A cautionary tale--check the clearance on your oil cooler hose

[kerry]

Wife's Land Cruiser wouldn't turn over today so since my daughter's 84SD was parked nearby I pulled it alongside to jump the Cruiser. When I opened the hood I noticed there was oil all over the front of the engine of the SD. WTF? I peer around. The power steering belt had sawed a hole in the top oil cooler hose and oil had been squirting out when the thermostat opened. Yikes. Clearance was about 1/2" from hose to belt. Hose was new less than 2k miles on it. Not sure what was causing the belt to move closer to the hose enough to saw it thru but if my daughter had driven that car on the highway and got it warm enough to open up the oil cooler thermostat, that engine would have been toast in short order. Check your clearances and your top oil cooler hose.

[jcyuhn]

At least the damage wasn't any worse. I believe this is caused by collapsed motor mounts allowing the engine to sit lower than designed. Have definitely heard of the problem previously.

[Walter K]

Check your motor mounts. If the one on that side of the engine has collapsed, the belt will cut the hose. When I got the 84 SD for my daughter, the hose was wrapped with electricians tape where the belt was rubbing a hole in the hose. Both motor mounts had collapsed, and it was just a matter of time before someone ran it out of oil also.

I got my 84TD because the motor mount had collapsed and cut a hole in the hose. Don't know how they caught it before they damaged the engine, but they didn't want to spend the money to fix it, so sold the car. While I really like the size of the 123 bodies, the 126 and 116 bodies sure have more room under the hood to work on the engines. Threading the oil cooler line on the TD was much harder than on the SD.

W.

[kerry]

How much clearance is there typically without collapsed motor mounts? The belt is 1/2" away from the hose when off and when idling. What circumstances cause the belt to move towards the hose?

[Ceristimo]

I think the clearance normally is closer to an inch or two or so. That diesel engine rocks a lot, and those mounts are soft, so the engine can move around quite a lot.

When the engine mount collapses (they really don't last all that long...), the engine will sit lower, thereby reducing the clearance even further. The result of that is what you see under the hood now.

Replace the oil cooler hose (royal PITA job, unfortunately, but not actually complicated ) and replace the engine mount. You have to jack the engine off the mount to do the oil cooler hose, and so it's a great opportunity to do the engine mount as well. It's really just two more bolts at that point.

I had to do the same job on Betsie when I got her, as the oil cooler hose was showing deep rubbing marks (but hadn't cut all the way through just yet). I'd really suggest a helper, especially when feeding in the new hose as it's terrible to do by yourself.

[jimmypete]

How did you put that hose on? Did you replace the entire part all the way from filter to cooler? Or did you just replace the hose?

[mach4]

It is definitely old news at this point, but filling your engine mounts with Shore A 30 polyurethane rubber will prevent current poor quality mounts from collapsing.

[kerry]

Entire line was replaced.

[barry12345]

On a bad motor mount or even a good one. The torque of the engine under load will pull the engine over a little more I suspect. I was just thinking that it might be possible to slide a short steel sleeve over the line and fix it in place. When installing a new hose. Then if a belt ever rubs the hose would more likely survive the event.


Because of current quality concerns at least any replacement motor mount should be filled as another poster suggested. Then it cannot collapse. Some of the aftermarket parts if not many are highly suspect now.


It was really fortunate this poster looked under the hood that day. There are also firms that rebuild motor mounts. Perhaps they equal original quality.

[kerry]

I was thinking some kind of hose protection would be appropriate in that location.

[sixto]

I was thinking of clamping a metal sleeve over the oil cooler hose closest to the fan. Should make an unignorable racket if the fan gets too close.

Sixto
83 300SD
98 E320 wagon

[Jarod]

Originally Posted by mach4

It is definitely old news at this point, but filling your engine mounts with Shore A 30 polyurethane rubber will prevent current poor quality mounts from collapsing.

Agreed. I used loctite PL S30 Roof and Flashing caulk. its apparently urethane thats around that magic shore A30 number and very easy to find cheaply.

1 tube will do a set of mounts. it does take a long time to cure/dry. Mine took about 2-3 weeks, but its cheap.

I did them on my grey car and blue car.
Makes minimal difference in vibration but definitely stiffens the mounts up a lot!

[kerry]

Thanks. I ordered some of the PMC 121-30 from Reynolds Advance Materials to fill the mounts.

[Walter K]

Originally Posted by kerry

How much clearance is there typically without collapsed motor mounts? The belt is 1/2" away from the hose when off and when idling. What circumstances cause the belt to move towards the hose?

I checked my daughter's 84 sd, and the belt is about 3/4" away from the hose. On my 84 TD, the hose is about 2" away.


D.

[kerry]

Thanks. I looked at my TD and it too is 2" away. Did it look to you as if the mounts on your SD are collapsed. Mine look pretty low.