[V8] Oil cooler lines

[Buchholz, Steven]

... perhaps I'm a bit paranoid, but to me, even a shiny looking line from a
"western" car isn't worth anything more than a possible source for fittings.
We are talking about rubber hoses that have been in service for over 10
years.  It certainly seems that as long as the lines have remained
relatively unperturbed they tend to last, but I begin to worry any time they
get moved.  I suppose if I personally removed the lines from the donor and
knew that they were not stressed during the removal I might go for it in a
pinch ... and I *have* dropped the oil cooler to do a radiator swap ... 

My BiL lost an oil cooler line on his non-turbo 5000 ... and ended up
needing to replace the NF engine ... 

When I did the engine swap in #2 I found that it was fairly easy to extract
the lines from the fittings at the engine ... and the oil cooler itself is
rather easy to detach ... if there is any chance the fittings at the cooler
are crusted over you may want to pull the thing and take it to the bench ...


I suppose that if you had no option but to leave the lines in place for the
trip you could get by with an in line coupler of the correct diameter and a
couple hose clamps ... and watch the oil pressure closely while driving.  If
the line fails cut the lines back to a point where you can splice them.  It
would be best to try to get the lines swapped IMO ... 

Steve B
San Jose, CA (USA)
> 
>     First off - that is the engine oil cooler, the tranny cooler is
> integrated into the drivers side of the radiator.  Second 
> those lines are
> a real pain to get off if they have never been off - at least in my
> experience they are.  Buy a couple from a junk yard out west 
> (no rust)