i am puting new orings in the oil cooler on my 92 f250 this weekend and have been told a few different things from different people can anyone clarify them for me one said there were drain plugs on the cooler to get the last of the oil and coolant out true/false? i forgot to ask when i was at the international dealer picking up my parts i have been told that i can do it with out jacking the motor up and have also been told i have to pull a motor mount and jack up the motor the guy at the dealer couldnt remember and i was told you have to press the whole thing together if you have to press it together how do you get it apart? also forgot to ask the dealer thanks guys

 

I have no idea if yours is the same as my 1985 f250? Somebody else would have to tell us???

If it is I can give you an exact account of what I had to do a couple weeks ago, from the approach of a non techie and diesel newbie

 

I have not done one but it uses orings so I can't see having to use a press.

 

well the guy at the dealer told me it is easyest to use a press i got the o rings today and they are like 5/16" thick any help would be appreciated i have never done one befor

 

and i believe it is the same as your 85 should be 4 o rings

 

You can't take a hammer to it. Getting the old one apart was easy for me because it was greasy, no rust. I used a malet and put the thing in a vice with a towel on the middle tube, and slowly smacked it around and it broke free then we pulled each side apart.

Yeah ours used the 4 orings, 2 smaller black ones, 2 larger green ones. I used a couple small tubes of plumbers silicone grease that you can get at the hardware store, that will help during assembly and protect the orings instead of eat them.

Also we were feeling lucky. Cleaned everything up real good, put grease on orings and all mating surfaces and along the path things would travel during assembly. As has been mentioned on this site and others many times put the orings on the core and press the caps on one at a time.

Me and my brother used the jack underneath the trucks tow package with 2x4's up top and bottom. With 2 people so that you can keep the pieces straight while jacking! Don't try to do it alone, you could just feel it try and pop together at an angle.


Now as to how to get to it, I chose to get it out in one piece because I was freaked I would break something while prying it apart. In the end, I could have seen this working just fine because my orings were shot and it came apart pretty easy.

So by taking it out in one piece I tried to get it out without lifting the engine and I couldn't muster it. It was tight but did come out finally after I lifted the engine about an inch or so. After I got it out, I let the engine down quick because I was afraid to work near it.

I took out all the power steering pump/brackets. I took out the lower radiator hose and the neck it attaches to at the engine(note i had to install this back first before the oil cooler so you could torque the bolts down. also have to mess with raising the engine again to get your sockets in)

It was also a bear to clean the back header mating surface from underneath the truck on my back, but I did it with plastic scraper and multiple applications of gasket remover. Also it would be good to degrease the area around the mating surfaces ahead of time, it can be a real nasty mess and I would wear safety goggles!

I had to lay a moving blank down over the engine compartment and get my head in there to clean the front header area. Grueling work and it took me half a day just to clean everything up. When I was done with each area I cleaned it all with brake cleaner.

I used the felpro gasket set with no goop on the gasket and was able to torque all the bolts.

Don't seem to be having intermixing at the moment and no signs of seeping around the bolts, which I used antisieze goop on.


At the end of the day, yes it was very nasty to do, but thanks to the outlines on this forum I tackled it. As long as you have a good comfy spot to work in, the right tools, light and know you will probably get dirty, I don't think its that big of a deal at the end of the day.

If you have room underneath your truck I would get one of those roller things so you can scoot around. The grub clothes and safety goggles are good unless you like getting crap in your eyes and eating oil chunks. I also like to wear kneepads and bunch up moving blankets when working in the engine bay, on the ground, etc.

Sorry if I am rambling, I am so tired right now. Today was ujoint day for me

 

When I did the cooler on my 90 the mechanic at the local dealer suggested to remove the drivers side exhaust manifold, so thats what I did. It worked beautifully.You can get to all the mounting bolts, and when it is loose you can get the whole assembly out with out lifting the motor. The only downside is you have to get an exhaust manifold gasket.
When assembling lube the o-rings, I used vasoline. Apress is easier, but you can lube things up stand the cooler on end, and walk the end caps around in circles while pushing down on the end cap.

 

The thing with the press is it makes it easier to keep the ends straight while you press them on slowly.

If the ends **** sideways, you will cut an O ring and not know it until it is installed.

You don't need huge pressure if you have a good lubricant on the O rings and adapter, just more than hand pressure.

