No quality shop is going to risk mixing hose ends , hose and ferrules for someone off the street, there is just too much liability. Hose assemblies are crimped to a diameter not pressure. Don't crimp enough and the hose will blow off, ( it might take some time until the hose shrinks.) If the crimp too heavy, you will cut the braid / crush the hose end.

Also, some hose ends are smooth and rely on the ferrule being locked to the hose end. With this type of system, if you use a non locking ferrule the hose will blow off. Since everything crimps at the same rate, tight enough on the hose might be too loose / tight on the lock.


When you worked at NAPA, everything was from the same system so crimp diameters were known.

-10 ( 5/8 ) Hose is 15.875 mm , yet another variable to compensate for. This is too loose for what the OP wants to do.

The one shop I went to said he would not touch it due to liability issues. I agree if an inferior crimp blows while going down the highway and pumps all the oil out of the motor a $460 line set would have been cheap in the end.

I will more than likely just put it back together once the cooler is fixed. If it can't be fixed I will have to order the cooler at least, then get the hoses at a later date as time and finances allow.

If anyone can steer me into a better price on the hose set I would appreciate it. I have been several places on the web, the cost is close to $460 everywhere I have looked for my car.

Thanks.

I've got a couple spare good oil coolers...

Then why the title and disparaging " they looked at the hose like a monkey looking at a math problem"?

You make it sound like the shops were at fault for not hacking something together. The shops did the right thing and still got slammed for it.

If one hacked the hoses together and it blew off, the title of your post would have been " Fin shop didn't build the oil hoses right and my motor blew up, I'm gonna sue."

Where is the cooler leaking? Maybe it can be salvaged.

The AN Stainless hoses would be pretty easy to make up. Here's the list of parts.

2 ea AN 10 weld on fittings - about $5 each
2 ea AN 10 x 1/2 NPT - about $5-7 depending on straight or 90 degree
4 ea AN 10 reusable hose fittings - about $10 ea
3 ' AN 10 stainless hose - about $10/ft (guessing here on length)
Welding (actually brazing) - about $10 each (I used my local A/C shop)

That gets you to about $120 in materials and services. The only other thing that needs to be done is the oil cooler needs to be drilled and tapped. It's a pretty easy process but you need a drill press, a 3/4" step drill and a 1/2NPT tap. That gets you a solution well under the $200 you said you'd be happy to pay.

Everything listed is available on ebay, online speed shops and likely local speed shops as well.

Vstech, is the fitting setup on the 603 cooler essentially the same as the 617 cooler? Do you think the same drill/tap approach would work?

This looks like a good substitution, no?
http://www.dytech-dft.com/ita/prodotti/eoc.pdf

Tomorrow, I'm going to pickup a set of lines for one of my OM617s that I had a local shop braze on -10AN fittings for only $40 per line. I'm pretty sure that includes the steel braided hose as well.

The reason for my original post was mostly out of frustration, as I had read on this and other forums of how people seemingly just walked into any hydraulic hose repair shop, of which there are many in my area, as this is farming country, and walked out with the rubber hose sections of their oil cooler lines replaced.
When I showed up at one of the shops yesterday and they told me 'No Way' I was irked and confused, and when I then went to 2 others and got the same response I just thought they didn't want to take the time to do the job.

Now I understand and after reading your responses I realize that it's not as simple as I originally thought.

Yes, I am glad they didn't even attempt to cobble something together, which could have blown apart and ruined my engine.

And, Yes, when I worked at NAPA, it was entirely their own system, so all the crimps would work. I understand that now.

Again, I guess I initially didn't understand all the nuances of the situation, I just thought it was pretty much a remove and replace type thing.

Thanks for all the suggestions, but all in all the rest of the car is in such fantastic condition, I think rather than rig something up, I will keep it factory. I think it's best, especially if I decide to sell the car in the future.

I know it sounded like I was blaming the shops in my initial post, in reality they did the right thing by refusing to work on it.

Thanks

Good call.

The chance of sudden immediate engine death, not to mention the fact that you just dumped 2 gallons of oil on the road in the process, make this a subsystem where compromise is not an option.

Reach out to vstech, he is parting out an 87 300TD as we speak (due to a poorly repaired accident damage leading to terminal rust cancer) and I suspect he's got a cooler and line set available as he indicated above.

Hmm
 

Is one of these what you are looking for??

Mercedes Benz 124 Oil Cooler | eBay

Mercedes 300D 300D 2 5 300SDL 350SDL Diesel Oil Cooler | eBay

Mercedes 86 87 300SDL Diesel Oil Cooler OM603 | eBay

Mercedes Benz W201 Oil Cooler 190E 190D 2015018101 1984 1993 | eBay


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I am getting ready to replace my rubber portions with clamps and hoses....what I can tell you, is that finding the correct hose is hot easy....it both has to hold the pressure plus the temp, the temp on my lower hose is 275°F....knowing what I researched in order to do my fix.....I can see why you can have an issue getting a shop to replace the rubber portion...

Oil Cooler Line Rubber Replacement..... - Mercedes-Benz Forum

Wow. Higher than I expected.

Thanks for realizing ( and posting ) the shops did the right thing.

The mods can change topic titles / create a replacement thread.

This situation is a perfect example of where the customer isn't always right. The goal is to provide a customer with what _need_ not what they think they _want_.

It is I thought it was the same as the car temperature..... But when I read the FSM it says the thermostat in the oil filter housing doesn't open to 275°f.....another thing of interest I found.....there is a pressure relief valve in the housing, if the pressure reads to high....it will open and send dirty oil right back into the engine....when the filter gets clogged.....