn't worry too much unless you're spending a lot of time in the 250+ range.

Even if you're bumping into that range a bit on the street, there are other things you could do to bring temps down a hair. Mess with fan settings in UpRev. Run less coolant in your mix, and add water-wetter. Drop in a CSF radiator. Better fans, etc... These solutions won't make as dramatic a difference as an oil cooler, but they're a hell of a lot safer.

i had an early gtm kit blow a line i replaced them with hightemp hydraulic lines and crimped fittings. could hang the engine from the cooler now

Interested in this. Got a link to info on the product?



Tapatalk & such etc

The manufacturer sucks at the internet. Their site is horrible and product link is full of broken images heh. I did find a link to the PDF of the install guide for it though: http://www.propartsllc.com/pdfs/Pressure.pdf , which shows the wiring and how the buttons and programming works. The purple wire will ground up to 1.5A of load when the programmed pressure limits (high/low) are exceeded. You can use a relay with that (as they show) to drive higher current stuff, but the 1.5A it gives is plenty to run a ~95db (or more) piezo buzzer. The gauge face itself flashes red when the limits are hit.

A bunch of install details from when I put it on my car start here: http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...ml#post1391436

Very cool wstar. Thanks for all that info.