Oil Cooler hose exploded
 

Like the topic states. Right above the AN fitting it sort of mushroomed on the end that connects to the thermo plate. I dont know exactly what happened as I didnt feel like looking at tonight. Not as mad as I thought Id be but disappointed. Any ideas? I mean everything was sturdy, tightly closed. the core didnt even budge from the bracket we made to attach it. I am really disappointed and I hope nothing internally was damaged since it pretty much drained the entire system of 6.4 qts or so. Basically what happened was right after the install I drove the car until it reached 180F. The I redlined the hell out of it for a while. The temp was still doing good and there were no leaks of any kind. Then I decided to take long route home on the freeway and see how it did on the temp while highway driving. All I remember is at one point I down shifted from 6th to 4th at 80mph and brought it up to about 6800rpms and thats when it happened. Any ideas? were the hoses not sealed properly above the AN fitting.

Here is the pic of right after we installed it. Of course its not the aftermath pic. I really wasnt in the mood to even lookat the car I was so disappointed.
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...OilCooler1.jpg

Was this a prefab kit or did you put it together yourself?

Yeah, who's kit and hoses ?

:iagree:

Thats the GTM kit with their revised hoses. Tomorrow when I take the car apart again I will get more pics adn post em. From what it looked like the hoses blew at the circled part. So dam frustrating I cant even sleep and I am tired as hell.

hmmm... Was this professionally done? Did you check the inside of the lines before you installed them? You may have had some obstruction in the line causing unwanted pressure at that point.

yeah everything looked fine. I am getting ready to start taking the car apart to look at it. Ill get the pics up when i have time. Oil was everywhere! Pretty pissed if it damaged anything and it was deffective.

Should've gone for Aeroquip Socketless hose. Especially if the issue was the line coming off of the fitting.

Sucks. Makes me reluctant to put the oil cooler in. In for more pics of the aftermath.

^^ this is the first instance of this happening, while it sucks and I'm sorry for the OP I don't see it being a reoccurring issue. In for pics hopefully it's a quick fix, unfortunately its going to cost you to get good oil back in there damn ester prices!

the issue I have is the oil pretty much all over my car, any possible damage done to car, and why the hoses failed in the first place. The install is easy it just takes time to make a custom bracket and figure out where you want to route the hoses. Everything fit perfect and all the AN fittings were Loctited shut except one which was attached to the cooler itself for oil changes but the core itself is fine. Hopefully GTM can cover this since I cant really think of anything in thr install process that would cause the pre assembled hose to fail. Will have the pics up later today. I will probably just uninstall the cooler adn redo the oil change which means another new filter and 6 more qts of $10 per liter oil. Man waht a bad day. Seriously shoulda waited and bought that dam vette!!

That sucks! Looking forward to seeing those pics to see if we can help figure out what went wrong.

Wow...Poorly assembled hose I suspect. Adding an AN fitting is pretty cut and dried, but people do make mistakes. Correctly done they should never come apart. I've put many of them together, but find the newer socketless approach easier and essentially a no-brainer. With a DIY, YOU have control over all this. Sorry for the problems. I think TravisB lost an engine from a similar problem...

(BTW, there is no need to loctite an AN fitting)

Quality Aeroquipt Hose and fittings just do not have a history of failing if assembled correctly.. Who knows what the hose brand was though...Sometimes on a kit you never know.

Good AN install how-to here: http://forums.clubrsx.com/showthread.php?p=18093108

http://images53.fotki.com/v1574/phot...SCF0024-vi.jpg

That sucks about the AFTER MARKET kit, but what does that have anything to do with you waiting for a vette? Even if it was a nissan hose things like this unfortunately do happen. Like someone said above your the first that it has happened to. Its just frustrating that your the one it happened to. Just like I'm sure this response is also frustrating.

Anyway, sucks man. I would call GTM and see if they are willing to send you a new set of hoses.

that's really unfortunate. Hopefully this is an isolated incident and not too serious. Anyone else have a gtm cooler that can give us input?

