Oil return tubes - preference?
 

I'm rebuilding my 2.7 and am curious about what current collective wisdom says about oil return tubes: Use the 1-piece for a new rebuild, or put in 2-piece?

Mines , originals factory parts , were leaking.

I replaced by alloy 2 parts tubes , and absolutly perfect , easy to install , without any part to remove before , and the possibility of changing the seals later if they are used and leak .

One piece tube obliged to open the engine....

Well, the steel doesnt shrink but the early O rings would fail after years of service causing the leaks.
2 piece are replacements for defective seals but the O rings for the last more than a decade have been the green ones, very hard and in need of lots of grease to install. Unlike the soft orange seals I dont see the leak problems in the near future.
Bruce

If you are doing a rebuild then I believe the one piece ones are the better,longer term solution as there's less to leak. I think the two piece ones are generally for replacing leaking ones without stripping or removing the engine

Ian

I'll be changing mine soon as I just bought the 2 piece set.

A mechanic friend of mine gave me a good tip. He said that the tubes are hard to get "set" as they have to pop into place and the new seals make that difficult. He puts two hose clamps aroung the tubes and then uses a spreader against them to stretch the tubes into place.

Just my $.0.02

Use silicone lube on the o-rings, and they work great with the 2-piece version.
Dow 55 or 110, or equivalent.
If you lube the *inner* o-rings, then installation is 100 times easier. Meaning, the black ones inside the tubing.
Pop one side in by hand, then use a hammer and screwdriver to push the other side in. If the inner o-rings are lubed, then the two parts slide nicely. If not, then the part you popped in by hand pops out when you're driving the other side into place.

Actually there are two different "2 piece" tubes: steel and aluminum, so that can be part of a 'sub-poll'...
If the engine is out I would go with one-piece, just because there are less "variables"

No reason to put the two piece in if you have the engine apart already.

Thanks, everybody, for your input.

The engine carcass came with OEM 2-piece steel tubes. I'm just trying to figure out if there is reason to switch. Looking at the design, I can see how the center joint would be prone to leaking...

The upside to the two piece is that you can easily remove them post-rebuild if you have to remove them for some reason. Not likely that you'll need to do that, but it is a feature nonetheless. However I don't disagree that long-term, the one-piece are the way to go.

Since you've already got the two piece, just get some new inner o-rings. Your gasket kit will come with the outer o-rings.

Only thing to really make sure of with the 2 piece tubes is to have the small tube (that slips into the larger tube) on the head side so there's no flow restriction.....and using 2 house clamps and a large flat screwdriver to spread them is the simples way to get them to seat and not damage the o--rings/tubes...

BINGO!!!!!!;)

Doyle

+1 A Porsche mechanic and good friend of mine says go with one piece! (I asked this very question the other day) Two piece are for emergency's or repair if you don't want to take the motor apart. The two piece tubes tend to leak all by themselves.