Oil cooler woes

[notnilc20]

What if any is a good oil cooler replacement for our beloved ae86's? Mine's leaking at both the oil pan and the feed line plus the cooler unit itself has a leak in it....what a mess. I am looking at some aftermarket ones but what other cars might have some from the factory that i might be able to find at the salvage yard?

Or could i even just delete it? What have you guys done?

[MisterJerk]

I removed mine. took out the entire thing. Oil filter mounts directly to the block.
Mostly because I went to 20v Blacktop block and there is no provision in the oilpan for it, secondly it was original to the car, old af, needed all new hoses, seals, o-rings, none of my previous ae86(jdm) had it.

[oldeskewltoy]

In some markets the cooler was used, and in other markets the cooler was not used. Often times manufacturers will add extra cooling features to USA bound cars. The best I can figure for this, besides a litigious society, is the US has loooong stretches of highway, so sustained higher rpm driving is not uncommon.

As to using an oil cooler with a blacktop and keeping the stock look, purchase an oil pan for the All-Trac Corolla(AE95), it uses the same pan as the 20V, and has an oil cooler return built in.





As to a good oil cooler, I've always recommended the Mocal oil cooler adapter, it is thermostatically controlled so it allows the oil to bypass the cooler until the oil gets warm. As far as junkyard coolers.... I try to avoid them.... they are nearly impossible to clean and from a junkyard you have no idea what may have run through it. Better coolers are Setrab, Mocal, Earl's

[notnilc20]

Thanks for the replies....mine looks like the oem oil cooler. However the bolt on the oil pan feels so tight yet it still wants to leak. I tightened it pretty good but I'm afraid I'm gonna strip it if i go any more. It looks like it has a helicoil for the threads.
Plus the bolt got really tight only after it going halfway in...then i had to gorilla it in to at least get to seal a little. Is this normal? I don't believe i cross threaded it but it may have already been cross threaded from the previous owner.

[davew7]

You can try heating the copper sealing rings with a torch and quenching it in water to soften the sealing surface and add a small amount of gasket sealer around the rings. You can fill a tap with grease [to catch the chips] and run it into the hose attachment boss to clear out the threads. But the only safe bet is to remove the pan and run a tap thru the boss on the bench so it can be cleaned. DaveW7