VW Bay oil cooler seals

[Blueryder]

I am replacing the oil cooler seals in my 1972 1700 Bus. There are two trends of thought on the net and in my manual-simply put, one state that spacers must be installed over studs prior to returning the cooler to the block. The other calls for no spacers. I had no spacers when I took off the cooler, according to the spacer argument if they are left out the cooler seals will be crushed and can block the galleys. Please let me know if you know.

[busdaddy]

Welcome, much depends on the type of seals and the condition of the cooler, here's a discussion on the subject: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=470919

You may want to have a moderator move this to the Baywindow area, you'll get more precise answers there.
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[Blueryder]

Thanks Busdaddy, I read that thread through and decided to remove the spacers and use them as washers. It leaked like crazy with them in. That did it-no leaks no problems with oil pressure. My advise is look closely when removing your existing cooler and put them where they were originally. This time I turned the engine over prior to putting everything back together as a test and it didn't leak. Had I done this the first time I'd have save 4 hours of labor!

[busdaddy]

Yeah, a couple minutes running with the shroud off isn't going to kill it and saves all sorts of pain later, good to hear it's fixed.

Did you do the filter stand gasket while you were in there?
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[raygreenwood]

As noted...it depends on the cooler.

I went through this argument years ago on the STF. Everyone arguing just wants a simple answer from a diagram in a book...instead of carefully looking at and inspecting what they have.

Having disassembled and rebuilt numerous...known to be stock and never screwed with 1.7's....I can tell you that all but two so far...have come from the factory WITH the spacers...and they are spacers...they are machined...not stamped...between the block and cooler.

The two that came with the spacers on the outside...were ALSO factory original.

The difference was that the coolers on the two that used the spacers as washers........had a different overlap where the outer cover clamp plate was brazed on (the pate the seals seat on)...and a different thickness of support boss.

On the other original coolers using the spacers between the cooler and block...removing the spacers will result in the gaskets being over crushed.

This does NOT always IMMEDIATELY cause it to leak...however it DOES dish the face of the cooler eventually and reduces the cross section of the ID of the o-ring. Not good for flow. They will eventually leak.

I have made that mistake numerous times in my youth before I learned to pay attention to the differences in parts.

There were a lot of very minor but important parts differences in these engines that are not in any books.

For another example....there were two different flywheel side oil seal depths from the factory. Some...for reasons unknown were closer to 12mm instead of 10.5mm and used the vanagon seal from the factory. I have only found them personally on 412's and 914's.....but considering the type 4 engine was not made for the bus in the first place....and how engines move around....best to pay attention. All of the engines I have found these seals in were known to be factory original.

That one is not in the books either. Ray

[Lil Lulu]

I'm about to replace the oil cooler seals since it has been leaking some.

Shown is the cooler with two sets of seals. The ones on the right are from the victor-reinz kit that I used when the rebuild happened. The ones on the left are Elring and were packed with the oil cooler when I got it new. The ones on the left have never been installed. They are minutely thicker in the lip than the others and a little less squishy. I can get new Elring locally. Also notice the bosses on the cooler stick out prominently from the case.

The cooler was installed with no spacers under it and the bosses on the case are not raised. The cooler was properly torqued. Oil pressure from the Raby modified oil pump jump to 70 on start-up going down to ride at a constant 50-55 when running and 18 at idle.

Also, I need to seal the filter adapter and the oil filler pipe to the case. Some have recommended using Loctite 518 with no gasket.

Any thoughts/advise?
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