1990 k5 OEM oil cooler?

[k5blazinredneck]

Hello everybody. My 1990 k5 has the factory mounted engine oil cooler on it. But the truck was wrecked and the oil cooler was broken. All of the other damage has been fixed, but the oil cooler broke right at the inlet tube. So it has to be replaced. My question is, I was told that I could just buy a regular oil filter adapter without the cooling fittings and eliminate it completely. Is this true? If so is it really that important to have the oil cooler there? I will be putting one back up there eventually but for now, would it be ok without it? Thanks in advance! -Aaron

 

[454Sub]

You are correct, you dont need an oil cooler. I prefer one as cooler oil = longer engine life, but in reality it is not needed at all.

 

[dyeager535]

Yep. Go to the wrecking yard, buy one for $5, and be done with it for now.

I too agree that the cooler isn't necessary for most folks, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have it. Except when they leak.

 

[diesel4me]

"Except when they leak"!...and leak they do--the crappy OEM oil cooler hoses that fail probably killed more engines than having a cooler ever made them live longer in my opinion...

I "deleted" the oil cooler on my 6.2 and by the looks of the hoses,I dont think any oil was IN them going to and from the cooler anyway...I'm not going to worry about it not being connected..if I were in the desert towing with it I'd have kept it...up here its not a must..

 

[dyeager535]

Mine are still the "early" braided steel armored hoses and don't leak. (Well, don't now that I cleaned the fittings and reassembled).

I am not a huge fan of the later rubber oil cooler lines, they seem to be far more problematic about leaking around the fittings where the rubber is crimped. Then again, at the very latest, even those have lasted 22 years, and failure even after 10 years is not something I'd consider a flaw.

They are certainly one more thing to go wrong though, if you want to minimize the failure points on your rig, remove it.

 

[onetonbb74]

I was going to keep my oil cooler on my blazer, until I forgot to unhook the bracket from the motor mount area before hooking up the cherrypicker to pull the motor, naturally the line bent, ruptured the flex lines, and I ended up removing it completely.