Oil cooler cleaning service in Southern California, 914-6 oil cooler cleaning Options

[Nate W]

Wanted to show some pictures from an oil cleaner service that I recently had done on my 914-6 oil cooler. I really wanted to use this cooler, as my Dad gave it to me and it’s from a real 6 not a 911, but it had been sitting since 1980 (year I was born) and I was worried about attaching it to a nice engine. Anyway I took it to these guys Pacific Oil Coolers in La Verne ( right by Pomona fair grounds). They are a cool shop, they mostly work on aircraft coolers but also 911 oil coolers. They actually manufacture new oil coolers at their location (for planes not Porsches). The manager Wayne was very nice and gave me a tour of the facility which was impressive.

They are able to pressure test the coolers, then run them thru several steps of cleaning baths, make any repairs needed, and they put a nice new coating on the cooler (chrome-a-coat). These guys have been in business since the 60s and definitely seems knowledge since all they do is oil coolers. The cost came out to $240 because I had a crack they repaired and some dents in the case, otherwise it would be $175 for the cleaning and testing. To me this seems like a good deal since our engines are expensive to say the least and also the work/ cost / time of cleaning up the mess and replacing a faulty cooler to me is worth more than that. Just thought I would share in case anyone is looking. I don’t have anything to do with the business, got their info from Pelican but never saw it mentioned here. Their website is oilcoolers.com. Also they said most of their business is people shipping them coolers from all over so not just local.

I asked them about welding on fittings to convert from 911 to 914-6 coolers, they can do it if you provide the fitting and the dimensions.

I don’t have a before picture but it was pretty crusty and old looking, typical stains etc

[Superhawk996]

Gotta say I’m not convinced about oil cooler cleaning on a 911 engine.

Yes, new coolers are outrageously expensive. But so is rebuilding an engine. $7k in machine work on case, crank, heads, rods. Another $4k - $7k for pistons and cylinders depending on source. $800 for OEM main bearings. Labor costs to assemble. It’s easy to have well over $10k into an engine rebuild.

I personally decided that isn’t worth risking a $10k-$20k engine to save $1500 by using an old cooler. I would probably feel differently if the old cooler were coming off an engine that was previously running, and well maintained that I had history with.

In my case, the 911 cooler was off an engine of unknown origin. After having it cleaned by Olies just to see “what if” and it coming up as partially plugged and leaking (looked good) I was convinced.

If you think about it, it’s basically the same as rebuilding a T4 engine - just with an extra Zero in the numbers. $100 for a T4 cooler. I’ve never reused a T4 cooler and there, we are only talking about $1 - $2k for a bare bones rebuild.

No way I’d consider buying a used 911 cooler as my starting point after that experience. Just my $0.02.

When mine failed with Olies, I didn’t get anything in writing - just a phone call. They also did send me the old cooler back. I had engraved my initials on it and I received the same one back.