Oil Cooler - What do you do with the coolant hoses?

[Romeo Chi]

I am following Briano1234's advice on using an air oil cooler, to replace the stock coolant unit. I'm having a hell of a time getting all the fittings for -10an stuff. But anywho....
http://www.toplessrabbit.com/forums/...hp?f=27&t=1892

Question is, what do you do with the coolant hoses that used to run to the stock cooler? Plug them, or get a 90 degree hose joiner, get new hoses that just go straight through? What did you folks do?

[snowyroads]

Someone else knows this answer better than i do but i'd say head to the auto parts store and talk with an associate about the coolant hose set-up for a car without an oil cooler.

i can check my rabbits out in the garage here in a minute but thats the answer your looking for. There is an exact plumbing set-up that doesn't use the cooler

[briano1234]

You can buy a rubber cap to go over the water outlet flange hose fitting, and clamp it in place, or get to a wrecking yard and get the flange off a older rabbit that doesn't have the oil cooler.

Now you could use durafix and solder it up, durafix is a special low temp alloy, not solder.
See:http://durafix.com/

For the 3 way hose you can replace it with a 90 cabriolet bypass hose.
http://napaonline.com/Catalog/Catalo...RecType%3aA%29

[Romeo Chi]

I went for a sturdy fix, that was cheap. I will start hording more parts after getting her up and running so I can clean it all up. I bought two "test plugs" in brass from the home improvement center. I used just a small bit of hose for the water neck, and the pic is for the hose coming off the water pump. Thank You both for your help by the way

[suburbangeorge]

You need to get with a dealership parts man. He will have hose layouts for engines with or without the oil/coolant oil cooler. When I insalled my euro GTI cooler I needed the same things. here's my order from Autohausaz:

Totals
999901-008005 8mm Copper Nut; Exhaust Manifold to Cylinder Head $0.33 16 $5.28

025251509 Catalytic Converter Gasket; Triangular 53.5mm ID; Catalytic Converter Inlet/Exit $1.99 4 $7.96

026121053G Cooling/Coolant Hose; Water Pump to Cylinder Head $4.50 1 $4.50

055121063A Cooling/Coolant Hose; Water Pump to Distribution Pipe $2.11 1 $2.11

03214 Distributor Cap; With Shield $11.90 1 $11.90

04038 Distributor Rotor $3.23 1 $3.23

802305 Engine Oil; TOTAL Quartz Racing 10W50, Full Synthetic; 5 Liter $36.21 1 $36.21

533121109 Expansion Tank/Coolant Reservoir Hose; Expansion Tank Lower to Pipe $20.99 1 $20.99

171121407E Expansion Tank/Coolant Reservoir; Non-Sensor Type without Cap $13.70 1 $13.70

053103663 Oil Dip Stick Funnel $0.76 2 $1.52

443121321 Radiator Cap/Expansion Tank Cap; Female Thread; Round $2.12 1 $2.12

171121051G Radiator Hose; Lower from Radiator to Pump $5.11 1 $5.11

443121107A Radiator Hose; Upper Radiator to Coolant Expansion Tank; 7.5mmID -12mm OD - 1 Meter Length $8.63 1 $8.63

171121101AB Radiator Hose; Upper Radiator to Cylinder Head $10.39 1 $10.39

4016 Spark Plug; Platinum; Standard Electrode $2.79 4 $11.16


Parts Total: $144.81
Refundable Core Total: $0.00
Shipping & Handling: $0.00

Total Before Tax: $144.81
Sales Tax: $0.00

Order Total: $144.81

I'm pretty sure that you also need 171121058 don't know why I didn't get it from them. it's back ordered now. Maybe it was then.

[briano1234]

You need to get with a dealership parts man. He will have hose layouts for engines with or without the oil/coolant oil cooler. When I insalled my euro GTI cooler I needed the same things. here's my order from Autohausaz:

Well It is all nice to know that you spent a ton of monies, but it doesn't relate to his question.
His question was "What do I do with the oil cooler hoses that I have on the car?"

