bs

alright, i have an oil leak from what i believe to be the oil cooler. I am going to put my car up on a lift and have a look at it tonight... so here is my question. on an '87 951, what is the general layout of the oil and coolant paths through this system? there appear to be two hoses eminating from the cover and going to a small heat exchanger near the bottom right of the radiator. does oil flow through this or coolant?

is the seal the most likely thing to be leaking on this car or could some other part of that system be at fault?

there was oil in the coolant when i got this car, but i flushed the coolant out and cleaned the expansion tank and haven't seen a lot of build up of oil sense then, leading me to beleive that it was residue caused by a problem which had been fixed in the past, or the result of a slow leak which hasn't done much damage in the last couple weeks.

thanks!

PrerYDoG

Yes oil passes through that heat exchanger on the side of the radiator. As far as the seal goes, it is a typical (well, more typical than atypical) for that seal to go bad and have to be replaced. If you are looking for something to fix, and want to take care of oil in the coolant, then that would probably be a good place to start. If you aren't seeing a lot of buildup now (if any) you may want to wait, because the old verbage "if it ain't broke don't fix it" sure does apply on these cars.

Hans

The NA has a "built-in" oil cooler using cooling water. The 951 uses a separate air cooler in the front as described by you.
The original NA oil cooler is removed but the seals are still there.
These seals anr reputed for their leaks.
I think a write up is available at 944-garage.
good luck

bs

so then in the case of the turbo-style oil cooler, would a failure of that seal allow oil to mix with the coolant?

I got a good look under there last night but still could not see the source of the leak. there is a large bracket at the front of the lower balance shaft which supports, among other things, the power steering pump. the oil seems to be leaking from between the front of that bracket and the metal that is bolted to it. There is also oil on the oil pressure sender and the large bolt below it (oil pressure releif?) but both of those were tight enough that i couldn't crank them any farther.

so my question is this: do people think it is more likely that my balance shaft seal is leaking or that the oil non-cooler cover seal is leaking??

Michael Stephenson

I think that the S2 and the Turbo have the same external oil cooler. I had a bit of a leak and all I had to do was tighten the clamps a bit, they were a turn or so loose - probably due to the age of the rubber tubing. I still get a little bit of a leak, but it is not as bad. You may want to make sure all your connections are tight before you through too much trouble.

Doug Donsbach

bs writes "so then in the case of the turbo-style oil cooler, would a failure of that seal allow oil to mix with the coolant?"

Yes, all of the cars have the same housing only the NA has a heat exchanger inside. There is always coolant inside the housing and the seals fail and allow oil and coolant to mix. Sometimes the seals will allow oil to leak out of the housing as well, this was the case when the seals started to leak a little oil into the coolant on my car.

Doug
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jim968

Just to second Mike's comment... the 968 also has the external oil-to-air cooler (I'm not sure about the early Turbos). Mine was leaking slightly due to both a loose clamp & twistd O-ring on one of the hoses.
Interestingly, one of the receipts with the car showed that O-ring having been replaced about 3K miles earlier at an import specialist shop in Raleigh....

Jim, "Drip, drip, drip...."