Chevy & GMC Vans

Based on the colour of the coolant and the fact that I don't see any milkiness or discolouration of the tranny fluid, I a quite sure it is more likely to be engine oil rather than tranny fluid if it is fact oil. And I have checked the water pump and no leaks there. Not really having any loss of coolant, just the brown discoloration and the feel of the fluid is very slippery. But then I think regular coolant (water/antifreeze) is very slippery as well and I know the Barsleak liquid has a very slippery/oily feeling to it. I think I will call a garage who has done some work for me in the past and ask about the blue dye test. Thks for your feed back.

Red Neck question here.

Could one thread some bolts with copper washers into the inlet and exhaust on the oil cooler?

after the oil cooler is removed and the topic of concern is the oil temp itself possibly increasing then just off set that tiny amount by running straight water in your radiator in the months that you can, or maybe a bottle of Prestone Anti-Rust then the rest water if you're worried about corrosion. Water removes heat a heck of alot better than antifreeze, in fact glycol has only half the heat capacity of water... it's benefit is for the antifreeze qualities it has. Depending on how cold your winters get you would need to increase to the minimal percentage to keep the coolant from freezing.

So just to get this straight:

Every one, including me, has had leaky oil cooler lines.

The oil cooler and lines can be deleted, especially if you already have a trans cooler (I do)

After deleting the oil cooler, you should run pure synthetic oil to prevent high temp breakdown. What about synthetic/dino blends? Can the oil really get that hot? A lot of guys say the same engine on different vehicles didn't have the cooler in the first place.

Lastly, on my 2000, the upper oil cooler line connection at the radiator seems to be leaking coolant onto the upper rad hose. Does anyone know what size plug I need to plug that hole in the radiator? Is it the same for both oil cooler fittings?

At 109,000 miles, how seriously should I consider a new radiator?

I did this to my GT when it started to leak badly.
I figured that since neither of my 87 vans had a cooler, it couldn't damage anything.
I just disconnected the lines from the manifold and left them there.

Dead Cell wrote:glycol ... it's benefit is for the antifreeze qualities it has.

It also elevates the boiling point.


I replaced the leaky crimps with hose clamps and it's been fine so far.

timelessbeing wrote:

Dead Cell wrote:glycol ... it's benefit is for the antifreeze qualities it has.

It also elevates the boiling point.


I replaced the leaky crimps with hose clamps and it's been fine so far.

Holy resurrection batman! this is a 5 yr old thread... But it still has lots of good info

Time for a refresher.

just removed mine and switched to castrol syntec.... no difference in temp but i gained about 5lbs of oil pressure

How did you measure the temp?

Great thread! It helped me decide on whether or not to delete my oil cooler lines, which I ended up doing recently. I always used Mobil1 full synthetic oil anyway so no change there. My oil pressure stayed the same for the most part but it did go UP from 40psi to 60psi at cold start up. Hot idle psi is the same which is what I was worried about because I heard this mod often LOWERS oil psi. The van runs better now, feels more responsive and the persistent P0420 code (catalytic converter) I had for months went away so maybe I won't have to replace my cat now. Engine heats up faster and I think the cat works better with the added heat. No more leaking oil mess, no more worry about an oil line blowing out or coolant/oil mixing. I think my mpg went up but not sure or by how much - I think the van now runs in open loop for a shorter period of time so it makes sense that at least there it wastes less gas. I have not had any problems really but I do live in Texas so we'll see what a hot Texas summer does to my van without the oil cooler lines.

Another "resurrection" for this post...

I have a '93 Safari and there's an hemorrhage @ the "in" hose (at the flare), I know it's just the o'ring, but I can't get that one separately. I went to many auto parts and it doesn't comes separately, so, I need to buy the hose to get the ring.
But a guy @ the GM auto part advised me to buy caps and block both of the lines @ the cooling oil manifold. I'm looking online and there's insufficient info about this leak situation.

What's the difference between block it and remove the manifold? Wich option is better? It's not the same effect?

Thanks.

Good to see my 11 year old thread still has some relevance today...

Looking back at the pics, I can't see what difference it would make if you just capped the manifold ports as compared to removing the whole thing.

I removed the manifold because I was getting rid of the old leaky lines as well. There wasn't much info back then about whether this would be a smart move but I took the chance and it never was a problem for the van. The bigger issue for these vans has always been the need to add an aux tranny cooler to help preserve tranny life.

This Topic gave me an alternative approach! I'm already laying a contingency for Derale® 9000-Series engine oil, power-steering/Hydro-Boost, and transmission coolers for my 1997 M11006. Since I've all sort o' room betwichst the radiator and the fan, I could use dual D13614's, the transmission cooler before the A/C condenser and the oil cooler just abaft the radiator. One less cross-contamination risk there. I'm already running SuperTech™ High Mileage Full Synthetic (available at Wal-Mart) and a K&N® M-2001 oil filter on my Vortec™ 4300. Lose the oil cooler and I'd rather run RED LINE® - best high-temperature performance of ANY motor oil, bar none.

Hi and Happy Thanksgiving to all,

I say purchase the Dorman oil cooler lines for $79 and kept your oil cooler. They are very well designed.

Having an oil cooler makes the oil last longer. The Astro was an Awesome stop and go tradesman van.
often giving 200,000 + miles of rough and ready service.

Race cars use oil coolers. Just look at Summit Racing.

Temperature is the enemy of oil and the oil cooler is a great feature.

As an analogy, if you had a turbo on your Ford eco boost or Volvo , would you delete the oil cooler line to the turbo if it leaked?

Heck no,

AP

Dorman part number Astro oil cooler kit