resealing engine oil cooler

[birdshill123]

My Bird is sitting in my shop in many pieces. I have the gril out and
the rad as well. My plan was to replace all the cooling hoses and at
the same time reseal my leaky oil cooler. I am no Mike Hohnstein or
Randy Dupree but I have done a lot of mechanical repairs in my time.
I would have to say that working on a Bird is far harder than any of
the other HD vehicles I have owned. Getting at all of the hoses is
no easy task. Lots of things in the way. I took Mike's advice and I
have a set of those Gear Wrench ratcheting combination wrenches. Now
it was time to remove the cover and the heat exchanger on the engine
oil cooler. The cover was no big deal although I also had to remove
the Tee for the oil pressure senders. It seems like every time I go
to fix one thing something else is in the way. I was going to take
the whole cooler off the engine. Cannot be done with the tools at
hand. It is held on with one 3/8 bolt at the rear and 3 at the front.
3 of the 4 bolts are accessable but not easily removed. One at the
front cannot be removed due to the stud and nut from the heat
exchanger being in the way. I tried a flex drive, ratcheting wrench,
stubby wrench. The only thing that might work would be one of those
small block chevy 2 piece distributor hold down wrenches. I dont have
one with me! With much cussing I did manage to get the heat exchanger
off. Should be fun getting the nuts tight when I reinstall. My advice
to anyone with a slight leak in the oil cooler. Let the sucker leak!!!


Bruce
1988 FC35