Yet another spliced oil cooler line thread - Save those trombones!

[Won]

I decided it was finally time to fix my badly dented oil lines running down the passenger rocker panel. The supply line had a moderate dent towards the rear and nearly collapsed dent right before the line made the 90* upwards turn into the front wheel well. The plan was to take the line off, plug one end and pressurize it using air and heat. All I learned from that experiment was that I was very bad at devising airtight seals and propane was not hot enough to expand the tube at the low pressure I managed to achieve.

Then I realized I had my old trombone cooler sitting out in the backyard. Upon closer inspection I also realized that it already had a number of right angle bends with enough straight sections to be spliced in place of the dented section on my oil line. Here are the before and after pictures showing the oil line and the piece I cut off the trombone cooler:

Before


After



This topic has been covered many times before and the naysayers will always argue that the copper line will stress harden and crack. Being a materials engineering student I understand their concern for the most part. I decided to use the piece from the trombone as it was readily available and I didn't have to do as much splicing. It is the same material and size as the oil line itself so it's easy to work with as well.

I had a hard time looking for a 7/8" copper sleeve as stated in another thread on the topic at local Home Depot and similar places, until I realized it was just a union piece designed for 3/4" copper tubing that had the needed 7/8" ID and was indeed a good fit over the factory lines.

I also had to split the nut off the thermostat that resides in the rear wheel well to take the line off. This was part of the reason I decided to splice the line rather than blowing it back into shape, in addition to my inability to use heat and air, because I needed to slip a new nut over the flared connector somehow. I was changing one of the soft lines between the oil line and the cooler at the same time so I cut it up to get 2 "new" 30mm nuts that had same thread as the one that I split off the line. I did have to grind down the threaded part to have a correct length but you get the point:



While it was all out I thought it might be fun to install a fan to my 28 row cooler. Some said a 6.5" Spal fan was the maximum they could fit and others managed to fit a 7.5" fan with Carrera cooler. Well here is what a 7.5" Spal push fan looks like on a 28 row cooler, for future reference:





I don't think it's going anywhere with 6 zip ties and a safety wire holding it in place. The fan definitely slows down the rate at which the temperature creeps up in total stop-and-go situation but not enough to keep the needle down. I ended up installing the fan slightly higher than what is shown in the photos and there is still room between it and the headlight bucket. I have the bumper notched as well as a big hole cut out in the valance so most of free air will flow through the lower part of the cooler with little to no restriction from the fan.

Search keywords: crushed oil line thermostat spal fan 28 tube brass cooler

[x98boardwell]

Great write up. I had the carrera style oil cooler in my car so I just bought a new line. $380 from the dealer and were back in business.

Very nice job once again.

Bryan

[OSI930]

Nice work.

[3.2 CAB]

An EXCELLENT job of recycling!!! A++++ Tony.