Can I reuse oil cooler
 

My timing chain rubbed on the oil deck and machined the aluminum from it in small shards. I have tiny flecks of aluminum in my engine. can I flush and reuse the oil cooler or do I need to replace it as I have read in some posts?? :confused:

Just my 2p (2¢!) ....if it were me, at the very least I think I'd want to find the root cause of why the chain has come into contact with something. I don't think I'd feel very comfortable doing just a flush either....if there's shards of material floating about, it's only ever going to do damage to bearings/journals/bores/etc

Sorry, probably not the answer you wanted to hear!

I would not feel comfortable with resuing the cooler, just too many places to have that crap hiding waiting to jump out and terrorize my bearings.

Definately try to find the root cause of thye failure.

The oil cooler(s) should be somewhat protected by the oil filter. I'd send it out for ultrasonic cleaning (Pacific Oil Coolers in California).

-Andy

I believe the chain rubbed because the tensioner failed. Isn't the inside of the cooler smooth tube? Why does material get stuck in there. Not arguing, looking for information. Thanks.

Sound advise.......

It only takes one little chip hiding in the cooler to maybe destroy your new engine.
There are many parts in an engine that could be safely reused because a failure in one of them is damaging...but not critical.
Anything to do with the oiling system could destroy an engine...better to be safe.
Bob

It really is difficult for large pieces (30 -60+ microns) to get past the filter. White metal main and rod bearings are designed to trap small particle and rarely will one or two small particles (as defined as capable of passing through an oil filter 10-25 microns) create noticeable damage or shorten the life of an engine .
If it's difficult for large particles to pass the filter, how will they contaminate the cooler. And if one or two manage to get through, what are the chances that they will elude a pressure flush and sonic clean. You have a greater chance of getting contaminates in your engine while adding oil than from a sonic cleaned cooler.

Of course this is just an opinion.

I believe that typical minimum oil film thickness in Big End bearings can be as low as 2-3 microns at peak cylinder pressure and this would mean that even fairly small hard particles can cause damage.

I also think that typical oil filters will only successfully remove particles greater then 30 microns and even then not all particles of this size of particle will be trapped by a filter.

The Efficiency of a filter is the number of particles of a given size that will be removed by the filter.

Typical efficiencies for standard automotive filters are 40% at 10 microns, 60% at 20 microns, 93% at 30 microns, and 97% at 40 microns.

The other problem is that stock 911 oil filters havea By-pass built in and when the engine is cold a reasonable quantity of oil will not pass through the filter.

Soft, sooty particls will tend to be squeezed by the bearings and may not cause too much damage but hard particles would be an issue.

Pacific Oil Coolers seem to have an FAA approved cleaning method and this seems a really good idea.

I think it boils down to opinion of the risks involved. Sure, it could be fine; then again it may have something still lodged in it. Roll the dice....

Same is true for many other items like alusil cylinders... sometimes they re-ring fine, sometimes not.

Bottom line... there is no hard data to show just what the risks are of a failure due to cleaning and re-use, so until then you decide whether you want to take that risk. I guarantee you that you will hear both sides from even the experts (which I do not claim to be), and it will probably pretty evenly split.