Darwantae951

Hey guys,

Before I get yelled at, I did use search but came up with conflicting answers. Is it necessary to unbolt or remove the headers in order to remove the oil cooler? I hope not, as I'd rather leave them alone and need to get this done (it's one of my biggest oil leaks!)

-Darwin

f1lugnut

It is possible, I just did one last fall, but I wouldn't recomend it if you believe in torqueing nuts and bolts to appropriate values. You just can't get to one of the bolts on the oil cooler without some type of universal swival for your socket and I don't know if you can find a torque compensation for that type of adapter or not. I have just pulled the head of of my '89 2.7L and was worried about the exhaust studs and nuts, but I sprayed them with PB blaster and let it soak overnight, then took my time and slowly started taking the nuts and studs out. Use a bigger ratchet/breaker bar so you have plenty of leverage and you can just ease these things right out. I know this doesn't always work for everyone, but it did for me.

Long story short pull the headers off.

Good luck,

Bobby

Darwantae951

I'm not worried abut the nuts being frozen, I just had SFR headers installed a little over a year ago and used all new studs/nuts/washers. Just don't really want to take them off...

-Darwin

Darwantae951

Bump, any word of wisdom from people who've done this before?

-Darwin

wi54545

Leave the manifold on! I have had no trouble with torqueing the bolts. The biggest issue is the oil cooler lines. Hit them with PB blaster a couple of times and use a 27mm wrench that you can fit a pipe on the end for leverage. I have done three this way without any problems....

Darwantae951

Well what I plan on doing is pulling the lines and cooler out with the housing so I have plenty of room to work them off of the housing. Anything wrong with this idea?

-Darwin