P30 Oil Cooler Leak

I still haven't fixed it - might get to it today. The main reason I haven't gotten to it yet is because I crawled under there yesterday with a flashlight and there are fluids everywhere! I started it up and watched - there's the oil cooler leak. But the upper rad hose is leaking, power steering hose is leaking, radiator cap is leaking and a trans cooler line is leaking, and the carb feed is leaking at the fuel pump!

I tightened up the fuel line and that stopped it. The upper radiator hose and trans cooler line are tough to get at so I called it quits.

The one thing I did do while I was under there was replace the oil pressure sender. The old one had the gauge pegged at 60 PSI all the time. Now that the gauge is working, I can see that the oil pressure is still pretty high - close to 60 above idle. Drops slightly at idle but still on the high side of the gauge. I'm not sure if that's okay or not? Maybe why the oil cooler gasket is leaking?

Was under there today. Oil is definitely getting past the seals on the sandwich adapter. It's not coming from anywhere else.

I stared at it a bit. Admired the rumble of the 454 while I laid on the ground underneath it for a bit. Proceeded to replace the clearance lights with new LEDs. They look nice.

I'll get to the leak over the weekend. The new gaskets came in today.

enblethen wrote:
Did you put any sealant on the threads before installing?
Did you get the correct adapter into the right hole? There is a difference between them.
Did you get new adapters or use the old? Replace the O-rings?

New o-ring and gasket yes. It's the right adapter and the lines at the adapter weren't removed - just those at the cooler (I swapped the hard lines and adapter to the new engine all in one piece).

I wiped everything down and started it up. It seems that biggest leak is at the oil cooler "sandwich" adapter. The oil pressure switch is leaking, too, but to a lesser extent. I have another one around here somewhere.

Sealant on the threads is a good point. I did not put sealant on the threads.

Did you put any sealant on the threads before installing?
Did you get the correct adapter into the right hole? There is a difference between them.
Did you get new adapters or use the old? Replace the O-rings?

allbrandauto wrote:
are you sure its not coming from fitting for cooler lines at housing we had a lot of problem with them on cars very poor design

Not 100% sure. I need to take a closer look at it in the daylight.

are you sure its not coming from fitting for cooler lines at housing we had a lot of problem with them on cars very poor design

dakdave wrote:
make sure you dont have a restriction in the cooler or one of the lines.Have had many of these off and never had trouble with leaks.Also did you torque the mounting bolts on the adapter ?I use grease to hold gasket and o ring in place while installing

Good idea - I'll check for a restriction. I did torque the mounting bolts. I took the filter off last night, cranked the bolts down some more and it didn't slow the leak down.

When I installed it, the engine was on a stand. I had the luxury of being able to rotate it upside down to install the gasket and o-ring. Will have to use the grease method this time around.

I'll have to take a very close look at it before I take it out. I'm 99.99% sure that it's coming out between the block and the adapter. I don't see where else it could be coming from.

Vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfq2F3hqRm4&list=UUx9SX_GLn95n1wOKg9T9-RQ

make sure you dont have a restriction in the cooler or one of the lines.Have had many of these off and never had trouble with leaks.Also did you torque the mounting bolts on the adapter ?I use grease to hold gasket and o ring in place while installing