My oil cooler hoses are just starting to leak and I will have new hoses made up locally. Does it make sense to have a union added in the lower hose so that I can split the lower oil hose for oil changes and allow the oil from the oil cooler to drain out? Has anyone come up with a different idea? I do not want to unscrew the hose from the cooler very often as we all know those threads are easy to lose. Ideas/suggestions anyone? Thanks!

James

sounds like a good idea, but.. how would you make sure the drain would never open or become open from driving

Instead of a union, put a drain valve in it.

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Yeah, just have a shop add a valve to the bottom of the oil cooler or something so you can drain it when doing changes. Its really not that critical you know, the engineers would have put a means to drain the cooler if they felt the .4 qts that stay in there would pose a problem to engine health.

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If you crack the fitting every time during the oil change and allow the oil to drain overnight, you'll never lose the threads on the cooler because they never seize to the fitting. If you're really concerned, then a touch of anti-seize will guarantee no issues.

Sounds like you're just asking for issues here. Is there a reason you want to drain the oil cooler?

Sure there is SOME sooty oil in there, but not enough to harm. People have logged millions and millions of miles on these without draining the oil cooler.

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I replaced the hoses on my 115/300d and noticed that the oil cooler was empty. I think that it drains back into the pan when you shut off the engine.

If you drain the cooler, you get about 16 oz. of fluid if you let it sit overnight.

16 oz is a fair amount of dirty oil . . . of course, draining the oil cooler is over kill, but now that I have blocked off the EGR, I am curious to see if oil stays cleaner longer, might add a bypass oil filter at some point, less oil changes and refresh oil from time to time with an added quart of Delo

I don't see how the EGR will affect the amount of soot in the oil.

Exhaust Gas Recirculation....what's not to know .


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and...

Less carbon moving through the engine and a cleaner running engine.

The point was that the amount of soot that communicates with the oil (due to blow-by) should be unaffected by the status of the EGR.

The EGR recirculates alot of soot and gives it a second chance to get into the crankcase.