I got these parts and I'm preparing to slap them in. I am leaving the factory oil cooler in place which seems to be possibly semi clogged but still working, it has been giving me oil coolant spreads of 20°-25° on grades, but highest temp has been 225° for oil. Running rotella t6 5-40.

So, my hope is that the factory oil cooler will become the new oil warmer, and I'll rely on the derale 40 row cooler to do the bulk of cooling.

Parts I've purchased are
Derale 54012 40 row oil cooler
OB8722 filter head
E series remote oil filter adapter
Bunch of -12AN fittings.

I modded the remote oil filter casting by drilling two new holes for the weld-in AN fittings to exit the top of the unit, and I fitted round plugs to the original ports because the exited rearward. This gave me more flexibility on oil hose routing. If I had to do it again I'm not sure I'd do it this way. Welding the casting was a botch and it left me without confidence that the fittings would even be oil tight much less structurally attached. But, with welding on aluminum castings it's always a crap shoot. The pics I saw of people welding the regular oil filter base gave me confidence in this weld job but the parts are obviously made from different metal, or I'm losing my touch with the tig!

Anyway I'm going to fit the stuff and run some hose. I have a question about the cooler unit. I've seen people mount them in front of the AC cooler in the very front, but I seem to have room behind it in between the ac cooler and the radiator. Would this be better place for it? Seems less in the way of rocks and debris behind the AC. A loss of AC to a rock is preferable to a loss of oil!

I plan to orient the cooler with ports to the sides and I'm trying to think of a good way to allow myself easy access to the filter, and possibly even to drain the cooler although I'm not super hung up on draining every bit of oil in a change.

 

My lack of confidence in my weld job was bolstered by the use of JB weld slathered all over the exterior parts at the joints. I'm not proud of it as a fab job, but I'm confident it's a good part now, even if not pretty. I've made a career out of welding aluminum so trust me it's not easy to post this pic.

 

Have you deleted the EGR cooler?
If not you may have a problem with this idea. The EGR coolers fail do to heat.
The reason they over heat is lack of coolant flow. So all this will do is make you
see good numbers even as you have a snowballing problem coming on.



Sean <BR>

6.0L Tech Folder

 

Yes i did delete the egr cooler by welding a block off plate into the pipe that feeds it, but I left the cooler in place because I have the early version which I hear is a little stronger, and also because now that it won't receive hot gasses it won't have the ability to boil the water in there even if it's clogged. Sound reasoning?

 

This is interesting. What year truck? Keep going and keep posting.

 

I've had good luck with JB Weld, just not sure I'd completely be comfortable with it in such a critical role -- I worry about enough things rolling down the road, but that is me....

I'd take a look at the BPD remote oil cooler mounting instructions (IPR makes a kit too), and see where/how they mount their oil cooler -- I'm sure they had thought this through as well....

 

You blocked both ends I hope. That way if it ever does leak
the coolant will stay in the cooler and not get into the intake.



Sean <BR>

6.0L Tech Folder

 

I only blocked the one end on the EGR. Wasn't really thinking about it rupturing because it's a little stronger early design and my feeling is that the breakage mainly comes from the exhaust heat cooling it which it won't have now. I also didn't have the scoop thing that people talk about removing in the turbo pipe.

And re: JB weld, my use of it was mainly just to seal any pin holes from the crappy casting material that the adapter was made from. The physical attachment I'm not worried about so JB is only a sealer in this case. However if it breaks it would likely die immediately without really causing damage, except possible fire risk.

Thanks for the tips about the install guides I'll look them up after a nap.

 

Curious as to why you think it would die before you would say: notice the smell of oil or something like that? This is on the low pressure side, so as long as the HPOP has enough oil from the LPOP, it should run...

I guess I too was thinking more of a leak and not catastrophic failure. But let's just say worst case is you're going across country and you are at freeway speeds at night....

eventually something will tell you "we're" running out of oil...

I'm sure it is my paranoia, don't get bit by it

 

Yeah well if you fall down that rabbit hole then pretty much any system on the truck can leave you stranded. Especially with 330k already on the clock. Like I said, I'm not worried about this part failing at all now. At least not as much as I'm worried about a lot of other parts.

 

In my next life I want to be an optimist, in this life I currently live most the time at the bottom of the rabbit hole you speak of....

 

Wdrape a large sheet of plastic bug screen from the hardware store in front of all your coolers and Zip tie it in place at top amid bottom. Bugs will stick, dry and fall, rocks won't cut through and damage a cooler. Coolers will stay clean I and work better for longer. I would reconsider the JB weld too, but your there so let's se how it does. From the bottom of the rabbit hole, Mike

 

Norma, where are you on this? Did it work? Problems?

 

Was waiting on my 45$ oil filter (!) to arrive and to get some time set aside so filter came yesterday and I'm hoping to dive into it this weekend. I need to make brackets for the cooler and the filter head and when all is mounted then I will source the hose. It's very expensive hose so I want to make sure I get just the right amount. Seems like it will be about 7-9$/ft

 

I got the BT8851-mpg filter. Anyone have a suggested change interval? I don't love to get 10k mi out of it if possible. It's the biggest and heaviest and most expensive filter ive purchased to date I think.