Thread: 300tdi oil cooler -- stuck in kalbarri

Originally Posted by Discovery-94

Thanks gaz.
Not using red type, got nulon green stuff in it 50:50 with distiller water.

I ordered a new radiator, overflow bottle and pressure cap. Will be sent out hopefully by tomorrow, got to head back to Perth by Friday at latest....

Think at this stage plan of action will be to somehow drain all the oil out the coolant, replace bottle and cap, bypass oil cooler hoses and refill oil.

Hopefully it will run fine with some mild hissing out of the oil cooler when warm, potentially some coolant spilling. This will in theory tell me that there is a crack in the oil cooler, then I will rip the radiator out as well as I cannot afford to get half way back to Perth and have all the coolant come out of the oil cooler (if I drove with the oil cooler lines bypassed..)

Should it turn out there is a HG prob after all I'll have to find a more drastic solution...... 😓
Lets hope for the best!!!
Simone

Discovery-94, I asked about the Red coolant because I have heard that it can attack some copper components of the cooling system, I think it may have eaten out my heater matrix core, after I replaced the head I thought I'd be clever and get "long life" coolant in, silly me, should have been green!
Bit of a bummer having to buy a new radiator etc along with the expense of Christmas.
You would not lose coolant from the oil cooler of the old rad if you could source some screw on blanking plugs for the hose connection points.
Not sure how the engine oil will go though if you were to undertake a long road trip in midsummer temperatures without the oil cooler, some of the more knowledgeable on here might know exactly.
We'll be having fingers crossed for no head gasket issues, it will depend on how hot it got during the overboarding of coolant, but because it's a cause and effect thing you need to confirm the original source of over pressurisation first. Gaz

you dont have to relace the radiator if the cooler is blown internally,

you can blank the fittings on the radiator and run a bypass hose over the ens of the solid lines by running the nuts back down the pipe and then clamping some flex over the ends.

I know of a couple of examples where the hoses have been rerouted to an aftermarket cooler snuck up in the void space beside the brake booster over the wheel arch.

if you fit just a flex line take it easy on the noisey pedal and try to drive at night, stay out of fifth.

yes, the tyre compressor should work, you may need to drop both lines and blank the b ottom fitting as the flow rate may not be high enough to force the thermostat to seal up.


you might get away with using a pair of valve assemblies for a tubless tyre a blanking fittings or as an adaptor to get from the tyre compressor to the top fitting and blanking the bottom fitting with you r tumb.

better off doing that the other way around use the compressed air in the bottom fitting and blank the top fitting with your tumb, your less likely to dermall inject oil that way,.

if you need a hand for some outside the box work feel free to give me a bell, and feel free ti ignore the time difference.

zero 4 oh double eight for mine seeks 4 nine

Thanks blknight. Appreciate it!
I had to drive about 1700km with oil cooler lines bypassed with a garden hose when I burst an oil cooler after corrugations on connie sue hwy a couple of years ago. Found the overflow bottle filled with oil during routine morning check in the central desert, and decided a bypass was the most sensible thing to do.
Unfortunately lost the majority of oil on last 100km before Perth as it turned out that the garden hose was not quite up for the job of holding hot oil in under pressure....and decided to rust proof the underside of the disco after splitting down the middle. 😜

All went well though after replacing the radiator back home. Never missed a beat since, nor had any long term issues from it.

This time however I am just baffled as to why the same thing appears to have happened again......
S$@tpart??
Coincidence??
Haven't gone any harsh tracks since--just some occasional leisurely beach/forest trips... And call me old fashioned, but I would expect a radiator/oil cooler to last a tad longer than that.....😬

Anyhow, thanks for your help....will start by draining the oil from overflow bottle and somehow trying to determine that the culprit is indeed the oil cooler, then jump in the deep end and swap the rad out for new one.. Really don't want any surprises on the way back..

when you gt chance, check your oil pressure and the return flow path

dont use garden hose, you need something from a hydraulics place if you want to go much more than onto and off of a trailer.

and if you used a britpart part....

you might also have the radiator frame sitting on the chassis

And if all else fails don't forget the Geraldton Whyatts? LR people - had some high recommendations on here in the past couple of years. All the best

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

you might also have the radiator frame sitting on the chassis

interesting... Will have a look if I can find anything looking wrong with it--how is it supposed to be sitting correctly?

From memory there is the frame sitting on some rubber mounts on the chassis and the rad sitting in some rubber mounts on the frame??

yep, on both counts, if the ones mounting the rme to the chassis go hard of break out it bounces around quite a bit.


To check it I get lazy and crack off a couple of injector lines letting the engine bounce the snot out of the car for a bit, you'll know what your looking for when you see it (its also a great way to heck the engine mounts)