Go slow, when lined up right they will pop right in. Reposition, press, reposition, press till they go in. One end went in immediately but the second took 6 tries. Don't over press if they don't go right in...

 

Definitely take a lot of care to make sure the headers line up. If you jack that oil cooler together, you could cut the o-rings on the interior flanges, crack the headers, or both.

Here's a safer way to compress the headers:

 

What is it that usually fails on these? I have a pretty good oil leak from that area. Can the oil cooler leak oil externally?

 

Yes, it will leak oil externally when the o-rings go out. I rebuilt mine after I pressure washed all the years of dirt off of it, which revealed a horrible oil leak. When I pulled it apart the o-rings came out in crumbling chunks. I never had any issues with coolant or oil mixing, just external oil leaks.

 

To save a lot of cussing and frustration it pays to use some Parker O-ring lube, makes any hydraulic components press together much easier.

 

Ha, i like this idea, i used our car trailer to put mine together. Stood it up on a block and cranked the trailer down on it, worked like a dream.

 

I will contribute to this thread as I just finished this job and it was a huge, messy pain in the behind.

My truck is a 1993 F250 with the 7.3 and ATS turbo. I bought the truck with the cooler leaking oil badly from the rear elbow/cooler interface, which was the main reason the previous owner sold it as he saw what kind of job it was going to be and didn't have the energy to tackle it. Lucky me, the truck is otherwise in amazing shape and I got it for a good deal.

He told me I'd have to lift the engine, but I thought I might get away without doing that. If I ever had to do it again, I'd lift the engine, as the cooler cannot be fished out in one piece unless you do, as I found out the hard way.

Here is my experience with this job:

REMOVING THE COOLER:
Drained the oil, drained the coolant from the radiator petcock and driver's side block drain (into a tupperware container), and removed the lower rad hose for access. Removed the steering shaft (mark it with a paint marker or sharpie for reference) and power steering pump (in ordered to remove the pump I had to take the serpentine belt off, unbolt the A/C compressor and zip tie it off the side, then remove the bracket that holds the power steering pump, vacuum pump and AC compressor). Took the oil filter off, removed the block ground up front (at the cooler), undid the 8 bolts holding the cooler on. Mine pried off the block easily. As I attempted to fish it out, I also took out the inner fender liner and unbolted the brake hardline union block on the driver's side frame rail and undid the electrical connector on it. The MFer could not be fished out, so at 1am covered in oil, undercoating and coolant I called it a night.

The next day I managed to get the front housing wedged between the engine mount and exhaust manifold and through lots of tugging, shaking and cursing managed to get the elbow to separate and pulled the bundle + rear elbow out as one piece and then the front elbow separately. In order to get the rear elbow off the bundle I had to gently put the rear housing of the cooler in a bench vise such that the cooler bundle pointed straight into the air then twist it with a large pipe wrench. Even after getting it to twist it took lots of prying, rubber mallet whacks, and tugging to get it off. The little metal tabs did me no good. From there I cleaned up the housings with brake clean and some clean rags, and a drill with a wire wheel where the steel cooler had left a ring of corrosion on the elbow.

RE-INSTALLING THE COOLER:
I ordered a new Dorman cooler ($400 CAD from rockauto shipped, vs $1100 from NAPA), as it appears the genuine Ford/International coolers are now discontinued and my original cooler showed too much pitting for me to trust it. The kit came with new o-rings and gaskets. I oiled these liberally with new Rotella 15W-40 and figured my best bet would be to install the front elbow on the truck, assemble the rear elbow and cooler bundle as one, and then put it back in as it came out. Getting the rear elbow onto the bundle ended up being surprisingly difficult, as it was quite hard to get it perfectly square in the shop press and the leading edge of the cooler kept bottoming out on the innermost face of the elbow casting. I had to de-burr that face inside the elbow twice as when it bottomed out it would distort the face and then the cooler wouldn't slip in. After finally getting it together, I again faced this issue as when I tried to brace a prybar on the exhaust manifold and push on the rear edge of the rear housing I couldn't get it square.

I tried taking everything out again and assembling the front elbow and cooler together, then installing the rear elbow, but ran into the same issue where I couldn't get it perfectly square under the truck and it would bottom out. That's when I had a look at the original cooler and realized the genuine Ford cooler is chamfered around the leading edge so it self-centres on that face easier, where the Dorman cooler is machined square. Out came the cooler and I chamfered the edges with the bench grinder, being careful not to get the cooler itself full of shavings. After this it went together easier. I still needed to put the elbow and cooler on together, then pry the rear elbow partway on, then wrap a ratchet strap around the cooler itself and tighten it until it almost bottomed out from being slightly crooked, then used a prybar through the wheel well to prop it up and ratchet it the rest of the way on.

