B&B oil cooler caution

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

I recently installed a new B&B oil cooler on my '83 SC, with one of Chuck Moreland's undercar air ducts. Even though the oil got hot enough for the thermostat to direct it to my new front cooler, only the very end of the cooler got warm--the end where the entry and exit ports are.

It turns out that B&B inadvertently released a run of oil coolers in which a certain baffle was missing--a baffle that forces the oil to run outward through the cooling tubes and back in through another set of tubes. Without the baffle in place, the hot oil seeks the path of least resistance--into the cooler via the entry port and immediately back out through the return port. Hence no oil cooling other than what occurs in the main pipes and hoses.

B&B will, I'm sure, make good on any such coolers, just as they are on mine (via Steve Weiner). They've been quite up-front about the whole thing, and this post is not to criticize them in any way but simply to provide information for anybody who might be as puzzled as I was by what the problem with their B&B cooler might be. I'd originally thought the cooler was somehow air-bound, like a household radiator that needs bleeding, but a mech who'd already been through the experience set me right.

Stephan

[MuffinMan]

Stephan,

I just did the exact same modification(s) to my car. Did you use the big daddy B&B cooler? (24x6x3)

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Yeah, that's the one that's missing the baffle (at least in a few of them).

Stephan