another cooler explosion
 

well i officially got 5 hours out of my oil cooler before a line started spewing oil out by the fiting. go to work in a bit so over the next few days i'll take it all apart and take lots of photos and figure out whether i installed it wrong or if it was a bad hose. I'm out 70 bucks in redline oil and 75 plus tax for the tow. I'll figure out what happened first before i got to in depth. Oil light came on with about 2 some quarts of oil left.

Well ****. What kind of lines and fittings were you using?

These kinds of posts really make me scared to get a oil cooler

Judging by your sig, looks like another GTM cooler failure. GTM cited that hose modification was the culprit. Did you modify the hoses?

How much slack was in your lines? My current thought is that with my first install I clamped the hoses too tight and vibration related fatigue caused the hose-to-fitting area to leak. I recall a few posts mentioning this as well.

Yea, I have been thinking about replacing a portion of the hoses with hard line instead.

I SWEAR TO GOD I DID NOT MODIFY THE HOSES AT ALL just so we don't have a repeat of that. It looks like they are still attached to the sandwhich plate so i'll wait until i tear it all apart and get a better look at the lines before i officially say its a bad line. Yes it is the standered gtm oil cooler kit. the lines were super long and there was lots of slack so i'm hoping one of the fittings came loose at the plate or something but i know i tightened them well off to work maybe i'll update in 12hours after i get home.

That blows man, glad you caught it ASAP.

:woot: for my rock solid Aeroquip hoses! Checked 'em the other day and there's no issues whatsoever. 4k miles and a track weekend since the install.

That's 2 down for the GTM cooler. I'm suspecting they have a hose supplier issue. One may be a coincidence, 2 is a pattern. Stainless socketed hoses SHOULD NOT come apart when assembled correctly. Even Car and driver reported this month that their "Dealer Installed" Nissan Motorsports cooler blew it's fittings. Personally I wouldn't trust any hoses that I didn't put together myself... Keep us posted!

Wow another gtm cooler explodes? uhh whats going on here?

Made in China hoses?

See the latest Car and Driver? They reported faulty fittings and leakage on the dealer installed Nissan Motorsports cooler.....

I've been watching this and have hesitated to respond due to the obvious relationship but I feel it necessary to say that there is no need to be concerned of all production oil cooler kits. We have not experienced any hose failures with our oil cooler kit. We use genuine Goodridge hoses which do cost more but as you can see, the quality is worth it.

Obviously a good move on your part Kyle. I know of no Stillen cooler line failures.....It's obvious that these are the most important parts. Cores are cores, you rarely, if ever, hear of a failure there....

There really is no need to have one if you don't race the car on a course.

Im waiting for my tranny and oil cooler kit from GTM. I do not have that warm fuzzy feeling after reading this thread.

Oh, you'd be surprised about cores, but then again, I'm speaking from experience in the aerospace industry.

The good news is that the oil psi light work!

Man i just don't even want to look at the thing right now, 3 weeks in the air from waiting for a stub shaft, managed to make the viscous axle work with some lathe time a carbide drill and some roll pins (a stroke of genius on my part if i do say so) take it out and 5 hours later the damn cooler blows the hell up. now i'm going to have to tear the front end back apart not to mention cleaning the crap out of the engine bay, but like i said don't go blaming gtm just yet we'll save that until after i take it apart and see where she's spraying from. It may be my fault but we'll see on that I'm not going to just shove this off on bad lines just yet. don't want to ruin their reputation further until i know what it is. If it is GTM's fault I'll have to deal with it and bust out the phone and give sam a call but let's just wait and see.

First of all sorry about all your trouble, Please let us know what is your finding of what ever could have caused this, We are here to help, and we will do what ever it takes to make things right.

pm sent

Sam

Thankfully I havent had any issues with mine for just about 7k miles now. Looking forward to what it is you find went wrong!

http://www.the370z.com/members/1slow...blown-line.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/1slow...slack-line.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/1slow...at-blowout.jpg

I can't find any reason for the line to have come out both lines have a ton of slack, and the picture shows the swaybar as high up as it goes as the suspension is fully unloaded and it's close but it doesn't even touch the lines.

Also the inside of the hose is totally smooth and doesn't show hardly any signs of having a single barb pressed into it. It isn't torn up at all but i'll tell you this the ID of the line looks much bigger than the barb fitting(i know it may have expanded but seriously it looks like the joint was barely held together at all).

i just hope my engine isn't damaged there may have been 2 minutes there when i costed into a parking lot where it was running after the line blew then i shut it off as soon as i got in the lot and called the tow. there can't have been much of any pressure in the oil system, i'm hoping i was saved by my oil being cold enough that the cooler was in bypass so there is a chance some oil was still going to the bearings.

My car regularly sees 240-250 on a hot day (normal grandma driving) I start to notice the cars throttle response decreasing right when it hits about 220, it really feels sluggish and like it has lost power compared to when its running 160-180 when first driving off after a few minutes of warm up.
I definitely think this car needs a cooler, at least my car, I could never drive spiritedly during the summer without one. It sucks.

Yikes. That looks exactly like the other GTM cooler failure we've seen.

you said you still had two quarts left in the pan, right? If so, your engine should be fine. Oil should be flowing from the pickup tube, through the engine then out to the filter, right?

I'm sticking with my theory of incorrectly assembled hoses. BTW, the inside will be smooth and seem bigger as the screw in piece of the fitting (Nipple) is tapered and smooth. As it is tightened it presses the Stainless jacketed side out to engage with the barbs in the outer barrel. Done wrong (see step 3) and you have a problem...Since these are re-usable fittings, it is easy to unscrew the Nipple to check for proper hose engagement..

http://images18.fotki.com/v457/filem.../anfitting.jpg

Looks like I'm not buying a cooler from gtm :/

Not at all, if you can't do it just take it to a shop and they'll do a great job.
:tup:
Our z's need these asap. Should be one of the first mods done.

Man what a perfect plug huh?

Steve, in your DIY, are there any special percaucions with the fittings i should be aware of before I install mine?

Its about 65 to 70 outside and Im seeing 220 degrees easy right now with normal to an occasional burst here and there driving. So yea Im putting one one ASAP, already have the stuff just got to get to the car care center to put it on.

Did the 350z have the same problem?

ah ok a different type of an fitting than what i've used in the past. Used these ones that looked like that except the nipple was barbed instead of tappered now it makes sense why the hose looks the way it does i don't want to take the lines or fittings apart until i talk to gtm about it.

Im gonna have to disagree here,like I said only 70 degrees out and Im seeing 220 easy with just some quick pickups here and there. From what I can tell if you dont shift and keep you rpms below 3K you will see high temps. As it will get another 30+ degrees here I can only imagine what a spirited drive might give you temp wise, and since we dont really know what temp will start to cause the oil to F up, Im getting a small one to help keep them down. $240 dollars for everything.

Wow, Cobra, those temps are really high. I have never seen north of 230 even when I'm on it, but then again haven't driven it when temps were above 70F

besides the temp, would elevation/humidity be a factor in how quickly or how much it heats up?

AAM had all my hoses made by Goodridge as well, and I have had zero issues.

Who makes the hoses in GTM's kit? I haven't had any problems with my cooler either, and I'm running Stillen's kit with the Goodridge hoses. And what about the Nissan Motorsports kit? Anyone know who makes the hoses in that one? Wouldn't it be interesting if both kits use the same hose supplier?

I am probably going to have a hydraulic shop put together the hoses for me.