As some of yall know I just put 160/80 injectors on my truck about 1000 miles ago - loving them so far! What I'm not loving, however, is the fact I came out to a large puddle of oil under my truck the other day while letting it warm up after work (Quick side note, the thing starts like a champ at 2° F ambient and oil at 13° F with only one fifteen second GP cycle - this truck is something else).

Turns out the cold finally got to my oil cooler o-rings, though. Over about three days of warming up in less than 15° F I lost roughly a quart or so of oil. Normally I'd have already ordered the gasket/O-Ring kit from Riffraff and have the parts at work ready to slap on the truck, but I just changed the oil when I did my injectors 1000 miles ago, meaning I have about $150 worth of oil sitting in my pan that im looking at eating unless I keep the truck topped off and wait until my next oil change. I know it isn't the best option, but I'd prefer to not lose all that oil so soon - especially since I just dropped the money I did on the injectors. My old boss suggested catching the oil in a spotless pan and re-using it, but that doesn't sound very appetizing to me.

Now, I do have a question about the procedure itself. DieselTechRon's video shows him resealing it and leaving the front mount on, while everything I've seen/read on here states you should remove the front mount. Is there much harm in leaving the front mount on when doing the cooler? With 382k on mine I'm thinking it'd be best to go ahead and pull it even though the front mounting gasket isn't leaking currently. I'm interested in everybody else's thoughts though.

Thanks in advance!

 

I pulled the front mount when I did mine. Someone posted using a ratchet strap to slowly and calmly squeeze the assembly back together - brilliant by the way - and doing that on the truck just seemed crazy to me. Just be sure to adequately mark orientation so it goes together right, otherwise a little twisting will be needed to reinstall. Reinstalling the entire thing however was a bit of a pain though.

 

I'm thinking it was Rich that posted an overhaul of his that was a tutorial and had many photos, including the strap procedure. I saved it at one point but no one could save my computer. Search Tuglys posts and you may find it.

Denny

 

Take the front head off the block and replace that gasket as well. I've had that gasket blow and it can create a confusing mess of goo and make you chase your tail to find out where the leak is actually coming from. The easiest way I've found to do that is to loosen the power steering bracket, slip it forward, and there is plenty of room to navigate the bolts and R&R process for that front head.

Again... at a minimum, don't skip replacing that gasket.

As for putting the heads back on the heat exchanger tube with new o-rings, you have to make sure that you adequately lube the o-rings with a little grease film. Then, you can push them back together by standing the cooler vertically on one end (on top of a block of wood), and use your body weight to push the heads back onto the tubes... it just slips back together with the pressure. This has worked well for me twice now, and even though I am a rather large guy, I've seen pictures of a much smaller skinny guy having the same success with the same technique.

 

I've never had to do mine yet, knock on wood. But there are two ways to do something: Right or Again. That philosophy has been drilled into me since I was a kid and I've lived by it my whole life.

 

Do it right and remove it completly and change both gaskets and O rings. No need to take the oil out the pan, you do however need to remove the coolant.
I have used my shop ramp and pressed the two ends together and has worked great. The ratchet strap idea is good never thought about that.

 

I'll go ahead and remove the front mount then, Ron's video had me questioning if it truly needed to be done. Everything has been ordered and is in route from Clay.

I'll do my best to drain 100% of the coolant out before removing the mount so to try and mitigate any coolant getting in the pan. Hopefully I'll have the gumption to do it after work one night this week.

 

Glad I'm not the only one. .y oil cooler o rings went last week when we had a cold snap in the negatives

 

I just finished mine last night. Took longer to get the fluids out and put back in then to replace o rings and put back in. I had a buddy come over and help hold the front portion of the oil cooler while I positioned the rear portion.

I found that the two ends mounting surfaces are on a flat plane. As long as they are lined up the same it goes right back on. I used a flat piece of wood and lined it up.

 

Last one I did back in August, I spent about an hour just flushing Brakleen and gasoline through to get it really cleaned out for better heat transfer once it was back in service.

 

I did mine the Ron way about 80k miles ago, no problems to date. I was surprised at how little pressure on the 8" prybar it took to get the tube back into the front header. Whichever way you go be sure to grease everything up good so the o-rings do not roll or get buggared up.

 

From dieselorings.com


Genuine Ford Oil Cooler Repair Kit with 2 Genuine Ford gaskets and 4 o-rings for the Ford 7.3 Diesel


http://www.dieselorings.com/docs/OilCooler.pdf

 

You can use the bottom 2 drain plugs to drain more coolant. You will want to do the detergent flush or whatever to get the oil out of the cooling system from the oil cooler oring failure.

Another "YES" to removing both mounts.

Much easier to separate, clean up, and reassemble when removed. Be sure to get it ALL cleaned up.

It stinks to have this problem crop up while it is cold. Good luck to you guys dealing with it. Fortunately I did mine in the summer a few years back.

 

I would suggest pulling the complete unit as you need to clean those small copper tubes and other parts of the oil cooler - trash or whatever, can get caught in those small passages and cause some restrictions. It's just a good time to clean up that area; if done right the first time it will be a long time before it is done again.
It's mainly a dirty job, nothing hard.

 

I have a question or two.
How much oil do you lose doing the repair?
I have the ELC coolant and the repair kit, but I just did the oil.
Do you end up getting any coolant into the oil system if you drain it first?