Which the answer is, to remove the 3way hose and replace it with a normal By-pass hose.
He would have to plug up the addition hose connection on his water outlet flange, hence the plugs, or solder it shut using the Duralloy stuff I mentioned.

He opted to use 2 plugs and a couple of clamps.

Now your question should of been why change from a Water Stabilized Oil cooler that is factory to an external? The reason is that Externals can only leak oil.... Where the Water Stabilized ones can leak coolant from a hose, oil from a seal, or intermix a/f and oil...

I did the how to thread because on the 90's Cabriolets VW did away with the Factory Water/Oil Stabilizers they were still on the Passants and Jettas in the yards from what I have seen just removed from the Cabby's... I noticed that at Highway speeds running 80mph with the a/c on, my cars oil temp sky-rocketed to 135.... I wanted to cool it down.. Hence my how-to on installing a true external oil cooler.

While some will say that the radiator is still cooler than engine oil so it is effectively cooling the oil, there is too much additional crap that can go wrong. Which is why I choose the route that I took. Using a Volvo Temp controlled Wahler unit means the car will get up to temp, but never exceed about 110 degrees on the oil, this will increase the life of the oil, make the car run a tad cooler, which is a good thing.

How I did it and what parts you will need:

Which is way less than you spent...The most expensive part was the Oil Cooler hoses.
Oil cooler off Volvo 12.00
Tranny exchanger 6.00
Parts (hoses, clamps/fittings) 45.00
2 Cans of Brake Kleen 6 bucks.

[suburbangeorge]

Well It is all nice to know that you spent a ton of monies, but it doesn't relate to his question.
His question was "What do I do with the oil cooler hoses that I have on the car?"

Which the answer is, to remove the 3way hose and replace it with a normal By-pass hose.
He would have to plug up the addition hose connection on his water outlet flange, hence the plugs, or solder it shut using the Duralloy stuff I mentioned.

He opted to use 2 plugs and a couple of clamps.

Now your question should of been why change from a Water Stabilized Oil cooler that is factory to an external? The reason is that Externals can only leak oil.... Where the Water Stabilized ones can leak coolant from a hose, oil from a seal, or intermix a/f and oil...

I did the how to thread because on the 90's Cabriolets VW did away with the Factory Water/Oil Stabilizers they were still on the Passants and Jettas in the yards from what I have seen just removed from the Cabby's... I noticed that at Highway speeds running 80mph with the a/c on, my cars oil temp sky-rocketed to 135.... I wanted to cool it down.. Hence my how-to on installing a true external oil cooler.

While some will say that the radiator is still cooler than engine oil so it is effectively cooling the oil, there is too much additional crap that can go wrong. Which is why I choose the route that I took. Using a Volvo Temp controlled Wahler unit means the car will get up to temp, but never exceed about 110 degrees on the oil, this will increase the life of the oil, make the car run a tad cooler, which is a good thing.

How I did it and what parts you will need:

Which is way less than you spent...The most expensive part was the Oil Cooler hoses.
Oil cooler off Volvo 12.00
Tranny exchanger 6.00
Parts (hoses, clamps/fittings) 45.00
2 Cans of Brake Kleen 6 bucks.

More and more often here on Vortex you run into some insecure A**hole who attempts to build himself up by criticizing another member whose posting the A**hole takes issue with.

I posted the whole invoice for a couple of reasons. Moving back and forth, copying part numbers and posting them takes more time and I wanted to let the OP know how cheap most of these parts are in case he wanted to replace questionable parts.

Rather than do things in your ghetto style by pluging hoses or outlet ports, why not get the proper flange?



I got mine by searching in Pick n Pull for next to nothing but you can also still buy them new: http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/026121133C/ES270398/

When you took the Volvo sandwich plate, why didn't you take the Volvo oil radiator also? If you look in the automatic transmission oil pan and the engine oil pan of the same used vehicle, you'll find much more metal debris in the transmission pan. You can't reliably clean metal bits out of that radiator with carb or brake cleaner. The junk is now in your engine. Short of buying new, the best bet is to find a wrecked Volvo turbo(it's unlikely the the engine blew and the car was wrecked at the same time) and get the sandwich plate, the oil radiator and it's mounting bracket. I've seen the Volvo rubber hoses used but to do so you need to find metric compression ferrules and use short sections of the rigid metal lines.