From here I was only just barely able to slide the rear gasket in and tighten up the bolts. I had cleaned up the faces on the block with a wire wheel on a drill and brake clean, and installed the gaskets dry as was recommended to me.

Much to my dismay, after filling the fluids once more and starting it, it leaked oil from the rear elbow/block interface almost as badly as before. After much cursing and swearing, I drained all the fluids once again, undid the cooler bolts, applied Permatex "The Right Stuff" (black) to both sides of both gaskets and reinstalled. Filled with fluids again, flashed up, no more leaks.


Hope this is helpful to anyone else who has to do this job. It sucked, but I'm happy to have my truck back.

 

Sorry to resurrect a really old thread, but does anyone know if the 7.3 IDI Turbo cooler core (30 fins per inch version) is the same as the 1st gen PowerStroke cooler core? I see a lot of parts sites, some even being OEM Ford dealers, list the 93-94 and 94-97 trucks under the same part number for cooler core. I can't tell if this is the usual IDI vs PS confusion, or if they actually are the same core...

 

Power Stroke Oil Cooler 95.5 -03
Width 18.00 In
Height 6.00 In
Depth 6.00 In

Two different Animals. Only thing related between the 2 engines is the
Oil in the Crank Case and the 1995A Oil Filter. And both 7.3 displacement
Engines.

IDI Diesel Engine 88 - 94
Width 18.00 In
Height 8.00 In
Depth 4.00 In


Charlie

 

If you need new o-rings and gaskets I highly recommend buying them from RussRepair.com because his gaskets were custom ordered/made and are much more substantial than the typical Dorman BS. Unfortunately we lost Russ this past year but apparently his business lives on, at least for now.

 

I just discovered an oil leak, appears to be coming from the oil cooler. Dripped about a tablespoon of oil, probably from the front elbow of the cooler. Dripped down on the TTB and the frame on to the garage floor. A couple posts up a guy replaced the bundle because of pitting. Is that typical or is it usually the O rings? Looks like a PITA to get at. Some people say the engine has to be jacked up to get it out and back in.. I'm working with an 86 6.9l. Will the engine need to be lifted to remove the oil cooler? I want to avoid taking it out in pieces and the replacing it piecemeal, assembling it on the engine sounds like no fun at all. Anybody have advice on the right way to remove and replace? I see there are related threads below which I'm going to read yet. I'm hoping the leak doesn't get too bad before my next oil change. I'd like to do it then. Coolant still has some life too. Would be nice to do coolant and oil change outs at the same time.

​​​​​​

 

You cannot install it piecemeal as the headers require some force to reinstall. I did my '92 F250 without lifting the engine and it came out in one piece. Yes it is a pain. Probably just the o-rings. Buy O-rings and gaskets from russrepair.com as the gaskets are thicker. Use Hi Tack to hold gaskets in place and take time to clock the headers perfectly so they meet up with the block just right and don't move the gaskets. Use assembly lube on the o-rings and carefully press the headers back on as you do not want to tear the o-ring. Remove anything you can to get better access because it's worth it to make this even one bit easier. I'm no mechanic but I managed to get this right on the first attempt so I'm sure you can too.

 

I found this article which has a pretty good description of the removal and repair process. He recommends removing the power steering pump.
​​​​​https://www.dieselhub.com/maintenanc...il-cooler.html

Did you remove the power steering pump?

I think I'm going to start with some brake cleaner and clean up the scene of the crime first. Verify where the leak is coming from. I also read that the oil cooler O-ring failures can cause oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil. Is that a concern when the oil cooler first leaks? Or can I drive it and top off any oil loss for a while? I don't want to chance any cross contamination. How is the oil cooler configured, coolant through the middle and oil on the outside? If so perhaps the coolant can stay in it's lane for a while longer?

 

I read here:

https://www.dieselhub.com/maintenanc...il-cooler.html

that there are two types of oil coolers. Older 6.9 engines are different from later ones. My truck is 86, but the engine is not the original. It's a reman from Dealer's Diesel. Apparently the O-rings are different in the two types of oil coolers. I'm assuming that the reman probably had the second generation oil cooler but is there a way to verify that? I was wanting to get everything I need for the job on hand before starting the project. My truck is my only transport at the moment.