Downside of Deleting The Oil Cooler

Is there any downside of deleting the oil cooler on a B230FT in an 88 765? I'm kind of getting tired of oil leaks that seem to only appear when it's too cold outside to work on my car. The car isn't being used for high performance use.

lummert said:

Is there any downside of deleting the oil cooler on a B230FT in an 88 765? I'm kind of getting tired of oil leaks that seem to only appear when it's too cold outside to work on my car. The car isn't being used for high performance use.

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Could cause break down of the oil in the turbo. If yours is water cooled (like it should be) it probably won't cause immediate damage.

Or you could quit doing half measure repairs and fix it right....

But that might postpone the crushing!

I used a b&m oil cooler from summit, and front mounted it using the original lines and a pair of thread adapters

Dammit lummert.

The stock oil cooler is very cumbersome. Go to an aftermarket setup and be happy again.

Update:

I backed car so I would not have to lay in the oil on the driveway. Started engine and checked with a flashlight. All of the oil cooler fittings and seals are dry. The oil is dripping off one of hose clamps that secure the connecting hose on the two halves of the turbo oil drain. One clamp was positioned in such a way as to rub a hole in the oil filter.

So fix the turbo drain hose clamp positioning and replace the oil filter.

lummert said:

Update:

I backed car so I would not have to lay in the oil on the driveway. Started engine and checked with a flashlight. All of the oil cooler fittings and seals are dry. The oil is dripping off one of hose clamps that secure the connecting hose on the two halves of the turbo oil drain. One clamp was positioned in such a way as to rub a hole in the oil filter.

So fix the turbo drain hose clamp positioning and replace the oil filter.

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Dammit lummert.

3600 ford oil filter fits and is smaller around, don't fix nothing...dammit lummert and with oils that were formulated 40 years after the car was built I think are vastly improved,I think you don't need it dammit

freevolvos said:

3600 ford oil filter fits and is smaller around, don't fix nothing...dammit lummert and with oils that were formulated 40 years after the car was built I think are vastly improved,I think you don't need it dammit

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Motorcraft FL-1A oil filter fits. I was thinking of removing the oil cooler thermostat adapter and swapping to a shorter oil filter nipple, and running an even longer than Ford oil filter.

Fl-1a I the big truck filter rite? Same as ph8? Yes it fits but hardly clears the alternator, buuut you can use a full five quarts,ph3600 is longer but a smaller diameter, just f.y.I.if interested I have a list of filters that will fit...now I sit and wait for the, I only run mann filters...in my case a tree became the end long before engine failure 356k

I just looked at my old setup. I just removed old oil cooler and ran the factory lines to the B&M, no adapters needed. I know you weren't asking about an upgrade haha, just thought I'd clarify my original post in case someone else is interested or having an oil cooler problem.

Weather got up to 42 degrees F with sunshine this afternoon. Managed to fix the oil leak, drain the oil cooler, and replace the oil filter. Draining the oil cooler allowed topping off with 1-1/2 quarts of oil. Looks like it leaked 5 quarts of oil over the past 2 weeks due to the leaking oil filter. After repositioning the hose clamp there was plenty of room between the clamped hose and the oil filter.

In the summer in Washington DC area (hits 90s F ambient temp), I saw oil temp in the pan (drain plug sender) around 240F on the highway, and it would quickly jump to the 265F range with a little boosting. I was probably in the 10-12psi boost range at the time, nothing crazy.

I did a track session once on a small road course and I pegged the 300F oil temp gauge...backed off for a couple laps, it dropped off 300F, and I went back to chasing a WRX.

It's worth having an oil cooler on a stock car in my opinion. On my daily driver I only have the oil/water heat exchanger as used on the later 940 Turbos. I do not have oil temp readings, unfortunately. But...we raced 24hr lemons with a 240 F+T and another team successfully ran a 240 w/Turbo at ~10-15psi with only that oil/water heat exchanger. On our car, we had an oil cooler from a 240 Turbo (Setrab, the good stuff)...but somehow they never cooked the thing with just the heat exchanger sending oil temp heat into their coolant.

The air-cooled oil cooler was a no-brainer from my perspective....although it did cost us an engine due to poor placement when it got taken out by debris. I relocated it to the driver side headlight (near stock 240 Turbo position) and it was reliable there, out of harms way.

For what it's worth, the stock flexible oil cooler lines can be cut apart to reveal a barbed fitting and then -8 line can be clamped on. I did this on my autocross car for front-mounting the 240 Turbo oil cooler. Repairs in the field become easier when you only need to carry spare harvested fittings and some lengths of hose. Even 1/2" heater hose would work in a pinch.

We'll volvo went to the oil to water cooler and a bigger radiator in 1992.. The more you know. I like them better for a race car myself.