You used "gas line fittings". Where did you find ones with metric threads? Or did you attempt to re-thread the existing threads and use lots of yellow teflon tape to limit the leaks?

British american transfer http://www.batinc.net/ sells fittings to adapt metric to AN. With these, you can go to a hydraulic hose shop and have proper custom hoses made.

Why mount your oil radiator to the coolant radiator where it is cooled(?) by air already heated by passing through the coolant radiator. Instead, why not mount it to the passenger's side of the coolant radiator where the factory oil cooler mounts?




If fabricating a bracket is beyond your skill level, you don't need to ghetto the attachment. There are dedicated kits for doing this http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sk...89oicomokimrga NAPA Auto Parts also sells a similar kit for less than $10 but I couldn't find it on their site.

[briano1234]

More and more often here on Vortex you run into some insecure A**hole who attempts to build himself up by criticizing another member whose posting the A**hole takes issue with.

No I don't mind being called names, but I do have issues with you not answering the persons question I don't need to build myself up...

When you took the Volvo sandwich plate, why didn't you take the Volvo oil radiator also?

The difference is years. You don't have an a/c equipped car, I do. I don't have any room on the side to mount that larger cooler I thought about it tho.... My install was for those of us that drive the 90 vintage Cabriolet, that never had a "factory cooler" installed.



You used "gas line fittings". Where did you find ones with metric threads?

Yes they threaded just fine they are gas fittings. I have always used Teflon tape, and I didn't over tighten them to seal.

Why mount your oil radiator to the coolant radiator where it is cooled(?) by air already heated by passing through the coolant radiator. Instead, why not mount it to the passenger's side of the coolant radiator where the factory oil cooler mounts?

And you call a person out and can't see that I have a AC equipped car, nor did you read that it was a 90 version and VW's lack of installing any kind of cooler. With the advent of A/C being installed It is mounted in front of the A/C condenser, which if you look at the picture is in front of the radiator, the Oil exchanger is not behind the Radiator It is in front to get the maximum airflow....first. Need Glasses?



If fabricating a bracket is beyond your skill level, you don't need to ghetto the attachment. There are dedicated kits for doing this http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sk...89oicomokimrga NAPA Auto Parts also sells a similar kit for less than $10 but I couldn't find it on their site.

No fabricating Brackets isn't difficult for me in the least. I could of gone the route of the add on kits, and spent more monies, I opted as folks do, to use what was on hand.

Don't think that I didn't clean out the exchanger, and yes It was cleaned....

Please Read Posts, Read the links, Understand what was offered, and if it isn't your cup of tea fine. Don't call folks names, it isn't nice, and isn't warranted.

All I said was You didn't answer his question. I did, I gave him 3 examples of how to "plug" or terminate his hoses. Wasn't one of them to get the normal non-oil cooler bypass hose and not the 3-way? Didn't I tell him that he should get to the Yard and acquire the non-oil cooler flange? Lastly to Plug with a rubber stopper or Solder it closed. All 3 are viable solutions aren't they?

Well my Ghetto fix as you call it, (which is a racist remark and belittles you and not me) has been running since 2008 with no leakage, no sign that it's going to fail. I have enough faith in my fixes to do it on both of my cabbies.

[Romeo Chi]

Thank you both, no need to get on each other's bad side.

What I didn't want to mention, but it seems necessary now is, I have spent way too much on this oil cooler setup. Mostly because of my sleepy eyed EBAY purchases. I didn't research the parts needed, and the size fittings I would need. I have a deadline for my car to be completed, as my daily is a lease and will be returned at the start of next year. In between now and then, I have to pick and choose what I will be spending my hard earned cash on. I should have just ordered another $65 OEM coolant cooler, and waited till later for the upgrade. I will have to live with my cheap fix until I get the time and money to fix it the way it should be.