Oil Lines to Front Cooler

[Steam Driver]

Can the hard lines to and from the front cooler be R&R’d without removing the RH rocker panel? Or is it better to just bite the bullet and remove it?

[wareaglescott]

I took my lines off recently. In fact I disassembled the entire car almost. Taking the rocker panels off was one of the easiest tasks there was. Not sure if you can get the lines out with the panel in place but if you do have to take it off don't fret about the difficulty of doing so.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

You have to remove the rocker cover. If you are replacing engine/oil tank lines and front lines, and they won't come off easily, I recommend cutting into the nuts very close to but not into the threads of the thermostat or lines, then heating with mapp torch and then twisting the gap open with a large screwdriver to unscrew easily.

[QueWhy]

I don’t know what you mean by R&R, do you plan on replacing the lines, painting them, fixing a crushed one?

The easiest way to get them off is to drop everything as a unit. Getting the lines off the thermostat is tough enough, trying to do it in situ would be a nightmare.

I’m sure the rocker panel has to come off, like wareaglescott said, that’s the easy part.

[jamesjedi]

Shaun - great explanation.

[75 911s]

Remove them. Pro tip, remove the rear wheel so you can easily get the rocker end cap on and off. Of course you would have removed it anyway to get to the lines, but remember when you go to put the rocker back on. :-)

When you put the rocker panel back on, clean it super well. Also clean the inside groves of the rubber strip. Then use lots of soapy water to slide it back on after you screw the rocker panel back onto the car.

[7783911]

I would remove the rocker because its easier to then replace the rubber bits and clamps when re-installing. I recently redid my lines because they were flattened by some dumb A## mechanic in the past with a jack. I cleaned them out, then capped one end with a blow off type cap In case pressure too high), then threaded a 3/4 inch PCV cap into which I had tapped a air pressure hose fitting. Set pressure to 55lbs and using a propane torch..gently heated the flattened areas which under pressure expanded back to original pipe shape perfectly. Then polished the lines and the trombone back to brass and clear coated (thin layer). Re installed with new thermostat and now it looks good and the cooler actually works!. My setup was actually borrowed by a Poprsche mechanic so he could repair a bunch on lines he had in his shop. Its easy and I m happy to walk you through it if you need. BTW...getting pipe nuts off is near impossible unless someone put antisieze..cutting old nuts off and re installing elephant racing nuts is a good solution if you cant soak the original nuts off...you dont want to ruin the threads on the thermostat if those nuts are siezed!



Bob

[Steam Driver]

Thanks to all; they will come off!