As for removal and draining.
Remove the oil filter.
Drain the radiator.
Remove the plug in the picture and most of the coolant should drain out.




You also have to remove the bolts from the drivers side motor mount, put a couple 2x4 blocks under the oil pan with a jack under them, making sure you are not putting pressure on the drain plug.

Now jack the motor up as far as you can and wedge a block between the motor mount pieces so the engine can not fall on your hands.


You need to unbolt the oil cooler headers, do expect s little oil and coolant when it seperates from the block.

Now you have room to remove the oil cooler toward the back and down.

 

I didnt jack anything up when I did my cooler, didnt even take the tire off.

Heres how I did mine and it hasnt leak since did it in November.


I decided that I would try to remove the cooler without jacking up the motor or removing the power steering componants. First I drained the radiator and unbolted the brass plug on the oil cooler to drain the coolant from the block and cooler. To speed up the draining process I removed the temp sensor that is near the front of the drivers head above the exhaust manifold on the front of the motor.

After unbolting the rear header, buddy of mine used a crow bar to pry the rear header and bundle from the front header. It took about 5 minutes, to figure out where the best place to pry was, and it was apart.

This is where the fun began, I placed the bundle in a vice to hold it while it was pushed off of the bundle with a pry bar. There was pretty extensive pitting on the surfaces on the out side of the orings.

Total, I think that I had a little over an hour into sanding the rear header and bundle and another 10 minutes sanding the front header that was still bolted to the motor(leaned over tire in several awkward positions!!!). After sanding I looked in the coolant passages and found that 3 of them where plug, so the bundle went back to the vice and a rod (old cb anntena) just smaller then the passage was used to clear the debris.

Once everything was degreased again, the orings were put on and slathered with petroleum jelly. I put paper towels around the exhaust manifold and on the cross member and then fed the bundle over the cross member and into the front header where it supported itself for the time being. I then put a thin layer of black rtv on the mounting surface of the rear header before placing the gasket on it(it sat with rtv for about 30 minutes before being bolted up).

The rear header was then pushed onto the bundle. I held the bundle from outside of the fender well, while my buddy placed a piece of wood on the rear header. He used the exhaust pipe to put pressure on the wood and popped the bundle into place after a couple minutes of figting.

I then put rtv on the block for the rear header, let it set and tighted things down just a little past finger tight. After an hour of letting the rtv set we began preping the truck to be fired up.

The oil filter was put back on and the radiator filled with water. We crossed our fingers and started the truck. It idled for about 15 minutes and nothing leaked.

Overall, it wasnt that bad and only took about 4 hours after the parts and tools were collected. I think it was sanding and cleaning that took the majority of the time.

I could see this being really difficult if you were a bigger guy, but I could actually easily access everything without jacking the motor or truck up any higher then they already were. I did jack the frame up at the front shackle for a little more room though.



Also, sorry for no pics, When i'm on a roll the camera just gets in the way. <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

well getting the oil cooler out wasnt all that bad it was actually pretty easy and i didnt get all that messy now if the international dealer would have given me the right gaskets the truck would be back together now where is the block heater sopposed to be located on this thing the one the dealer gave me says it is sopposed to go into the oil cooler but there is nowhere for it to go in the one on my truck is a freeze plug heater and it dosnt work

 

Gaskets can be obtained at auto parts store such as Advance or Autozone. The heater on your application should be in the passenger side rear freeze plug. If they gave you a heater with threads on it, it's the wrong one and is for a stroke.

 

If you don't want to wait I was able to get the oil cooler gaskets at either autozone, napa, or kragen!

Less than $10 for the kit if I remember right. I did have to order it though and it took a couple business days.

 

Actually I believe International puts the block heater where the plug with the 3/8" square drive recess is located in the picture.

Does the heater they gave you look like it would fit that hole?

 

nope the block heater they gave me was for a international 444 (AKA powerstroke) in the IDI they just used a freeze plug heater i got it all back together tonight and no more oil leak it wasnt really as bad as everyone made it sound the cooler tube on mine looked like new yet i just wire wheeled it and put a coat of paint on it to protect it in the future i have seen some pretty crusty ones on here

 

Not trying to hijack this thread, but curious if the '86 6.9 has the oil cooler? If so, where would one find the "write up" on removing it?

Newbie with the IH 6.9's, sorry....