Before you toss your bent oil cooler.....

[einstein57]

When i first got my bundle of joy it had a piece of of rubber hose where the oil cooler was supposed to be. I went to the local junk yard and pulled a perfect one off a 89 vert only to find out that they do not directly bolt on to 87s. A couple of zip ties and a wire hanger and i had me a reliable dd lol. I've been searching the junkyards for a year and this was the best i could find but it came with a straight oil cooler line to replace my bent one. initially i was just going to cut the tabs and weld them on since i got the whole assembly for $15 and i decided to see if i could fix it.

This is how it looked after it straightened it. The tabs were bent and the core was twisted.




Here are the tools i used. I placed the bar in the lip and banged it out.


after 10 minutes


I masked the core and threads.


A couple of coats of vht semi gloss and your done

[Apex381]

good idea, mine looks like its been through vietnam

[Teaguer]

Damn , do r3v'ers really need a DIY write-up for this ??

[einstein57]

i did't think i could straighten the core w/o puncturing or cracking the core. Figured i might not be the only one.

[318isbmw]

Damn , do r3v'ers really need a DIY write-up for this ??

Sad day...

[e30devo]

buy a new one.

[mtechnik]

Oh ok.

P.S Nice monk shoezz

[ddavidv]

buy a new one.

Yeah, they are cheap.
How about you buy me a new one, since they are apparently so inexpensive to you?
Kudos to anyone who tries fixing something before becoming a parts replacer. May not have needed a how-to, but I respect his initiative.

[einstein57]

buy a new one.

I don't have $176 for a new one. I quit my job and won't be working for 2 years.

And considering people post threads asking about how to remove a front bumper or how to wire up a city light, i figured there would be someone who could get use out of this thread. I know i passed up on cleaner cores cause i thought there was nothing that could be done. And if people are trying to skimp and buy $15 dollar rotors and reuse old $25 odometer gears i don't think they'd spend almost 2 bills on a new cooler. Just a thought.