How to repair leaking oil cooler

smaring said:

the last bit of photos ...
View attachment 1474197 View attachment 1474198 View attachment 1474199 View attachment 1474200 View attachment 1474201

Click to expand...

thankyou..hope this stays for awhile..

I know I will be into mine soon ..

I am so glad you brought this to the top. This is my next project. I wonder if anything will be different since I have a tubular k member?

Depending on your block you’ll also have a drain plug on the block for the coolant. My 01 cobra has a teksid and on the driver’s side near the motor mount there’s a drain. I did the oil cooler rebuild from speed concepts if anyone has questions pm
me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for that offer. I ordered the kit and will do the rebuild as soon as it gets here.
Did you remove the splash guard and wheel?

oldstv said:

Thanks for that offer. I ordered the kit and will do the rebuild as soon as it gets here.
Did you remove the splash guard and wheel?

Click to expand...

No need


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There is also a section on my site pertaining to the oil cooler with links to the places to buy the o-ring kits, along with info on the water passage gasket that is always a source of confusion. If you buy the o-rings from Delk (shown below) and tell Matt you saw it on my site, he'll also knock a bit off the price.

http://www.terminator-cobra.com/cooling.htm#Oil_cooler

Glad I found this thread, a lot of good information. 2 questions though. If the o-ring behind the filter stud got messed up during an oil change would it be leaking oil or antifreeze? Does the filter stud take a 12 mm or 1/2" hex wrench? I've seen both.

There are hyperlinks in the link on the post above yours that will answer all your questions.

I bought a kit that came with all of the o rings. The biggest PITA was figuring out how to remove the entire assembly. I about gave up when I thought you had to remove all of the bolts first. There was NO way to remove those bolts. But once you figure out how to remove the cooler from the adapter first its much easier to get to those bolts. Another project I hope I don't have to do for a little while.

Plus all the pain of disposing of the coolant/oil mixture. It takes a couple flushes to get rid of it all.

Unfortunately, I'll be tackling this project next weekend since mine has started to have a small leak in this area. I ordered the kit from SpeedConcepts and received it super quickly. Hoping a project on this car actually goes as smoothly and pain-free as it "should".... since it usually doesn't

Great write-up and definitely appreciate the updated pictures from Smaring

MissV8der said:

Unfortunately, I'll be tackling this project next weekend since mine has started to have a small leak in this area. I ordered the kit from SpeedConcepts and received it super quickly. Hoping a project on this car actually goes as smoothly and pain-free as it "should".... since it usually doesn't

Great write-up and definitely appreciate the updated pictures from Smaring

Click to expand...

Sometimes the center piece just needs to be re-torqued. It's a little unnerving putting that much torque on a skinny fastener.

So, I finally finished this project with great success so far (no leaks as of yet). It did take me the better part of 2 days, unfortunately, since I did do it without any help. Getting the cooler separated from the adapter (over that top O-ring on the shaft of the adapter) was a HUGE problem. After longer than I would like to admit, I finally wiggled and pulled enough for it to pop off the shaft. I pulled the cooler apart and was very happy Ken, with Speed Concepts had talked me in to getting the core O-rings, because I do believe that was the cause of my leak. Once I pulled the core out, I saw damage to the internal O-rings....even though all 6 of the O-rings I ended up replacing looked quite worn and in need of replacement, the one in the picture looked to be the culprit of my leak (possibly).



Anyways, advice for anyone that is about to do this project....separating the adapter and the cooler will be THE biggest pain in the butt, but you'll be SO happy when it finally comes apart. No, you cannot get the adapter off without pulling the cooler off, there are 2 bolts that are hidden by the cooler. And lastly, when you go to put the cooler back on (with the adapter bolted back up to the car), you will cuss and moan just as much trying to get the oil cooler back on over that o-ring on the shaft as you did trying to get it off.

Good luck to anyone that is going to do this.

Also BIG shout out and thanks to Ken at Speed Concepts . He was a very huge help several times when I had questions or needed help, he called me back on a Sunday morning, so he's always available if you're in a bind.

Very detailed and useful write up. I followed the steps when i did mine and ordered the o-rings through Mcmaster-carr since i needed them Asap so i have a bunch left over now.

Sent from my SM-G960U using the svtperformance.com mobile app

Just did this today, instructions here are great.

I ordered the wrong FelPro which LMR had listed. My application required Fel-Pro 70801 which matched up precisely.

After piecing the o-ring parts individually, I should have bought the kit from Speed Concepts. Once you spend $5 on the hex key, $25 on the kit off e-bay, and $20 for the adapter gasket you are at the same cost minus taxes.

Great instructions, had mine off in 30 minutes, hardest part is cleaning up the mess.

I cant see any pictures is there somthing im doing wrong?? Thanks

cobra1977 said:

I cant see any pictures is there somthing im doing wrong?? Thanks

Click to expand...

No you’re not doing anything wrong

There was a change of format about 3 yrs ago.

A lot was lost. Or say lost in the cloud

It’s easy just messy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I forgot to ask is center shaft taken out counterclockwise??? I dont think its reverse thread. Im just checking before digging in..

Thx again..

Cobra1977, it is NOT reverse threaded.