New coolant leak

[nghtshd88]

I recently replaced my entire system with motorcraft piping and it's held solid for about a month or so. This week my degas bottle began dropping again. Today it dropped a couple inches. Look underneath and coolant is all over blasting out of the oil cooler..... I didnt expect this to be a problem ever but I guess it is to. Not to mention the hoses on the cooler were the biggest pain in the ass to get off.. I suppose the two tubes arent pressed in that well.

Can I go aftermarket for this one? GEN II 3.9 with 48k miles....

Better yet can I just bypass it on Gen II? I havent really looked at how involved it will be to change the oil cooler..

 

[joegr]

Yes, you could remove it and bypass it. You could bypass either by connecting the two hoses together (or plugging both off), or by replacing the lower radiator hose with one for a gen I V8, non-sport.

The main down side is that the oil will be slower to warm up.

I really think that you will still need to remove (or better yet, change) the oil cooler. I would worry that it would corrode further and start leaking out the oil too. There have been a few cases posted here about the cooler leaking oil into the coolant.

2006 Lincoln LS Workshop Manual

Help removing the Oil Cooler (03 V8)

 

[04_Sport_LS]

I recently replaced my entire system with motorcraft piping and it's held solid for about a month or so. This week my degas bottle began dropping again. Today it dropped a couple inches. Look underneath and coolant is all over blasting out of the oil cooler.....

Typical of the LS cooling system, (and actually of ANY cooling system). Replacing parts with new... will cause stress on the weakest old part to fail.

 

[nghtshd88]

Thanks, so this is pretty simple so it seems. I assume coming from underneath will be easier.

I plan on changing it but its the middle of winter right now. Can I go aftermarket with this? I think Doorman makes one. Seems like a simple part.

 

[joegr]

There's a lot at stake here. Sudden failure might put coolant into the oil, which could ruin the engine before you know it happened. On the other hand, surely Dorman makes something that is good. Maybe this is it, because the other Dorman LS parts haven't been good so far.

 

[04_Sport_LS]

I don't know if nightshade got your sarcasm Joe. Try again... with a little more bluntness. Honestly,,, I don't understand how this part could fail at 48K... unless it sat outside 24/7/365 in the middle of the rust belt. But then again,,, I don't seem to have many of the problems with my LS,,, that others do.

 

[joegr]

Yeah, I would really like to know what factor(s) are causing these to fail for some. I'd like to know how much at risk I am. If much, I would go ahead and replace them on both of mine. I keep hoping that it is something that doesn't apply to me, like road salt or never changing the coolant. Could it be that simple? Or is it a luck of the draw manufacturing defect kind of thing?

 

[nghtshd88]

I think in my situation it was trying to get the hoses off. Its just a confined space and they were glued on so pulling on them surely the tubes took some abuse. Possibly got loosened as it seems they are pressed in? But it took a month before it got bad and it was sudden when it blew. System was very clean no signs of corrosion at all.

I see the other thread/guy on here changing the same part. Not sure what was wrong with his but it seems he recently changed the coolant system as well.

 

[joegr]

I don't think they are glued or pressed on. I think that over time they become stuck on. I had to cut mine off. I was nervous about that, as you don't want to cut too deep. It didn't seem to me that it would hold up to the amount of twisting and pulling required to get them off without splitting the hoses first.

 

[nghtshd88]

[QUOTE="joegr, post: 2037413068, member: 5534"It didn't seem to me that it would hold up to the amount of twisting and pulling required to get them off without splitting the hoses first.[/QUOTE]

Ditto, now you know what happens when you do.

 

[04_Sport_LS]

Yeah, I would really like to know what factor(s) are causing these to fail for some. I'd like to know how much at risk I am. If much, I would go ahead and replace them on both of mine. I keep hoping that it is something that doesn't apply to me, like road salt or never changing the coolant. Could it be that simple? Or is it a luck of the draw manufacturing defect kind of thing?

Yeah... I have almost 180Kon my "04" without incident. Of course,,, the vehicle history through Ford and other sources,,, shows that it's first 75K miles went through Arizona and Georgia. Since then I've had it "up north" in the salt belt for over 100K miles. No history of the filter mount needing to be replaced.

A long life of an LS being in the "salt belt"... or poor maintenace,,, could be the issue. Then again... getting rough trying to pull the hoses off,,, could be contributive also. It only takes a bit of a twist with "channel locks" to break the seal of the hoses. Pulling the oil filter helps,,, but a person needs to make sure they cover the oil filter mount before pulling the cooling hoses... or they re- install the filter before pulling the coolant hoses.

Putting a prybar on the the oil coolant mount hoses,,, could put undue stress on the oil coolant mount "pipes"... so if a person got rough trying to change the lower radiator hose... that could explain part of the problem.

Even after 100k miles in the "salt belt"... i honestly don't see any corrosion on my oil cooler.

 

[04_Sport_LS]

It's been long enough,,, that I don't remember if I cut the hoses or not. I don't think I did. Will definitely make a difference in the ease of hose removal on the oil cooler though.

Good idea!!!