Has anybody here tried to replace your oil cooler seals with the engine installed in the vehicle (a la pelican article)? The article is a little vague and I think I loosened the wrong bolt and now I may have to drop the engine just to tighten it again! I loosened a 17mm bolt next to the oil filter and now it just spins. I think there is a nut behind it that I can't get to. Does anybody have a picture indicating the correct bolts (or nuts) to remove?

You need to loosen these to get the oil cooler seals out.

They are not 17mm nuts.

Not sure what you loosened.

This is great.. I laugh my ASS OFF when people walk into the shop with the Pelican tech articles.. asking me questions.

Did you ever stop to think that those tech articles are written by HOME USERS that may or may not know what the hell they are talking about ?? 99% of those articles are missing 20% (if not more) of what you need to know to actually do the jobs completely. I applaud the effort, but unless you post articles that have been gone over by someone who knows what they are doing... you stand a chance of leading people down the wrong (sometimes dangerous) path.

Rant over. I really cant say much until we have our own PRO written articles in place.


B

I know you can get the oil cooler side tin off in the car. I've done it. I suspect you could do the oil cooler seals. But there is a lot of blind wrenching, so knowing where everything is located by heart is a real benefit.

Double nut the oil cooler studs and pull them out of the block... oil cooler falls down. Not much room to work behind the fan shroud... but the studs come out easy because they have had oil on them for years.

Double check your oil pressure sending unit. They leak and make it look like the oil is coming from the oil cooler seals.


B

Hey - I wrote that tech article (many moons ago). Really, it isn't a tech article though. Just a list of tips for tackling the project and to verify that it can be done. I was asked to write a tech article a few months after doing the job on my own car - so some of the details were a little fuzzy - hence the lack of detail.

Demick

Here is the bolt that I loosened. Is there a way to tighten this back up without dropping the engine?

If you loosened it, you should be able to tighten it again.

Maybe this picture will help. It doesn't show the nuts that you have to remove, but it clearly shows the three long studs coming from the engine block that the cooler attaches with.

Demick

From referencing Tommy's photo above, I was able to locate the correct bolts. Now my problem is how to tighten the bolt I loosened without pulling the motor.

Besides your problem with that bolt, I know that the seals can be replaced in the car, because I have done it once. Back before we had the internet, I called George at AutoAtlanta and he walked me through the procedure.

They have a tech article on their website now that explains it.

http://autoatlanta.com/tech/oil_seal.html

Good luck with that bolt. Jake Rabby might be able to answer your question on the bolt, if you point it out to him.

That is a case thru bolt (holds the case halfs together) the nut is on the other side of the case under the #2 cyl.
HTH

Can it be reached while the engine is in the car? I couldn't seem to get to it. what do I torque it to if I can reach it?

You will need to take the lower tin off the left side and you should be able to get to it.

Hi everybody,
while my spare engine hanging in the test stand i decide to replace the oilcooler seals.
One long stud comes out while loosening the nut, the other two worked fine. Next problem was a stuck oilcooler . It was stuck to the short stud, think it was baked together. It was unpossible to get it out. I solved this problem by drilling the stud out and replace it with a new one. No chance to do that with the engine in the car.

Sorry no pics taken

Didn't realise George had tech articles on his site. I'll have to take a peak

I'll never make a mechanic, that oil cooler seal replacement I spent 2 half days on it.
PIA job that was.

Had to go out to the garage and see exactly where the nut is. I believe you may be able to tighten it without removing the tin. The nut you need to get at is directly behind and above the t-stat pulley (if yours is still there), or the forward inboard edge of the lower tin on the driver's side. You may not be able to actually see the nut without using a mirror, but if you put your finger up into the gap between the tin and the case your finger will be right on it. You could probably modify (cut, bend, grind, whatever it takes) a 17mm wrench and stuff it up there while you turn the head of the bolt. The only alternative is to pull the head to get the tin off, and I think I'd try to get a little creative before I went through all that crap. I wish my POS camera was working, but trust me, it's there.

Best of Luck!