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Leaking oil cooler

Creek

Creek

Registered Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2006
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Location
Mint Hill, NC
The oil cooler on my 90 Blazer has sprung a leak. The dealer wants $297.33 for a new one. I have a B&M transmission cooler that looks identical except that it doesn't have the mounting brackets riveted to it. It also has 1/2" taper pipe thread fittings. The stock cooler has 1/2" straight pipe thread fittings with a seat for the tube and o-ring. Does anyone know where I can buy one with the correct fittings for less than $150.00? Anymore than that and I'll spend the time to properly adapt the trans cooler.

David
 
Cant you just buy adaptor fittings? Like people do with home plumbing.
 
Creek said:
The oil cooler on my 90 Blazer has sprung a leak. The dealer wants $297.33 for a new one. I have a B&M transmission cooler that looks identical except that it doesn't have the mounting brackets riveted to it. It also has 1/2" taper pipe thread fittings. The stock cooler has 1/2" straight pipe thread fittings with a seat for the tube and o-ring. Does anyone know where I can buy one with the correct fittings for less than $150.00? Anymore than that and I'll spend the time to properly adapt the trans cooler.

David
Click to expand...

Can you take pics of your fittings?
I might have a used one i could sell for $50
 
If you know where I can buy adapters to go from taper pipe to tube and o-ring fittings I'm all ears. You won't find them in home plumbing.

Thanks for the offer Iceman but I don't want a used cooler. I have one of those. I've got too much time and too much money in this motor to risk an oil leak in the pressure side of the system.

Thanks for the replies.

David
 
Get the part number and check gmpartsdirect.com. Shipping sucks, but usally a LOT less than the dealer.

I have a bunch of money invested in my motor too, no qualms with the stock cooler. They don't go bad often. I realize it's personal preference, but those oil cooling lines are much more prone to leaking than the cooler itself. The earlier (armored) lines are far superior, but based on what you are saying about an o-ring, they changed the fittings later on.
 
Dorian,

Thanks for the link. They have the cooler for $167 but the shipping is almost $40. Still a savings of $80 but it's special order so the delivery could be a couple of weeks and returning a defective unit would be a hassle. The dealer said it was in the warehouse and they could have it in one day. I'm going to call the dealer tomorrow and see if I can get a better price.

My alternative to use the B&M cooler would be AN fittings on both ends and braided hose. The fittings with the o-rings don't have a problem with leaking and the stock cooler is a good piece. The reason I don't want a used one is you don't know how used it is. My twenty year old college student son drives this vehicle and if it pumped all the oil out while he was driving he would notice it when the knocking got loud enough to be heard above the stereo. :(

David
 
Just get the B&M super cooler. It is exactly the same as the stock cooler. except for the NPT fittings. You can take the brackets off the stock cooler and bolt or rivet them on the B&M cooler. Pull a oil line and take it and the cooler to a hydraulic hose shop. They should have the fittings you need to adapt it.
 
Yeah, the problem with the later oil cooler setups isn't the o-rings, it's the rubber hose crimped to the fittings. Seem to be ok for a long time, UNTIL you move them, then they start leaking.

In any case, hydraulic hose places can typically make whatever you need, MUCH cheaper than GM sells.

BTW, good luck with your dealer. I believe GM is no longer interested in making any money, and the dealers would rather price themselves out of business. Once took a parts order to the dealer, told them GMPD could get it to me for $500, could they at least do better than retail, I was willing to pay more than GMPD (but not much more!) to buy from them. The dealer didn't want, or get, my money. Never have had any luck getting them to budge from retail.
 
Thanks for all the input guys. I stopped by the dealer on Friday and told the parts guy I needed an oil cooler but I didn't want to pay $300 for it. He punched in the information and said he could let me have it for wholesale. He swung the monitor around and wholesale was $208. That's within a dollar of what I could get it from gmpartsdirect.com after paying shipping. I picked it up today and it even includes the short 90 degree pipes that connect to the hoses.

I drilled out the rivets on the old cooler mounting brackets so now I don't have to make brackets for the transmission cooler

Thanks again,
David
 
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