Hi all, well, it's time to perform the messy job of replacing my two leaking oil cooler lines. Any steps/procedures would be appreciated. 1. Do the large nuts on the oil cooler simply loosen as one expects? There is also a large nut on the cooler itself, does that one loosen as well? Or is that there to put a wrench on for torque while trying to loosen the very tight oil cooler line? 2. Can I remove the line from the cooler end first or do I need to disconnect from the oil filter housing and the engine block (lower line) first in order to get the line to "spin off" the cooler? 3. Do I need to drain the engine oil first or is the oil in the sump at a low enough level which would prevent oil from flowing out of the lower hole on the block. I just changed the oil and don't want to waste it (I guess I could re-use it since it has about 20 miles on it since I changed it). 4. Any other suggestions to make this job a little easier and less messy?? Thanks so much!
Hello John, If your lines are the same as mine on my mondial, It is pretty easy. The nuts you see on the cooler are fixed and are there for backing up with a wrench while turning the nuts on the oil line. Sometimes they can be a real beeeotch to get loose. When I took mine off for my major service, it pulled the threads off the cooler fitting. I recommend some anti sieze on the threads upon re-assembly. You do not have to drain the oil level down. It is going to make a mess anyway. The banjo fitting bolts on the block and the oil filter housing have copper washers. One on each side of the oil line. Get new ones to prevent leaking. I have in the past re-used the old ones by carefully sanding them flat by placing a piece of sand paper on a smooth surface and pushing the washer back and forth to get any imperfecions off the sealing surface. You can remove either end first. I probabally would remove the lower ends first and drain as much of the oil out as possible. When you are done, get some Simple Green and spray it on then hose her down. Carefull of the distributers and electronics. Hope this helps. Don't be afraid, just pay attention to what you are doing and have patience. Bret
Thanks for the tips! Well, I drained the oil down before I saw your post. Oh well, i put it in a clean container and will re-use it. I have new OEM lines and crush washers coming, so I should be okay. I need to head to sears for some larger wrenches (2 of them to double up). FYI.. I have read in other threads that you can use the crush washers over again if you anneal them again by heating them with a blow torch until they are cherry red and then dipping them in water. Then they will reseal correctly. I will use the simple green tip for sure. It's already messy from the leak, so no big deal on the mess that is about to follow! I'm assuming that just about any good quality anti-sease grease will suffice? Thanks again! John
Disconnect both lines from the engine, then remove the cooler from car. There is less risk of damaging the oil cooler on the bench. Before I re-installed I put the cooler in place snugged up the lines so that they were pointing in the proper direction then I took the cooler back to the workbench to tighten the lines. Some people say you can re-soften the copper washers with a torch. I had to wait a few days to get them. Hydraulic supply of Sunrise, Florida had them for about $0.87 each and they are the same washer that fits the oil drain plug.
Thanks everyone! By the way, I have never re-used oil in my life, honest! However, in this case, the oil ($68, not $15) literally has about 20 miles on it before these leaks showed up. I have drained it into a brand new 2 gallon container. I see no reason not to use it. But I appreciate the warning. Thanks! John
Job completed. Thanks for all of your help. It definately required pulling the cooler out of the car to losen the lines. They were very difficult to get off. All is done except for the clean up now. I'm a bit afraid to put simple green on the engine and then hose it down with water. Some one told me I could use brake cleaner on the top of the engine and then blow it with compressed air. Thoughts? What's the best/easiest way to remove the puddle of oil on the top of the engine? Thanks, John
I recently purchased a 1987 328 GTS, that upon inspection showed slight leaks at the oil cooler. I HAVE in the past been able to simply unscrew the lines on 308's and 328's. while the cooler was installed in the car. NOT this time. I knew if I reefed on the lines much harder something bad would happen, and opted to just remove the cooler with lines, by removing the banjo bolt ends, Trying to remove the lines with my wrench held in a vice, was only rounding off the corners of the soft aluminum 33 millimeter hex. The line was obviously NOT coming off this way. I have a burned Ferrari Testarossa, that the oil cooler uses the same fittings as my 328. I figured I'd experiment with it, so I didn't ruin my 328 oil cooler. Heating the steel fitting up with a torch, it absolutely was not coming off, trying to round the corners off of the aluminum hex on the oil cooler. I NEEDED a better wrench, that could surround the entire fitting. I have a CNC machining center and I made a wrench to fit the 33 mm hex, that also surrounds the bottom round portion of the steel fitting. This "wrench" was machined out of a 2 3/4 inch wide, 3/4 inch thick piece of steel about ten inch long. The tool I made is a two piece wrench that slips around four sides of the hex, and then a removable part clamps the other two sides of the hex to the tool. Designed to be mounted in the vice, it worked great. The Testarossa fitting required almost FOUR feet of bar to unscrew the fitting. WHY- the entire fitting is coated with thread locker. BUT despite the massive amount of force applied, my wrench gripped the aluminum fitting well enough, there was zero damage. Using it on my 328 cooler, just a standard combination wrench had enough torque to remove the fittings, leaving my soft aluminum oil cooler hexes undamaged. They also had locktite applied to the threads, so it's no wonder WHY these are such a bear to remove. NO WAY could I have applied this amount of force with the cooler in the car. I HAVE a tool that works great. IF someone is stuck doing this job, and they're a Ferrari Chat regular, I can send my tool to anyone that needs it. There's NO NEED to cut-off the fitting like someone posted. I COULD make more of these in my CNC machining center, since I've written the program, but it's NOT what I want to do. This is a job, most of us will only do once. There's a LOT to be said when approaching a job, that you're NOT going to ruin a part just trying to get a fitting off. Doing the oil cooler lines on the bench, is the civilized method.
Oil cooler lines. Remove the cooler with lines still attached. Cooler and lines on the bench. With a torch..heat the fittings until just red. Then rapid cool with cold water..use a garden hose or big sprayer. The lines should come loose on there own..or with a very light tap..then remove. I just did this on an 87 TR worked very well.
