Using radiator for oil cooler? 83 240D

[tqwrench]

Like so many who have gone before me, I was challenged by oil cooler plumbing leaks on my '83 240D. Long story short, I broke the cooler trying to get things apart, again not unexpected. Aluminum + steel .

Also have another problem, oil t-stat is stuck wide open. Validated that with temp measurements on the plumbing before I made it go tango uniform.

In light of that, I'm entertaining the thought of plumbing motor oil to the bottom of the radiator. I'm doing a new rad anyway (among a long list of other items, car is torn apart underhood), and it's a stick. Old rad had ports that were capped off, new one too.

My '84 Olds 98 and '84 Fleetwood Brougham (both 350 diesels) are plumbed this way. No oil t-stat, just plumbing to a heat exchanger on the cool side of the rad.

I have lots of NiCopp tube and bought all the tools to fab up a new oil cooler hose based off the old one. Thought it's at least worth a try. Anyone ever try it? Wondering if there's any tales of woe on this exercise and support to say NOPE run screaming from it because...

Thanks, Kris.