Author Topic: Leaking oil cooler (Read 3971 times)

Red Rabbit · « **on:** December 17, 2005, 02:13:44 pm »

1984 1.6 TD, oil cooler is leaking. Could I just remove it and drive without it (re-routing oil and coolant lines, of course)? I'm a pretty conservative driver, and use a quality synthetic oil. Or am I asking for trouble?.....

vwmike · « **Reply #1 on:** December 17, 2005, 02:27:24 pm »

You could probably get away with it where you live and with the temps how they are right now, but there would still be a drawback. The stock oil cooler also warms the oil during the warm-up cycle so it would take longer for your engine to warm up. That might not be a good thing. Chances are though, if your car has an oil cooler from the factory then it actually needs a bigger one so removing it completely wouldn't be adviseable.

Red Rabbit · « **Reply #2 on:** December 17, 2005, 02:37:32 pm »

Thanks for the reply. It still has the original oil cooler unit, but I'm unsure what you mean by " it actually needs a bigger one". Do you mean an after market unit with a larger capacity?... seems as if this oil cooler has lasted 21 years without the turbo/engine blowing up, it must be adequate for this engine.

vwmike · « **Reply #3 on:** December 17, 2005, 04:01:59 pm »

It may work well enough but ideally most of the stock oil coolers leave much to be desired. That's all I'm saying. There are actually larger factory ones out there that can be swapped on to improve efficiency.

Red Rabbit · « **Reply #4 on:** December 17, 2005, 04:46:26 pm »

I have seen one type of after market oil cooler which has a 'mini radiator' style of set-up, problem is my car has A/C (yes, it works

), and there is not much room to mount it up front. I might just buy a new unit and replace like for like.

myke_w · « **Reply #5 on:** December 26, 2005, 01:31:37 am »

all the hassle that it would require to upgrade or negate the original cooler would take you longer and cost more than just redoing all the gaskets on it. The one that mates to the block is 65 cents, the o-ring one is under 5 bucks.
Also be sure it's not the furrlue nut that holds the oil line down that isn't leaking, that can be a source of problems for TD's.

52 horses · « **Reply #6 on:** January 14, 2006, 09:23:57 pm »

All I can say is watch that it does not explode on you... I had that happen on my '84 GLI... Talk about a mess.. Although I didn't have to worry about undercoating.... :lol:.. When it blew it took out all my coolant and oil.. Gotta love Amsoil for saving my engine.. cuz I thought that it was just the oil pressure gage that failed until the buzzer sounded about another couple of klms down the road...

Author Topic: Leaking oil cooler (Read 3971 times)

52 horses