P38 Diesel oil cooler

I needed to change the oil pipes from the engine to the oil cooler as one was weeping, they have done 98K so no complaints there.

Came off dead easy from the engine end

Oil cooler end is another matter. Undid the first one, no thread left on the friggin aloy stub on the cooler, it stayed in the steel nut:doh: Result, new oil cooler needed at £140

Why is it that so many things on the Rangie seem to be made of crap

Had exactly the same problem only the other way around - had to replace the cooler, but ended up having to buy new pipes as well after the threads stripped. £120 extra that shouldn't have been necessary. Bit of a bummer isn't it. Seems to be a common issue reading around.

Matt

mmaddock said:

Had exactly the same problem only the other way around - had to replace the cooler, but ended up having to buy new pipes as well after the threads stripped. £120 extra that shouldn't have been necessary. Bit of a bummer isn't it. Seems to be a common issue reading around.

Matt

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£120 for the pipes? I paid £25 each for mine

i know its a bit late but usually plunging(or pouring) ally into hot water 'crack' stubborn threads. mebbe if its a nut (ally thread on inside, as opposed to bolt, ally thread on outside) some kind of quick freezing/cooling would loosen the thread???

gavbriggs said:

i know its a bit late but usually plunging(or pouring) ally into hot water 'crack' stubborn threads. mebbe if its a nut (ally thread on inside, as opposed to bolt, ally thread on outside) some kind of quick freezing/cooling would loosen the thread???

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Thanks for that Gav. Tried heating the steel nut on the pipe and freezing the alloy stub, it then undid with surprising ease, trouble is that the thread remained in the steel nut Crap quality alloy

As the joint is sealed with an O ring and the pressure is low, a frigging great steel nut is not really neccessary. I have seen similar pipe joints retained with a simple spring clip arrangement or a clamp as is used on the engine end of the pipes.

its a common fact that steel and ally 'weld' themselves together over time, shame LR didn't know about it!!!

gavbriggs said:

its a common fact that steel and ally 'weld' themselves together over time, shame LR didn't know about it!!!

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Yes it is called electrolysis. Caused by the small current passing through the chassis creating a chemical reaction between dissimular metals. Well known in the aircraft and boat building industry. But as Land Rover don't build boats or planes they don't seems to give a **** if you have to buy a new part if a pipe leaks that's attached to it.

they prolly figured that if the ecu's and various(most) other bits wont tolerate water then why would anything from the boat industry be relevant, after all anyone who takes his p38 near water will have way more to worry about then oil cooler pipes!!! lol!!!

ISnt it acutally BMW who forgot about the Electrolsis thing, as the P38 DSE is a Beemer, along with all the ancil bits.

daveb284 said:

ISnt it acutally BMW who forgot about the Electrolsis thing, as the P38 DSE is a Beemer, along with all the ancil bits.

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Not sure that the oil cooler would be a BMW unit as it's tailor made to fit under the intercooler between the condensor and the radiator. Unless of course everything else was designed around the oil cooler

Datatek said:

Not sure that the oil cooler would be a BMW unit as it's tailor made to fit under the intercooler between the condensor and the radiator. Unless of course everything else was designed around the oil cooler

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Maybe on a petrol, but on the diesel it is under the left wing behind the N/S fog lamp aperture.

wammers said:

Maybe on a petrol, but on the diesel it is under the left wing behind the N/S fog lamp aperture.

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No it is not, that is the auto gearbox oil cooler. The engine oil cooler on the diesel is exactly as I described

Datatek said:

No it is not, that is the auto gearbox oil cooler. The engine oil cooler on the diesel is exactly as I described

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Hands held up in surrender you are of course totally correct. Must have had a Condor moment there.:doh:

what if you used a nut splitter to destroy the nut which i assume is on the pipe end? could you save it that way? or could you weld on new bolt end pipes on to the rad, or is that a mental idea?

Canyon said:

what if you used a nut splitter to destroy the nut which i assume is on the pipe end? could you save it that way? or could you weld on new bolt end pipes on to the rad, or is that a mental idea?

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I did split the bolts but the thread came with it. It is possible to weld new alloy stubs on if you can weld alloy that is. I can machine up new stubs but not quickly enough to get the car back on the road for my trip to UK. Very good service from Island 4 X 4 by the way, ordered Monday, arrived Wednesday 11:30am here in France

Datatek said:

I did split the bolts but the thread came with it. It is possible to weld new alloy stubs on if you can weld alloy that is. I can machine up new stubs but not quickly enough to get the car back on the road for my trip to UK. Very good service from Island 4 X 4 by the way, ordered Monday, arrived Wednesday 11:30am here in France

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MEGA THREAD RESURRECTION

Do you know what fittings are used on the oil cooler? i have just done this very same thing, am thinking if i can find out what thread/type of fitting i can get them welded on by my mate.

cheers

also while we are on this

what thread are the auto box oil cooler rad connections? As I'm about to take mine off

I had the same issue with mine last weekend,ended up having to buy a new oil cooler as the whole stub broke off the side of mine despite being soaked overnight in p45 and being heated up...

I was lucky with the auto box cooler,it stripped the thread on one but seeing as i was replacing it anyway it was just a case of cleaning the ally out of the thread on the nut with a scribe...has been fine so far....


One thing i did notice tho was that even tho the two new oil cooler pipes (****part) fit into the engine ok,one of them doesnt match up with the clamp on the side of the engine...do britpart actually look at any of these bits before they reproduce them??

I was not so lucky on engine oil cooler , but got away with auto box oil cooler when I did me flex plate.

My turn to resurrect this thread
Removing the intercooler to access the oil cooler seems OK from the manual, I can't see anything on removing the oil cooler pipes from the engine end though, looks like the disappear under the oil filter, is it much of a job at that end?

Thanks for any info!