Oil Cooler/Heat Exchanger Seal

[Igeo]

I keep seeing the recommendation to proactively change the rubber oil cooler seal with warnings describing sudden, dire, massive oil blow outs if I don't. Mine has unknown history but is dry in that area at 200K miles. I have the oil filter off and am circling around replacing it. Planning on using 10w-60 Castrol edge oil and a Mann Filter. Looks easy enough. Opinions welcome.
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1987 Westfalia 2.1 WBX Manual

[DanHoug]

absolutely change it. many times they don't give a 'slow leak' warning, they just split and puke.
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[DigiMatrix]

My vote is "yes change it!"

This is what mine looked like at approximately 190,000 kms. They usually blow on very cold days. I got lucky because I changed it knowing what they will do.

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'91 Syncro Westfalia
soon to be 2.5 liter stroker WBX 10:1 comp
Digifant ECU with knock sensor and custom
cylinder selective knock control by me

[dhaavers]

[Igeo]

OK OK I'll get on it. I would not have thought about it at all if it hadn't been for the post of the guy with the big pushrod tube leak. It's mentioned in that thread. Then the glow shift sandwhich adapter for my pressure sender came loose with the filter, revealing the nut holding the cooler being loose too. It's the universe telling me to change that o ring!
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1987 Westfalia 2.1 WBX Manual

[DanHoug]

this was lousy "German Engineering"... the Japanese would never have employed an o-ring without captive retention. VW just squished the o-ring against a ramped bevel whereby 90psi of oil pressure can push outward and crack a brittle o-ring.
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[Igeo]

Would some anaerobic sealer like loctite 518 be a good dressing for the o ring?
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1987 Westfalia 2.1 WBX Manual

[zerotofifty]

[zerotofifty]

[Wildthings]

Having had multiple oil cooler o-rings fail over the years and one of the small rubber coolant lines going to the cooler blow, when I put a 2.1L engine in my 83 1/2 I opted to remove the cooler and run without it. Note than the 1.9L did not have a cooler and did not have bottom end/lubrication problems. I run synthetic oil anyway so I figure oil wise I am still ahead of someone running a cooler and dino oil, while zero worry of losing more crankcase oil or coolant because of a dinky little cooler whose purpose is pretty questionable.

[Wildthings]

[Igeo]

I have used 15w-40 diesel oil and 15w-50 Mobil 1. The engine has something like 210k miles and burns a quart of the Mobil 1 every 2,000 to 2,500 miles. Coolant stays at the same level always. No oil leaks whatsoever. Oil pressure on a hot day in the desert at 3,500 rpm can be in the mid to upper 30's psi. That's on the low side I realize, but it will give me 20 mpg and runs really well, so I want to take good care of it. I'll try the 10w-60 and see what affect, if any, it has on the oil pressure. I have the OEM VW o-ring on the way. Need to stare at the delivery pipe and how I'm gonna approach that to give me access to behind the heat exchanger. Coolant hoses are recent, so I think I'll try to back the pipe out. Maybe cut a slot in the end or jam an easy out in there?
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1987 Westfalia 2.1 WBX Manual

[SCM]

[zerotofifty]

On my aircooled type IV I found that my oil was both cooler and gave more pressure when I used 15w 40 rather than thicker 20w 50.
The reason is that the thicker weight oil bypassed the oil cooler, the thinner oil did not bypass the cooler. I proved this with a thermocouple mounted on the oil cooler fins. the cooler stayed cold with the tick oil, but got hot with the thin oil, indicating the thicker oil did bypass the cooler! my sump,oil temp was much lower with the thinner oil, and pressure was higher than with the thick oil.

Of course a change in the cooler bypass relief spring should be able to allow high weight oil to not bypass the cooler.
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Sorry About That Chief.

Give Peace a Chance.

Words to live by.

[Igeo]

Looks like someone has been in here before me. Are those tool marks on the inside of the pipe? I borrowed a pipe extractor from my neighbor and the 3/8 one fits rather sloppy, but it got the job done. As predicted by my wife, the seal looks pretty fresh. I'll replace it anyway.

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1987 Westfalia 2.1 WBX Manual

[DanHoug]

[Igeo]

[Wildthings]

[Wildthings]

[Igeo]

[quote="Wildthings"]