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Car Forum / Saab Cars / September 2005@$^*&$# oil cooler!
More a rant than anything else - Who's the brain surgeon who came up with the idea of putting the oil cooler between cylinder banks on the V6?? First, it's oil-to-water, so the first indication of a leak is a Super-size milkshake in the coolant recovery tank. Next, the upper, middle, and lower intakes need to be removed - only about 100 bolts and 4 gaskets to remove and replace. The cooler is a little radiator about 3" x 7" and costs $455.00 US ?! You also need to spring for a 32mm socket to get the damn thing out. Try finding one of those on a Sunday. On top of everything else, the last idiot who did the job torqued everything to about 150 ft/lbs. Spec is 22. So, it's in. And it leaks. It no longer passes oil into the coolant, it leaks it directly to the outside of the engine. I'm guessing the previous idiot deformed the banjo fittings with the high torque, and I'm not getting a good seal with it only torqued to spec. I'll need to get all those gaskets again and tear it down to the heads.... Arghhhhhhhh. > More a rant than anything else - > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Arghhhhhhhh. It's a GM engine right? Can you get the oil cooler from a GM dealer or at Schucks or other similar place? I don't really know if the engine is off the shelf GM or if it's based on a GM engine but modified by Saab. > > More a rant than anything else - > > [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > Schucks or other similar place? I don't really know if the engine is off the > shelf GM or if it's based on a GM engine but modified by Saab. I already bought the cooler and installed it, so it's a moot point. The only US car it might have showed up in was the Cadillac Catera. I didn't think to check at the time. It's the idiotic design that bothers me more than anything else. An air-to-oil cooler was fine for the turbo cars, and for just about any other engine I've seen. Why bury a cooler in the V of the engine? I've heard of these things failing in as little as 18,000 miles. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised after the timing belt fiasco.... Thanks again, GM. > I already bought the cooler and installed it, so it's a moot point. The only > US car it might have showed up in was the Cadillac Catera. I didn't think to [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Thanks again, GM. The advantage to a water-oil cooler is that the oil is maintained somewhere around the temperature of the coolant, slightly higher, continously. With the Saab Turbo-type air/oil cooler, the oil can be overcooled in high-speed low-load (ie coasting at 100 mi/h) situations, while it can overheat in high-load low-speed situations (dicing through traffic, towing a trailer uphill). >>I already bought the cooler and installed it, so it's a moot point. The only >>US car it might have showed up in was the Cadillac Catera. I didn't think to [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > while it can overheat in high-load low-speed situations (dicing through > traffic, towing a trailer uphill). I don't know of many turbos used to tow. I would never consider using a SPG turbo to tow. Another GM design winner was putting the lower radiator hose close to the exhaust system. So when the cable tie breaks the hose touches the exhaust system with the expected result. This is a tow in job at best or an overheated engine if the hole is burned through in rush hour traffic. >> I already bought the cooler and installed it, so it's a moot point. The >> only [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > while it can overheat in high-load low-speed situations (dicing through > traffic, towing a trailer uphill). OK, fine, it has advantages. You could still do it external to the engine block. Mixing oil and coolant inside the engine block is just a bad idea, IMHO. In fact, other than my VW GTI, this is the only car I've ever owned with an oil cooler of any kind. This is a 170 HP V6, not a high-revving 4 cyl turbo motor with all the added heat of the turbo. The oil cooler would have been an $1800 dealer repair. That would pay for a whole bunch of oil changes. >More a rant than anything else - >Who's the brain surgeon who came up with the idea of putting the oil >cooler >between cylinder banks on the V6?? First, it's oil-to-water, so the first indication of a leak is a Super-size milkshake in the coolant recovery >tank. >Next, the upper, middle, and lower intakes need to be removed - only about >100 bolts and 4 gaskets to remove and replace. >The cooler is a little radiator about 3" x 7" and costs $455.00 US ?! You >also need to spring for a 32mm socket to get the damn thing out. Try >finding >one of those on a Sunday. On top of everything else, the last idiot who >did >the job torqued everything to about 150 ft/lbs. Spec is 22. >So, it's in. And it leaks. It no longer passes oil into the coolant, it >leaks it directly to the outside of the engine. I'm guessing the previous [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >gaskets >again and tear it down to the heads.... >Arghhhhhhhh. But apart from that, was it a good day? Cheers > >More a rant than anything else - > [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > But apart from that, was it a good day? Cheers Yeah, the "Check Wallet" light went out yesterday, so I guess I'll have a good weekend. |
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