engine oil cooler conversion. possible?

[prankstar]

Hi everybody, Just recently my radiator cracked. It needs to be replaced, so when I was looking around at prices I found that I could get a radiator without and oil cooler (which is what is on my truck now), or I could get one with the oil cooler.

Now my questions are: 1. How hard would it be to convert my truck to an engine oil cooler setup? 2. Is it worth it? 3. what additional stuff would I need to purchase to do the job?

A little info about my truck. It is a 1994 single cab, 2wd, 5.7L. It is a very nice truck ( Mark III conversion ) so I don't do much work or towing with it. Occasionally in the winter I tow a double snowmobile trailer. I'm just a person that likes to take advantage when something breaks on my truck. So do you you think the truck will run better even without doing much work with it.

[broughy84]

you may want to double check, but i believe the oil cooler they are refering to is for the auto transmission. At least it was for mine when i cahanged the radiator in it.

[prankstar]

My understanding is that there are two radiator models available for my truck. One has transmission cooler line connections, and the other one has transmission and engine oil cooler line connections.

[broughy84]

I would just double check with the parts store. My truck has an external engine oil cooler on it that sets in front of the air conditioning condenser.

[prankstar]

Here is A link to the radiators that are available for my truck. Take a look at options 1 & 2. I hope you understand what I'm talking about now.

Almost forgot the link:

http://www.radiatorbarn.com/s7.asp?a...2C5.7L%2C350ci

[HardcoreZ28]

The Z71's had an oil cooler built into the radiator, atleast my 97 does. It wouldn't be that difficult to add one. You can either get the radiator with the cooler or get an external one. Either way you will need the oil filter sandwich adapter that has the cooler lines going in and out of it. Then if you use the radiator cooler you can get the metal lines from GM, or if you get an aftermarket one they provide rubber hoses that you can route any way you want. Very easy install.

[AKWE-gt]

Originally Posted by prankstar

Hi everybody, Just recently my radiator cracked. It needs to be replaced, so when I was looking around at prices I found that I could get a radiator without and oil cooler (which is what is on my truck now), or I could get one with the oil cooler.

Now my questions are: 1. How hard would it be to convert my truck to an engine oil cooler setup? 2. Is it worth it? 3. what additional stuff would I need to purchase to do the job?

A little info about my truck. It is a 1994 single cab, 2wd, 5.7L. It is a very nice truck ( Mark III conversion ) so I don't do much work or towing with it. Occasionally in the winter I tow a double snowmobile trailer. I'm just a person that likes to take advantage when something breaks on my truck. So do you you think the truck will run better even without doing much work with it.

i wouldn't get the rad with oil cooler. my buddy had one of those and the rad cracked inside and oil was sucked into coolant. he was just lucky it wasn't the coolant that got sucked into the oil. he put a regular coolant/trans-fluid rad back in and bought a little oil cooler, put it in front of the ac rad, and everything was ok after that.
1. it's not hard to convert your truck to engine oil cooler setup. 2. i think its worth it to cool engine oil, especially if you towwing. 3. as for the additional stuff you need, you might be able to find a junk yard( if you move those FORDS around a bit you get lucky and find a CHEVY in there) to find the adapter that goes on where the filter mounts. usually they'll have the whole set-up, the lines to-and-from the cooler and the adapter. i did a couple of times and it's pretty easy, just a couple of bolts under the filter and the adapter just mounts up where the filter was, just have to watch where you run the lines.

[prankstar]

thanks guys for the info.