Oil Cooler Leaking?
 

Just installed my oil cooler yesterday and I was wondering if anyone could tell me if they think my fitting on my cooler is leaking a little or is it just from some extra oil that was on it after it overflowed when filling it. It looks to me like it's just from where it overflowed even though I wiped it off my Dad was telling me it could have stayed in the oil cooler fins and then come out when driving it. It's only on the side I spilled on and no other fittings look like they are leaking from what I can see and I have high temp thread sealant on them all. There wasn't even enough for a paper towel to pick any amount up when I wiped it

If the fitting can rotate, it's not tight enough.

My advice, pull the bumper and crash bar off. Only takes me ab 6 minutes. Clean the oil cooler THOROUGHLY. Until there's no trace of oil.

Then button it back up, drive around, inspect it. Be sure to check your oil levels too.

Also, if you have an oil cooler. You should have an oil pressure gauge. By the time the OEM pressure warning light goes off, it's too late and you need a new engine. I got my gauge from Defi, and bought an A-pillar finisher with an integral gauge pod. Well worth it!

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Did you use teflon tape or a teflon thread sealant paste on the fittings that screw into the cooler? If not, it may weep.

As for the oil pressure gauge. Good idea. :tup: But if you get one. It has to read up to 150 psi. Oil pressure on a cold start up is over 100 psi. I'm using SpeedHut gauges.

Ok I'll do that and thanks for the advice with the oil pressure gauge. I checked the oil levels they looked fine.

I used loctite 567 sealant which is what was recommended on Modshack's DIY oil cooler thread.

It's good stuff. :tup: One thing about using it. You have to leave it sit for a few hours for best results.

I got tubes of the stuff for free from work. :rofl2:

I let it sit over night before taking the car out so it should have been long enough. I did turn the car on to park it and let the engine run for a few minutes to circulate the oil but it shouldn't have affected the stuff sealing too much. How hard is it to install a oil pressure gauge?

Not terribly difficult. There is a significant amount of wiring. You have to run the wires through the firewall. The passenger side, behind the battery, has some weird ribbed condom-style gasket where a bunch of wires run through the firewall. I ran mine though there. There are DIYs here explaining it.

What adapter fittings did you guys use on the oil cooler? I got the ones from Setrab that have a rubber o-ring. No sealant is needed.

Those look like Aeroquip.

FYI, Pegasus Auto Racing sells SECO 7 seals for AN fittings. Fits over the top of the nipple and seals damaged/worn nips.

Yep same here. Teflon tape won't do much good for o-ring seals.

Correction: that looks like he has the Z1 kit, which comes with the Setrab oil cooler fittings with the o-ring. If there is leakage, it's likely coming from the hose end/oil cooler fitting connection.

My oil cooler started leaking soon after I installed it. In my case it was due to a faulty gasket on the sandwich plate. I was lucky that z1 sells replacements for like $4. I would have saved myself a lot of work if I'd have paid more attention before I bolted everything up.

https://i.imgur.com/oAHk8q6l.jpg

Sounds like a mishitmoto sandwich plate. Good thing it didn't fail while driving and dump all your oil out on the road :eekdance:

It is the Z1 kit and that's what I'm thinking going to take.it off this afternoon clean it up tighten everything down and then test again. I read you aren't supposed to put any thread sealant on the AN fitting part is that correct. I did put some on the NPT part even though it has a o ring does that hurt it? I guess I just need to tighten everything a little more and check. How tight is too tight?

Before you start tightening things up, clean the area real well and see if the oil reappears. If the oil doesn't show back up, you are good to go.

If you have an o-ring, you will be better off without the sealant. A little thread sealer will not hurt if you have an o-ring seal but most people use way too much.

Too tight is when you break something. :) You might be able to find some torque specs online.

Thanks for the info. I didn't apply a lot so I think I'm good in that area. My plan is to clean everything really well and double check to make sure nothing is loose leaving fittings alone that feel securely tightened. Hopefully everything is good.

It was actually a Mocal. The plate was perfect, just had s gasket that failed qc

Did you put a little oil on the o-ring/gasket before you tightened it down?
I didn't use thread sealant on the AN fittings, but I used a compound (I hate the tape) in all the bspt and npt fittings. It worked so well that it sealed a bspt->npt junction with no leaks (they're similar at that size but not exact). If you go that route make sure to get one rated to the temperature and pressure that you'll expect to see

Thanks for all the help everyone! I think everything is good to go!:happydance: I cleaned everything off and checked all the fittings and everything looks good now. I took it out for a test drive after everything was done and I didn't see any oil on it afterwards. Still going to keep checking it and doing some more hard runs next weekend to verify but knock on wood I think it's good. I also made a block off plate (75% blocked off) because it's still a little chilly and it really helped get the temps up.

Great to hear! Don't forget ab the oil pressure gauge. A good one (Defi, 150 psi) will run you 200-300. A new engine will be substantially more.

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I have a Defi advance oil pressure and I can vouch for it... It's awesome. And it looks almost 100% stock

This! The gauge color is close enough to OEM that it's hard to tell the difference. I bought my gauge pod A pillar finisher from RDZ Motorsports. Very happy with it.