Chevy & GMC Vans

Okay, you guys have started my mind spinning. I have oil on these lines and have for years. I always thought it was the power steering pump (maybe the brake resevoir) that was leaking on to these lines. I never once thought it was the line itself. I guess I'm still questioning where the leak is coming from. Fact is, no fluids are ever low so hmmm...

I went to Autozone.com and found new lines cost $100
http://www.autozone.com:80/autozone/cat ... ons=%5B%5D

Or, surprisingly, an entire new oil cooler adapter and line set-up cost $48
http://www.autozone.com:80/autozone/cat ... ons=%5B%5D

I really hate to do away with it all together. I do have a large tranny cooler and 9 times out of 10 run synthetic oil, but to lose the oil cooler altogether... I don't know. I'm half tempted to just replace them with some rubber lines or the aftermarket set-up.

Thoughts?

LaGrasta wrote:Okay, you guys have started my mind spinning. I have oil on these lines and have for years. I always thought it was the power steering pump (maybe the brake resevoir) that was leaking on to these lines. I never once thought it was the line itself. I guess I'm still questioning where the leak is coming from. Fact is, no fluids are ever low so hmmm...

I went to Autozone.com and found new lines cost $100
http://www.autozone.com:80/autozone/cat ... ons=%5B%5D

Or, surprisingly, an entire new oil cooler adapter and line set-up cost $48
http://www.autozone.com:80/autozone/cat ... ons=%5B%5D

I really hate to do away with it all together. I do have a large tranny cooler and 9 times out of 10 run synthetic oil, but to lose the oil cooler altogether... I don't know. I'm half tempted to just replace them with some rubber lines or the aftermarket set-up.

Thoughts?

The oil cooler for $48. ,states in the notes section that it doesn't include hoses.
I'm removing the cooler on the '95 this weekend.I did the same a couple of years ago on my '94 and don't regret it. I had already replaced the hoses once,and was looking at another $100 about a year later. So I opted for getting rid of it! I was too nervous about blowing an oil line and being stranded. I've noticed no performance issues at all. Just religously keep up on oil changes.I use synthetic and Prolong.

Would even synthetic really even be needed? I ask because the article linked first post of this topic points out that 1) Oil generally stays the same temp as the coolant whether you have an oil cooler or not, 2) Excess heating of the oil will speed viscosity breakdown in dino oil, but it seems to me that if one is regularly doing their oil change (even with dino oil) that should not be a problem either. I don't intend to switch to synthetic at this point, even with removing the cooler lines. Maybe I would use it if I was doing some towing through lots of hills or mountains, but not for general driving. I simply plan to do what I do now, which is regularly change the oil. The amount of oil I have on various components under the hood makes me much more nervous about blowing a line than I am about the oil possibly losing some viscosity.

After some more inspection this morning, I see it IS these lines leaking. I'm surprised I never figured this out before. So before I completely remove these, can't we just cut and replace these with some cheap rubber hose?

Also, ebay has these lines for about $40.

I got mine off. Ended up having to cut the bottom line near the rad, but found an adjustable wrench that opened to 1 inch which fit nicely on the fitting. I still didn't have the leverage I wanted, but suddenly realized the handle for the jack comes off and it is a nice solid piece of pipe that fits perfectly over the wrench. I slide it over and tugged and off it came. I still need to get the lines off the manifold, but that can wait for another day. I finished changing the oil and lubed up the various grease fittings. I think a couple of things need to be replaced, so I am going to have to get under there another day, but since nothing is open today, that will have to wait.

So before I completely remove these, can't we just cut and replace these with some cheap rubber hose?

don't quote me on this , others may chime in with their opinions but i'm gonna say no . because you have about 80lbs oil pressure when you start the van & drops as it warms up , but i doubt any hose clamps & rubber hose will hold up to that kind of pressure with out leaking . it would probably be worse than the leak you have now . if your worried about not useing the cooler then opt for getting replacement lines .

LaGrasta wrote:After some more inspection this morning, I see it IS these lines leaking. I'm surprised I never figured this out before. So before I completely remove these, can't we just cut and replace these with some cheap rubber hose?

Also, ebay has these lines for about $40.

Better to have the weak link out of the equation altogether, than go with a cheap part replacement. I have had these lines removed since Oct -06 and have not had ANY problems with this modification.

