so i went all the way to the city first thing this morning and got new gaskets for my oil cooler. Cleaned everything up, cleaned out the bolt holes and put the whole thing back together with loctite, torqued everything to spec plus 1 ft pound, in two stages. I didn't mess with any silcone or anything like that.

Start it up and in about a minute, I've got oil flowing out from behind that same bolt again. Un believable! Does anyone have any ideas? There was no evident damage to the filter bracket, cooler or block sealing surface.

Is there any way that my TP filter could have any effect on this? It doesn't seem like it should, since if it wasn' t there then there would no open passgeway there anyway. I am stumped and frustrated. I need this truck!

 

is there a possibilty the block is cracked around that bolt hole?

 

well, I am waiting for the rest of the coolant to drain and then I will pull it out again, but if there was a block crack there, it would be cooant leaking out, not oil. But anything is possible I guess. I will have it off again in a little while.

I'm wondering if I have a bad pressure relief valve somewhere and that the pressure is too high, but the guage reads normal...

 

well, everything in there looks fine. And the bad pressure relief valve theory is out as well, since the passage that the oil leak is coming from would only have oil in it when the relief valve is bypassing...

At least the gaskets look fine and reusable. But now I need to clean up and go to a dinner party at the neighbor's and pretend like I can think of something besides my broken truck...

Tomorrow I will clean it all up again and throw a straightedge on the filter bracket before I put it back together, and try my best to get everything spotless. I sure am baffled...

at least there will be single malt scotch at dinner...

 

You might have to use copper washers on the bolts. Or you might have to put a little teflon tape or paste on the threads.

 

To long of a bolt push the back out of a blind hole?

 

well, the bolt holes don't go through to anything, and if they did, it would be the coolant jacket. All I can figure is there is some way that the outer gasket just isn't sealing the way it should. I will straightedege the parts tomorrow and give every thing a nice bright emery cloth finish and try again.

just came home from a nice dinner with loads of single malt, so for right now, I'm feeling just fine. In fact, it's a wonder I can even type.....

 

I agree with Tractorfix, a copper washer might help.

 

Put silicone on the bolt and try it, could be a pinhole out into cooler area.

 

Well, I cleaned everything spotless, found no cracks or holes or even very much warpage in the bracket, maybe .002". I did the whole thing again, carefully and cleanly and torqued to spec, and sure enough, it leaks in the same spot. So I pulled that bolt out, cleaned it up, put a dab of RTV on the bolt, AND a copper washer, put it back together and it still leaks, exactly the same.

I can't really use RTV on the gasket though, since the gasket itself is one side of an oil passageway and if a fleck of silicone came loose it would run a risk of plugging a piston cooling nozzle. And besides, this gasket was designed not to use silicone, its supposed to do the sealing. And for the life of me, I cannot figure out why or how there is oil getting to that bolt hole. I am at the end of my rope.

All I can think to do now is replace the oil cooler and the filter bracket with new ones, even though there is no evidence that I can see that there is anything wrong with either of them, but I am too broke to even consider that. I've got the coolant draining-again- so I can take it apart again and hope to salvage the gaskets, but I'm not super hopeful about that even.

arg! I need this truck to work!

 

I found a new oil cooler on ebay, and I think I am going to get that and start over. The used oil cooler I have does have some irregularities and pitting on the surface and that may be enough to allow a little oil to seep into places it shouldn't be.

Hopefully that will be enough and I don't also need a filter bracket. I've just been plowing ahead trying to get this to work since I need the truck so bad, but it just isn't working.

 

I know how you feel. My 92 was down for 6 months for the Allison swap and a lot of other things, had to use my dads old truck and ended up buying my 96 becous once I got all the bugs out of the trans and so on the VE started leeking so bad it would hardly run. Hope you find the prob.

 

yeah, once this mess is over, I really need to get a second truck lined up somehow. There are so many things i need to do that are stuck waiting for this truck to be well again. If I had another truck it would just be annoying instead of crippling...

This afternoon after it was leaking again after the fourth r and r, I just went to town, rented a couple of movies and bought a few beers and spent the rest of the evening just escaping ... I'll tear it apart again in the AM and see what kind of money cummins charges for an oil cooler. The new ebay one will probably be the way to go, but if it's not too terrible from Cummins I will probably drive to the city and pick one up.

 

How about a new oil cooler from Cummins this time?

 

Just got off the phone with them. it is a lot cheaper than a new one from Dodge, and about $170 more than the one on ebay. For all the nightmarish hassle I've had, it is probably worth the difference if I can just figure out how to pay for it.

Plus Cummins has it in stock, I could drive in to the city today and pick one up.