Anyone Ever Tig Welded a Repair in their Oil Cooler?

[StrokerMax]

I just finished building and installing my new motor.... I bought the car with a blown motor.

First few miles on the new motor and my oil cooler line blew a hole. When I pulled the line it was really tight and I cracked the oil cooler.

Has anyone ever successfully repaired their their oil cooler with a weld? I just spent $$ upgrading my cooler lines with stainless steel high temp line then went home put them on and now the cooler is leaking

 

[boost97gst]

Pics? Take it to a good welder, they can fix it. Just a guess without seeing it but a good welder should take care of ya

 

[StrokerMax]

Thanks man. I'm going to drop it off in the morning at a welding shop. Hope they can fix it up. The crack isn't bad.

I'm going overboard now. Had the hydraulic shop build me some steel braided oil lines. He said the temp rating is like 500 degrees. I'm also replacing all my coolant lines. Sick of these old lines popping leaks.

 

[NHerron]

Is the oil cooler aluminum? I can't speak of tig, but I have brazed a few little aluminum projects at work. I suck at welding aluminum so I opted to see if brazing was possible. Turns out muggyweld.com sells kits and I've had good luck. Tig or brazing I don't see you saving any close surrounding fins so I'd probably get a new one...

Or JB weld it. I've used JB on an old suburban oil cooler, it's no biggie for JB. But like everything, proper prepping and it'll be a repair.

*Silicone works great for the small sections of hose FYI.. Stock rubber isn't so good

 

[StrokerMax]

Got it all fixed up. Had a local welding shop tig weld my oil cooler and its holding up great. I think most of my coolant and oil leaks are fixed. Now onto the boost leaks tomorrow.

Lesson learned... When you do a fresh rebuild just upgrade all of your coolant and oil lines before putting the motor back in and go with high temp silicone coolant lines and stainless oil lines. Still trying to get the engine fully de-greased after that episode.

 

[crimsondragon]

Was that a new oil cooler or the oil cooler that came with the blown motor?

 

[boost97gst]

I totally agree: When you pull an engine go ahead and get braided hose where you can. Some good braided nylon out there holds up well to coolant,oil,gas,e85 etc up past 500*
You dont have to go all AN fittings and welding bungs and all that, you can still hold a braided line in place just fine with a clamp. Not QUITE as pretty but a lot better and newer than what ya had.

Really glad you got it fixed bro! What'd cost if you dont mind me asking? Betcha under $30 right?

Does it make you want a TIG now? . I know im gettin one pretty soon even though i cant weld. I learn

 

[StrokerMax]

crimsondragon, it was the old oil cooler that came with the blown motor. This car did have a million oil leaks when I got it.

boost97gst, I think the welder charged me a lot. I paid $90. But I was cool with it. He was busy and fixed it up for me right away. That and he had to clean all the oil out of the cooler. He said oil gets sucked into the weld and causes a lot of problems. I bet he had a bit of time into cleaning it. I could have almost bought a new one for that price but I wanted to make sure my new braided oil lines fit. I think a TIG welder could be a good investment in the near future.

Now I'll get to start breaking in the motor again today. I just have some tuning issues to work out. She sure runs like there's a boost leak somewhere. That and I need to replace my downpipe gasket today (it sounds like its starting to leak). Plus I need to lean her out a bit. I think my AFR at idle is around 11.1 when warmed up. I'm just learning the tricks of DSMlink. Once I get everything running perfect I might take my car to the AWD dyno in town for better tuning.

My recent oil line experience has me being extremely cautious with the break in. That and I have a fire extinguisher in the back seat now. Don't want my car to burn to the ground after all this work. HA

 

[RamenPride]

Was buying a used or new oil cooler not an option? They seem to sell for about $20 used.

 

[StrokerMax]

Nah I could have easily bought one. But no one local had one in stock and I'm impatient. Wanted to get this car back together rather than waiting another few days for parts. She's been sitting in my garage without a motor since early march.

That and one of the better performance coolers ran a few hundred with the lines.

 

[StrokerMax]

Man you guys won't believe it. Got my parts and built my homemade boost leak tester from the directions on Jafro's youtube page. Got all my boost leaks fixed up. Had a couple of bad ones. I threw on my new spark plug wires. Realized I ordered the wrong size downpipe gasket so I will still have to get one of those. No biggie.

Took the car out for a run... After a couple miles I stopped and checked under the hood. No leaks... Thought it was running great and holding up. So, I drove a bit further.

Once things ran at about 190 degrees for a little while I notice I"m leaking coolant and a bunch of steam started pouring out under the hood. I shut down the engine right away and popped the hood. The dang coolant line that runs into the turbo fell out. Like the old owner of this car did some Crap weld job on the coolant line. Not sure why he did that. Then again he rigged a lot of stuff on this car that I'm starting to find. Who buys an $1800 GT35R turbo and welds the line incorrectly.

I guess tomorrow I'll be pulling off the turbo.... The nut for the water line is between the turbo and the block.. Cant figure out how to get a wrench on it. It will just be faster to pull off the turbo.

So far I've almost ran the engine dry on oil due to melted lines and now on coolant. Breaking this thing in has been a scary experience.