Oil Cooler Warning

[panda234]

Most of you are probably aware of this but thought I'd post it anyway. I checked my oil the other day and it was low so put a quart in and it found it needed two. Strange as it dosn't burn oil. I planned on driving downtown-5 or 6 miles of highway driving-but decided to go home to pick something up. When I got there I noticed a severe oil leak in the font by the radiator. The oil pump had rusted through and was leaking oil like a sieve. I had it towed to the garage and bought an oil pump on ebay to replace it. No problem, but if I had of gone downtown instead of stopping at home it would have run out of oil on the highway. Would not want to burn out the engine as it only has 48,000 miles on it. So just a warning to check your oil cooler periodically.

Bill

[ja17]

Hello Bill,

Yes, these oil coolers are steel and are brass welded together. They must handle very high pressures when engine oil is cold.  Typical radiator construction of soldered brass and copper would fail.

They can rust from the outside due to road salts, age and weather.  When they are nearly impossible to repair with confidence. New ones are very expensive.  The W108 six cylinder sedans of the era (six cylinder carbureted or injected) uses the same cooler. You are lucky to find a good solid used one!