Front Oil Cooler Leaking, Is this Trouble?

SalazarS2K · 09-18-2004, 11:39 AM

I took the car to an autocross last weekend and after 2 runs, I noticed a streak of oil across my front bumper and hood. This only happend at WOT, b/c I didn't notice any leaks on the way home or when I drove it hard on the street. I pulled the bumper when I got home and noticed this on the front b&b oil cooler. I assume this isn't a problem with the fitting, but the oil cooler itself. Do I have to bite the bullet and get another one?

klaucke · 09-18-2004, 11:41 AM

Possibly a radiator shop could fix the leak for you? That's just a guess, worse case is you'd have to replace it.

gregk1 · 09-18-2004, 11:53 AM

You could weld it if it was on the outside row of the cooler but if it is an inturnal leek you would have to bite that bullet you were talking about And that would be a Verry large bullet to bite!! I would make a way to put a gage on it and put about 15 lbs of air to it and see how long it holds

911pcars · 09-18-2004, 12:57 PM

I'm not sure I see an aero path from the cooler to the hood and front of bumper. Because of normal airflow, any oil from this apparent "small" leak would tend to pile up on the metal pan behind the cooler. How about washing the cooler leak area and run the engine again to ID and pinpoint the leak?

That's a good size cooler. Could you show us what kind of bumper surrounds it? Does the bumper have a screen in front of the cooler?

Sherwood

PS: Don't take this the wrong way, and I apologize if I don't see it, but use jack stands. Don't trust any hydraulic jack to hold up a car, especially if any part of your body passes under it.

SalazarS2K · 09-18-2004, 02:01 PM

Sherwood,

I had trouble pinpointing the leak. Last week, the oil ran all the way onto the inside bottom lip for my RS bumper and collected there. Under high speeds, airflow pushed the oil to the front of the bumper and it splashed onto the hood.

Fast foward, I just took the car for a drive with the front bumper off. Took it to many high speed/high rpm runs, and did not get any leaks.

I wrapped two rags to each fitting hoping that one of them would soil and I could fix the problem. The oil cooler is much cleaner now than the picture.

Here is a picture of the front bumper, there is a mesh screen protecting the front.

PS: Noted on the jackstands, I need to go out and buy 2 more for the front.

Joeaksa · 09-18-2004, 03:32 PM

Salazar,

One thing to remember is that you really want to find the problem and fix it before it gets colder. The 911 motor has a thermostatic valve that does not allow oil to circulate to the front cooler until its a certain temp.

After it gets to this temp the valve opens. Problem is that the half a quart of oil remaining in the oil line to the front is still cold and when high pressure oil is pushing it towards the cooler, something may just break, and that would be the weakest link, ie the leak in the cooler. If its leaking now, it will leak a lot more when this happens.

One thing to try is to spray the entire area with brake cleaner then let the engine idle with warm oil. It should start coming to the front cooler after the valve opens and then hopefully you can see the leak with the bumper off. Until the oil is warm (really warm) you will not have any flow to the front cooler, so no leakage.

JoeA

PS, very nice looking car! Like the paint and striping a lot! Protect you and your a$$ like Sherwood says and get the jack stands!