oil cooler

[stonefish]

comming home last night, went over speed bump...crunch hit underside of car ( nothing new there) about 4 miles on oil warning light starts flickering and oil pressure just above zero..limped the last mile home at about 1500 rpm
looking under car not the sump that i thought it might be but oil spilling out from the oil cooler side...stgill some oil left in there then..!!..wont know till tomorrow when i take the wheel liner off if its the pipes got jarred and leaking or the oil cooler is leaking.., although the cooler looks quiet rugged..have got a pirtek center round the corner does anybody know what they charge??? or the cost of having the oil cooler re-cored?? and my other question is has anyone out there got a spare oil cooler i can buy asap as without the car and no local public transport im up the creek without a paddle...

[theelanman]

I blew my oil cooler last year......straight replacement from s&j.....
Very inexpensive compared to the lotus part.....
Ill find the thread.....

[theelanman]

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=16742&p=222613&hilit=oil+cooler#p222613

The oil cooler was £200.......

[bobbrown]

Hitting the speed bump may be coincidental, chances are one of the oil cooler hose has come off, as it did with mine and Spud has had the same thing happen along with others.
Driving the car with the oil pressure at or close to zero may not be a good thing to do even if it was only a mile, let’s just hope there is no damage to the engine.
SJ have oil cooler hoses listed along with the cooler it’s self but at a price.

SJ100K0001.jpg

025601B100K0033F.jpg

If the picture is correct on SJ’s web site then the hoses do seem to have a better crimp on the connectors than the originals as it is these crimped ends that give rise to the problems.
The problems stem from pressure, vibration and hose shrinkage due to temperature changes or ageing all of which add up to cause the hose to become loose and finally pop off.
It should be possible to reattach the hose with a couple of “O” clips which are better than jubilee clips as the “ears” act a bit like a spring to compensate for changes in the diameter due to heat etc and it's probably a good idea to do the ends on both hoses.

Bob

[theelanman]

IIRC paul watkins blew his hoses.......
Had them renewed/swaged by pirtek.......again v cheap compared to lotus option

[dapinky]

Being a cheapskate/bodge artist (or ingeneous engineer, depending on you point of view), when my cooler started to weep i obtained a standard/stock item setrab unit from merlin motorsports (the same size core as the lotus one) - it had standard brackets, not the ones lotus fitted (welded) to mount it to the elan, but a sheet of aluminium plate, bent correctly and bolted to the existing brackets soon got it into the same hole in the car.

I then used standard elbow adapters to change the existing M22 female threads (reducing fittings on the elan, down to M16 female IIRC to fit the banjos) to allow aeroquip hoses to be fitted, which i made up myself.

All in all, about 4 hours work and half the price of buying the (expensive) Lotus cooler and (really expensive!) oil cooler lines - about (£160 all-in).

[bobbrown]

I think the cooler in standard trim with out the Lotus brackets should also be available from "Think Automotive" as they list Setrab oil coolers.

Bob

[theelanman]

The s&j variant is setrab........although i dont know if the size had been modified.....
The mounting brackets are def different

[stonefish]

right wheel liner off covered in oil...can belive lotus built in a access panel to get at the cooler mounting nuts...removed the cooler still attached to pipes..toped up car with new oil and started the engine..10 seconds later covered in a jet of dirty oil confirmed it was the cooler that was leaking...removed the cooler and took to county radiators in basildon essex who will tell me if it can be repaired and how much.
removed one of the pipes as on the engine side the other pipe was almost impossible to get a spanner on...took the pipe to pirtek who gave me an adapter to join the 2 oil cooler connections together.£6.50 it works like a dream so i can still use the car all be it without the cooler till i source another one or the old one is repaired..but in this cold weather and a light right foot shouldnt make much difference short term...only problem is i now stinkl of old engine oil..

[stonefish]

RESULT ...just got a phone call oil cooler has been repaired..pressure and heat tested for the grand cost of £30...bit cheaper than a new lotus one....thanks for your comments...

[stonefish]

disaster...put on the new repaired oil cooler...still leaking.as cooler rated at 10 bar...only tested to about 3 bar..result got a used one from www.lotusbreakers.co.uk very helpful and have a couple of elans being broken at the mo...and good prices...worth a look..
anyway now turns out the old pipes are leaking as they have been disturbed...so a trip to the local hydralic pipe people abbey hose at thurrock essex....2 mtrs of hose 4 mikalor hose clamps 19-21 mm stainless steel a lot better than jubilee clips...all for the sum of £22 as opposed to £70 per pipe from lotus dealers.think the I/D was 1/2 inch but will check...old pipe clamps cut off with a dremmel being careful not to damage the old metal fittings.didnt even have to release the top hose to engine fittings..new pipes and fittings done up tight..RESULT...no leaking......"time will tell"..!!!
let me know if you want any more info

[texaselite]

Will this work as a direct replacement for Fed Elan without any modifications?

Hitting the speed bump may be coincidental, chances are one of the oil cooler hose has come off, as it did with mine and Spud has had the same thing happen along with others.
Driving the car with the oil pressure at or close to zero may not be a good thing to do even if it was only a mile, let’s just hope there is no damage to the engine.
SJ have oil cooler hoses listed along with the cooler it’s self but at a price.

SJ100K0001.jpg

025601B100K0033F.jpg

If the picture is correct on SJ’s web site then the hoses do seem to have a better crimp on the connectors than the originals as it is these crimped ends that give rise to the problems.
The problems stem from pressure, vibration and hose shrinkage due to temperature changes or ageing all of which add up to cause the hose to become loose and finally pop off.
It should be possible to reattach the hose with a couple of “O” clips which are better than jubilee clips as the “ears” act a bit like a spring to compensate for changes in the diameter due to heat etc and it's probably a good idea to do the ends on both hoses.

Bob

[JossElan]

I've just had my oil feed hose pop-off at the elbow joint. I've tried re-attaching it with a new Jubilee Clip but it came off again after 5 mins - tried again (really tight this time) and the same thing happened.

Any suggestions on how I can make the bloody thing stay on???

(I don't really want to start replacing hoses because am away from home at the moment)

[JossElan]

(p.s. I heard of doing things like using hairspary(!), and sanding the metal to roughen - any thoughts)

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Did you take the metal sleeve off the pipe? The tube is pretty long so you should be able to use two or more clamps. A/C clamps have a hook that keeps the clamp from sliding down the hose and it locates it at the supposedly best location.

[JossElan]

There is no metal sleave - just the rubber pipe onto the elbow joint with a jubilee clip (Is this not stock?). The Clip stays put on the pipe - but the whole thing just slips off.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

I will have to pull a stock hose and see. They never use a jubilee clip, they should have a swedged metal cover installed. I will send a picture in a little while.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Here are some pictures. They are as I thought: crimped or swaged cap over the fabric line to keep them in place. You will need to use two hose clamps (jubilee clips) to squeeze the hose enough to stay on.
There should be a ridge on the steel line area that goes into the hose. Try to get the hose on enough to get a clamp on both sides of the ridge.

This is only a temporary solution. You need to remove the lines ASAP and take them to a hose assembler and have them replace the sleeves and possibly the fabric lines. Pirtec can do this.

New Hoses:

Used hoses:

[JossElan]

Ah, mine are plane hoses with no crimped metal end, and the metal elbow section doesn't have a ridge - just a smooth tube. Odd that they have lasted so long. I'll have to temp fix for now and keep a careful eye on the oil pressure!!!

[JossElan]

... And thanks for the photos.