sharky47

Ok, you may remember the post about my brother purchasing an early fuched 944 for $800 because it had a failed oil cooler seal. We took it home and did the following;

ALL new belts
New rollors
ALL new radiator/heater hoses
Repacked front bearings
Adjusted parking brakes
Re-torqued rear bearins
Fixed tach and speedo
New plugs
New air filter
New Mobile 1 oil
De-smoked interior
New tires
General deep cleaning inside and out

Ok, passed inspection on first try and runs really strong with great oil pressure. Last night we were adjusting the clutch and fixed some nagging electrical issues and I happened to look in the coolant tank and notice an unsettling poopy color. The oil level was clean, but low - so here we go again with the oil cooler.

There are three options that I can think of that went wrong.

1. Oil cooler itself has a leak - easy to test once we get it apart

2. O-rings failed or weren't seated correctly

3. We simply botched the job (hate to admit it, but possible)

Anybody have any problems with a freshly re-sealed oil cooler? Anyone have one in good shape for sale?

MM951

This happened to me. I started loosing oil pressure and got slight milkshake ~100-200 miles after a oil cooler seal job. Started to get real pissed then looked at the oil coooler and felt the 10 mm bolts with my hand. They worked loose. I put some locktite on it and re torqued em and I have perfect oil/perfect oil pressure.

sharky47

Worth a check - anybody else?

Serge944

Well, first of all, are you sure this isn't just some residual 'poop' left behind. It takes a couple flushes to get it all out.

Second - you won't find the problem until you dig back into it. Did you shim the oil cooler properly when you did the job?

xsboost90

i have a 924s cooler and housing laying around if you want to try another...

StoogeMoe

Well, maybe it wasn't the seals that failed in the first place. Maybe it was the heat exchanger element itself. I would pressure test that thingy this go around.
____________________________________
1986 944 NA - Guards Red - 91k miles
1983 944 NA - Platinum metallic - 1800 mi beginning a new life
1985.1 944 NA - Guards Red - donor car
1984 911 Carrera Coupe - Guards Red (gone, but not forgotten)
"If you're not living on the edge, you're not living"

sharky47

Serge - we flushed the ever living crap out of each component when we initially "fixed" it. Then we changed the coolant three times and all was good. The coolant is now too full and the oil is low..........already started taking the car apart.

xsboost - your the man, going to test the element tonight and I will let you know if I need one.

StoogeMoe - that is the next thing I am going to look at.

75ohm

Cooler... seen it happen before on flawless installs and cleans...

Mongo

I know when I did the oil cooler on my rebuild I had to use a shim or 2 that came with a reseal kit. It's a plastic shim if I recall. Did you put the shim in to allow appropriate spacing and fit between the housing? Without this shim, the oil cooler will be a little loose and can vibrate around causing coolant and oil to seep by the o-rings.

How much milkshake are we talking about here???

potent951turbo

My first thought was going to be with Serge944 and if you were sure all the left over gunk was gone. When I did mine on my turbo a few months ago, it tooks weeks of flushing to finally get it all out. Everytime I thought it was clear in the coolant tank more crap would show up.

sharky47

It did not require shims, if anything - it was a little too high now that I think about it.

I wish it was leftover gunk, but the coolant tank is pretty milkshakeified/overfilled and the oil is low - so I can account for both fluids.

First thing I am going to do is check the element for leaks/damage and purchase one from xsboost if I need to.

sharky47

Well, I am trying to see the silver lining in all of this - going to use this oppurtunity to install the non-leaky steering rack that is sitting on the shelf. Also going to do something about the funky torsion bars and change the diff fluid.

thor455400

seems these coolers have alot of problems.has anyone ever tride one of these?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OIL-C...QQcmdZViewItem

sharky47

The *best* solution would be to put a 951 housing and cooler on it, but that would be a decent chunk of change for the parts. I have a used but pressure tested cooler inbound right now, and the car is almost taken apart. While we are in there (famous last words) we are going to:

Front seals
Swaybar bushings
Steering rack
PS pump rebuild
Diff fluid change
Brake fluid flush

KLR

I hate to ask, but are you sure it's not the head gasket?