Well yeah they will ost likely send me new hoses. I think Nissan shoulda fixed this problem when it came up. Kinda annoying to go through the trouble of installing it then having it fail. The vette I should have bought honestly. Especially now that I can afford one I dont know why I didnt but I figure I can drop my loan 15 or 16k in a year adn trade it in. I already ordered a **** ton of parts for the Z and am seriously considering selling them once I get them since theyll be brand new so that will also add some more funds toward the loan. One hell of an expensive lesson is patience and I sure am paying for it.

I have a 2010 ZR1 for sale:stirthepot:

This is not Nissan's problem (they've made their statement on this), but GTM's . On the Vette, I sold my '08 for the Z. I'm MUCH happier overall but your mileage may vary..

I dont know how a threaded, steel braided hose disconnects itself like that. Its not touching any moving parts in fact we were nearly standing on the bumper and turning the tires in both directions to make sure it was touching anything moving. Its such a clean breaking point its strange. I gues that pump really has quite a lot of power. I dont know exactly how GTM is gonna cover it but at this point I dont care. My friend has installed alot if oil coolers and he didnt like the 45 degree AN fittings for the ends on the adapter plate. If you like the smell of burning oil my car is the place to be. oh and smoke from burning oil to.
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...Z/CIMG0531.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...Z/CIMG0534.jpg

Wow, never seen that happen before.

OMG how does that happen? when i almost pulled the trigger on an oil cooler, gtm was my first choice. Good thing i've decided to build one from scratch as ModShack recommended.

I'm guessing the hose was not fully seated into the AN fitting as the internal threaded Hose spreader/expander was screwed in, or the hose was not held securly in place while this was being done. It is possible that the internal threaded portion Pushed the hose out toward the end of the fitting as it was being tightened, rather than threading into it (they are a tight fit). These need to be assembled in a vice. This would still look perfectly normal from the outside but have no holding power (Duh!) . Hose Assembler error (or a poor quality AN fitting)

BTW. why all the silicone on the swivel joints? YOu don't need that at all...

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...su2001/5-1.jpg

the annoying thing about it is that all the oil you see there is after we wiped it down so we could start disassembling and find out what the hell happened. We moved the car into the garage because he didnt want it staining his driveway and right when I lifted it up he was like :ohsnap1: I just started laughing. Theres nothing I can do but laugh.

I hate Nissan too because I got a part from another company that was not put together properly. My logic is flawless.

Yeah, I hate Nissan for letting that bird crap on my freshly washed car.

On a more serious note...
It looks like the failed hose was under some tension. The 'resting' position in your photo is about an inch from the actual fitting. Was the hose short or did you have to put some tension on it to get the fittings to meet up?

lol I dont hate Nissan I just think its an odd problem for a sports car to have in 2010. I have brought the car up to a little over 260F on back roads and I noticed pretty considerable throttle response decrease. I can only compare it to the other 2 cars I have owned. A 1999 Ford Ranger which I drove to Utah from Hemet, Ca 4 times. To vegas a few times. I put alot of miles on it in 4 years and it never gave me any issues with oil. My 2006 RSXS I beat the sh*t out of it even from a cold start when I was messing around with my friend and it never gave me any issues. I am pretty sure I bounced it off the redline everyday in 1st-3rd. The only issue I had was my own fault for destroying the 2nd and 3rd gear synchros due to power shifting. I dont hate the Z, but I a not gonna get up to randomly go drive for the heck of it anymore. I am not mad at GTM its not their fault and I dont know how I could have seen this comming. We even got an air hose and checked for leaks and nothing. If my Z was FI and this happened I wouldnt be so disappointed but its not.

Shouldn't matter if the hose is assembled correctly. These fittings are good for hundreds of pounds of pressure and I bet would hold your weight when done correctly..I think it blew off because it was mis-assembled..

