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Old 09-04-2006, 10:56 PM
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Hatterasguy Hatterasguy is online now
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Milford, CT
Posts: 19,318
Update:
Fired old smokey up and brought her into the garage. The upper line started to weep real nice after a few months of sitting so it was due. As I feared the upper fitting on the oil cooler came off amazingly easy after being sprayed with PB blaster. Except that the threads came with it. Hmm I say to myself, I have been down this road before.

Since the AC is long dead and I don't plan on fixing it, I yanked the seized compressor and there was a lot more room than I thought. After that I was planning on pulling the lines and having new ones crimped on, but since the oil cooler threads are now stripped thats not happening. So this is what I did:

Got the old dremel out and ground off the crimps on the metal outlet and inlet lines. Found some nice barbed ends, that 5/8 hose fits on rather nicely. So off the the marina I go, grabbed some Sheilds 2500580 wire bound wet exhuast hose, and four stainless hose clamps. Total cost was $5, but I don't pay anywhere near list. Since the cooler was totaly fubared I moved on to plan C by pass it completly. So thats what I did, cranked the hose clamps down tight and it seems to work well. I'm a bit worred that the oil will soften the hose up, so I will keep an eye on it. But exhuast hose is close to impossible to kill so I'm not that concerned. Burst pressure is like 250psi ish, so I'm fine in that regard, not to mention its only about 8in long.

This isn't ment to be a fix, its just a band aid in order to keep a tired car on the road without a lot of time and money. Also this is a winter car, it only sees a handfull of days in the 80's, and is never really driven on the highway. AC is dead, so there is not really a load on the cooling system.

If this was a good car I would have done what I did when I ran into this exact same problem with the SDL. Purchase new oil cooler lines, and since the cooler was stripped a new one of those as well.
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