Replacing the oil Lines
 

I've decided to replace the 28 year old oil lines on my car. What size wrenches do I need to unbolt them? I measured with my verniers and came up with 1 7/16" or 36mm and a 1 3/16" or 30.5mm. I have box ends in the imperial sizes but no open ends.

What size wrenches have you guys used? I don't want to mar things up with a pipe wrench but will if I can't get the wrenches I need.

Will I need any O-rings or are they flare fillings on the oil tank / thermostat/union with the oil tube going to the engine?

Get the proper size open-end wrenches. A pipe wrench will bugger it up and you may not even be able to fit it to some of the fittings.

Pelican sells the whole set - 27, 32, 36 and one other size.

A wrenching pain.....
 

To remove the oil lines you will need (at least) the 30mm, 32mm and 36mm wrenches. If you get the Porsche specialty wrenches with the open end and a straight handle, you can add a pipe extension if necessary.

Good luck on your project!

If you are planning on removing the oil lines from the thermal switch and the trombone cooler line (this is if your car has them?) then be for warned that there is great potential to do damage to the threads on the lines and the thermo switch. After 20+ years of heating and cooling the connections become frozen and will require liquid wrench/heat and a lot of torque to break them free. I literally destroyed my thermal switch trying to remove the oil lines. I eventually removed the oil lines/thermal switch/trombone as one piece and then used liquid wrench/heat and wrenches with pipe extensions to break the connections.

Should the oil lines be replaced periodically or only if they appear damaged/corroded?

only if damaged - corrosion on the outside can be cleaned off

the metal lines will last longer than you do

squeeze the rubber oil tubing every year to see if it is getting squishy

I'm impressed. That explains the high replacement cost!

The first step in replacing old (but functioning) oil lines should probably be to get pricing on the replacement pieces.

Elephant Racing makes the only lines I've seen that are an improvement on the factory design. Other common replacements like flexi line are inferior to what they're replacing, since they provide very little cooling capability -- which the factory lines do very well.

I used big adjustable wrenches (cheap from northern tool). It worked and cost less than buying the specialty wrenches. I'm not sure iff you can get 'em all this way. I just did the ones necessary for pulling the engine. Local Porsche mechanic told me I needed to replace the hoses cause they were leaking. I tightened them up 6 months ago and no leaks since then.

I bought the wrenches taday... Not sure why I would have needed the 32mm wrench but anyway...

The line on the tank came loose easy, and the line going to the engine came loose quite easy too.

I should have read this a little more closely...

"be for warned that there is great potential to do damage to the threads on the lines and the thermo switch"

One of the threads on the thermo switch stripped. Anyone got a spare for sale?

I was planning on just having an industrial hose place replace the rubber parts of the lines - it will cost ~ $20.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by unclebilly
[B]I should have read this a little more closely...

"be for warned that there is great potential to do damage to the threads on the lines and the thermo switch"

One of the threads on the thermo switch stripped. Anyone got a spare for sale?



They sell a thread saver insert to fix this kind of problem.

Well I resolved my problem without replacing the thermostathousing.

It seems that our German engineer buddies left an extra .25" of thread on the thermostat so I ground .125" off of the length of the fitting (basically the buggered threads) and then used a 1.125" countersink bit to rechamfer the bore so the compression fitting would have somewhere to seat. It's all good now.

"Ya Hans - extra threads! Ve know ze dumbkppf Americans vill be messing mit our cars in 50 years. Zey vill appreciate our superior engineering..."