Oil Cooler Install Learnings............LONG
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Oil Cooler Install Learnings............LONG
Last weekend I posted that I was doing the oil cooler install. While Schwings and Bluetops Fotki albumns were an enormous help, there are some learnings that need to be added.
1. Consider using hydraulic hoses instead of the wire braided hoses. The wire braided hoses are pretty, but will be abrasive to anything they touch and they are not very flexible.
2. The crosstube needs to be removed (6ea. 13mm and 2 ea. 10mm bolts to get all the stuff out of there. However, put it back in before measuring and cutting your hoses. I did not do this and found one hose to be a little too long and another to be needing just a touch of stretch to fit it up.
3. If you have never made up wire braided hoses, you need to read up on them and having the vise inserts that racingwholesale sells is well worth the money. http://www.ptaaron.com/oil-line/
4. The ports on the oil cooler and the mocal sandwich plate are 1/2"npt. Only use 1/2" npt fittings and only use reducers off of a tee for an oil pressure transducer.
5. When removing the OEM oil cooler, just cut the water hoses. I spent 3 hours getting these off because the clamps were pointed in the wrong direction and would not budge and then the hoses seemed to be welded to the nipples on the OEM oil cooler. Plug the hoses. No need to join them.
6. If you use wire braided hoses make sure you sleeve them where they touch another pipe or hose. You will need something with a 1" ID.
7. Consider locating your oil pressure transducer between your TruCooler and wheel liner. Locating it off of the mocal sandwich plate puts it in a very congested area.
8. Use the teflon tape that comes in the yellow dispensor. It is intended for gas and petroleum based products. The kind in the blue pack is rated for water.
9. Before screwing any fitting together check the threads carefully. I had one 3/8x1/2 reducer that messed up the threads in my oil cooler. When it was removed I found that the fitting had a veritcal line through all the threads. This was probably the cause for cross threading.
10. Do 2-3 wraps of all threads on a fitting. This might seem like overkill, but the other 1/2x3/8 fitting just kept screwing into the mocal sandwich plate beyond where I had pipe tape. Very slow leak here.
11. It would be safe to cut your 7' long length of hose into 40" and 44" segments. Make up one end on each hose with the AN fittings and attach to your fittings on the Mocal sandwhich plate. Install the sandwich plate and get it fitted up hand tight in the car. Screw on your oil filter. Install temporarily the cross member. Route you hoses as you find best. Then mark where each needs its final cut to mate up with the oil cooler. This will give you the most flexibility in hose routing. Remember these hoses are pretty stiff. It also might be a good time to slide several sleeves over the wire braided hose. I failed to do this and ended up slitting each sleeve and snapping over the hose.
12. Your system will now take 6 quarts of oil. You will need to drain oil at the cooler in addition to the oil pan. I thought I could add a tee and drain plug, but it was just too long and the front bumper would not fit back up without hitting it. I think it will be easy enough to just pull the wheel liner back and break open one or both of the reuseable AN fittings.
This weekend I will try and fix the little leak I now have.
I hope this write-up, in addition to the great work done by Schwing and Bluetop will help you out in the future.
1. Consider using hydraulic hoses instead of the wire braided hoses. The wire braided hoses are pretty, but will be abrasive to anything they touch and they are not very flexible.
2. The crosstube needs to be removed (6ea. 13mm and 2 ea. 10mm bolts to get all the stuff out of there. However, put it back in before measuring and cutting your hoses. I did not do this and found one hose to be a little too long and another to be needing just a touch of stretch to fit it up.
3. If you have never made up wire braided hoses, you need to read up on them and having the vise inserts that racingwholesale sells is well worth the money. http://www.ptaaron.com/oil-line/
4. The ports on the oil cooler and the mocal sandwich plate are 1/2"npt. Only use 1/2" npt fittings and only use reducers off of a tee for an oil pressure transducer.
5. When removing the OEM oil cooler, just cut the water hoses. I spent 3 hours getting these off because the clamps were pointed in the wrong direction and would not budge and then the hoses seemed to be welded to the nipples on the OEM oil cooler. Plug the hoses. No need to join them.
6. If you use wire braided hoses make sure you sleeve them where they touch another pipe or hose. You will need something with a 1" ID.
7. Consider locating your oil pressure transducer between your TruCooler and wheel liner. Locating it off of the mocal sandwich plate puts it in a very congested area.
8. Use the teflon tape that comes in the yellow dispensor. It is intended for gas and petroleum based products. The kind in the blue pack is rated for water.
9. Before screwing any fitting together check the threads carefully. I had one 3/8x1/2 reducer that messed up the threads in my oil cooler. When it was removed I found that the fitting had a veritcal line through all the threads. This was probably the cause for cross threading.
10. Do 2-3 wraps of all threads on a fitting. This might seem like overkill, but the other 1/2x3/8 fitting just kept screwing into the mocal sandwich plate beyond where I had pipe tape. Very slow leak here.
11. It would be safe to cut your 7' long length of hose into 40" and 44" segments. Make up one end on each hose with the AN fittings and attach to your fittings on the Mocal sandwhich plate. Install the sandwich plate and get it fitted up hand tight in the car. Screw on your oil filter. Install temporarily the cross member. Route you hoses as you find best. Then mark where each needs its final cut to mate up with the oil cooler. This will give you the most flexibility in hose routing. Remember these hoses are pretty stiff. It also might be a good time to slide several sleeves over the wire braided hose. I failed to do this and ended up slitting each sleeve and snapping over the hose.
12. Your system will now take 6 quarts of oil. You will need to drain oil at the cooler in addition to the oil pan. I thought I could add a tee and drain plug, but it was just too long and the front bumper would not fit back up without hitting it. I think it will be easy enough to just pull the wheel liner back and break open one or both of the reuseable AN fittings.
This weekend I will try and fix the little leak I now have.
I hope this write-up, in addition to the great work done by Schwing and Bluetop will help you out in the future.
AudiWorld Super User
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 9,173
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I don't know if my write up is nearly as good as the others, but....
it's in the Fotki if you need it....I also suggest just cutting the stock oil hoses that run to the stock cooler. Much easier than fighting with the clamps.
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