Well who's fault is it then? They sourced (or made) the part and sold it to you. Admittedly in good faith, but the failure is still theirs to fess up to..

well yeah itd be the manufacturers. I dont know what GTM does to the hoses. Maybe they order everything and attach them together. I called them today and they said theyd replace the hoses. I am not sure if itd do me any good to waste their time since I am gonna sell everything I bought for the Z so I dont know if people will want to buy the hoses. Not knocking GTM just not too many people have their kit compared to stillen or your famous DIY kit. Its funny cuz I installed a bunch of stuff on my RSX by myself including the K-Pro ECU and I never had any issues other than my driving habits on the tranny. I install a simple oil cooler and it all goes to sh*t lol I even made my own elbow bracket wityh plyers and a part of a hinge!

I bought my GTM oil cooler kit in December and just got it put on 2 weeks ago. I'm curious about when you bought your oil cooler kit? Hopefully this is an isolated experience. I sincerely hope GTM is back tracing their manufacturers errors to provide hoses to all who may be affected.

um, no it isn't... happened to me and I blew an engine... same exact thing - not the GTM kit though

btw, what clued you in? did you see the oil on the street or did you see the oil light come on on the panel? how long before you cut off the motor? just curious... not a lot of time between the engine running out of oil and the thing ceasing up in a really bad way - something I unfortunately learned the hard way!

and for what it's worth, i agree, GTM should replace your hoses and with a different part... that's just part of being in the biz - they know it

I can see how you'd be pissed, but seriously, this is the life of the aftermarket and with so few Zs actually being produced I am thankful we have as large an aftermarket as we do. Yes, it's a pisser to have to cleanup an oil mess, but borrow a pressure washer with an underbody lance and simply apply a biodegradable degreaser via the pressure washer and then wash off the oil—not all that bad. View it as a lesson learned (believe me...I've been schooled many a time) to check all the parts before installation. GTM employs humans; humans occasionally make mistakes. It's not like GTM set out to piss you off or to get the bad press they are now getting via this thread. I'd keep the setup and work with GTM to resolve the situation. Life's too short to change course in this situation. Recoup, regather, re-install, and enjoy! C'mon man, you own a Z...how people can say that these days? :tup:

idk how hard it is for you, but just swapping out a plug and play ecu is not hard at all. i agree with modshack, this seems like an installer error so don't blame the z for your bad installation

i feel sorry for the poor sap that's gonna buy ur car

The Z is fine. Its very dirty and I dont think ima spend the $100 to get it pressure washed but everything runs ok. Just got back from a late night drive and it seems normal, my butt dyno doesnt approve of the Stillen G3.

I can see what your saying about owning a Z. Im single and Im gonna stay that way, im 22, I have been a border patrol agent for 3 years and I work hard, outside in heat, rain, and cold weather, I dont get to sit inside a building all day long. I know how lucky I am to own a Z but I wasnt handed the dam thing for free. I can afford to drive a c6 vette, shoulda bought a c6 vette, should be driving a c6 vette tomorrow to work. Well I am not and thats the lesson I learned, patience. All the bs about the user install lol its plumbing connect part A to part B. The hardest part was the cooler itself; trying to figure out where to mount the thing. Regaurdless of everyones opinions, mine will stay the same. Z is a great fun car but it has its flaws like every other car on the market. Not knocking it at all, I still drive it, still defend it, I just want to get rid of it.

Did any of the engine oil cover the Stillen air filters? The G3 is pretty much proven to provide gains. How long have you had it on? :)

Noooo! Don't use a pressure washer, I read some where that's a no-no! The water under that kind of pressure, can get into places and things that will cause problems!

I agree that you shouldn't go for the pressure washer. Just cover the distributor and other electrical pieces with plastic bags, spray on an engine degreaser, and hose off.

I own a German-made Kranzle with adjustable pressure, and I use the underbody lance accessory followed by a Metro in areas that it can reach. The whole setup works beautifully, at least for me, but I’m detailed oriented as I take car care too seriously (ask my wife). No need to use it at full-pressure, and it's not a steam cleaner (that can actually remove engine paint, among other things).

Travis: was your failure do to a properly assembled fitting?