Hey Keith,

Did you put anything into the openings in the Rad to keep stuff out of it after removing the oil cooler lines?

Rileysowner wrote:Hey Keith,

Did you put anything into the openings in the Rad to keep stuff out of it after removing the oil cooler lines?

Originally I did, but then later on down the road I needed to replace my rad, and when I did I just used the little cups/caps that were in there. Even if some dirt or water got in there it wouldn't hurt anything.

After some more internet research, i found an S10 site that explained replacing only the rubber section can be done successfully. I want to keep my cooler so I'm going to give this a try.

If you only cut the swedged clamps and not the actual line, it will reveal a "flared" end that can be used to help hold the new rubber hose in place after being clamped. With a Dremal™, I plan to cut this swedged clamp off, clean the area well and install my new hose. I paid $9 last night for 3 feet of high pressure oil cooler hose in 1/2 size. The air cooled VW tech that sold it to me said even with normal hose clamps, this hose will hold the pressure no problem and shouldn't ever leak.

I'll do this at my next oil change and report back.

it sounds like a plan!

mine got replaced with new, but i held on to my old ones because they started leaking badly right before i was due to go on a trip and didn't have time to try and just replace the rubber section.

I want to replace the rubber section like La Grasta. Can anyone confirn that the hose diameter is 1/2" ??? I went the auto parts store today and the biggest they had was 3/8" power steering hose.

97CargoCrawler,
Yes it's 1/2 oil cooler line. I'm certain as I just did this as you know. I bought mine from an aftermarket VW shop. They are really into oil coolers as you might imagine being air cooled.
BTW, it's still looks great, no leaks. We are heading for a 400 mile trip to AZ in a few weeks, that will be the true test. A few weeks after that, Yosemite for a camping trip. That should be the final test for my confidence.

Hate to 'resurrect' this post but am looking for some advise.
My 2000 Astro with 291,000 km on the clock appears to having engine oil enter the cooling system via a very small leak inside the radiator/oil cooler section.
I say 'appears' because it is very hard to confirm 100%. I have in the past used Barsleak to stop what was a small loss of coolant until lately when my wife started to use the van for short trips that didn't bring the engine to normal operating temperature. All of a sudden I was seeing lots of coolant (maybe a tea spoon, goes along way) on the garage floor in the morning after the engine has cooled down over night.
I did a complete flush/clean of the coolant system by draining and putting in Prestone system cleaner. The kind which I left if for about 6 hours during several days of trips.
I then just put in clear water and there didn't seem to be a lots if any oil in the coolant so I thought all was well. I then filled with the correct amount of Dexcool and water mixture. (Won't get into the pluses and minuses of Dexcool.)
I actually put in some more Barsleak and now the coolant is looking very brown and I don't think it is all from the Barsleak which I know does add some 'colour' to the coolant after driving for a while.
What makes me not 100% certain that it is engine oil is because the engine oil looks fine on the dip stick. This may be because the oil pressure during operation is higher than the coolant pressure and therefore possibly oil only flows slowly into the coolant and no coolant flows into the oil.
I was thinking of doing a pressure test of the system but then I thought that perhaps this would just force coolant into the oil cooler lines and then I would be worse off than I am now.
Remembering this post, I thought perhaps someone has just installed a new separate oil cooler for the motor oil i.e. connected it to the two hose from the manifold and mounted it in front of the rad like the existing tranny cooler. And of course I could just plug the oil cooler inlet ports so even if there was a leak of coolant into the cooler, it would go nowhere.
Perhaps I should spent a few bucks and have a rad shop put in some blue dye to the engine oil to see if it shows up in the coolant under UV light or perhaps they don't even do that but rather put the dye in the coolant and look elsewhere for leaks? I just suspect that they might just blow up the rad or ?? and then force me to install a new rad.
Has anyone installed the separate oil cooler? If so, what size/capacity did you use. And where did you purchase the cooler? I am not worried about hoses blowing off. I am sure I can get suitable hose and clamps etc. 80 psi is not much compared the the 1500 psi hydraulics which I normally work with.
Sorry for such a long winded post....

You could have tranny fluid getting in the cooling system instead of engine oil. Your best bet is change out the rad for a new one. The leak on the floor may be the waterpump. Check it out.