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Oil Cooler or Head gasket?

R

russ_d

New member
Hi all,

Just spent the day checking over the 924s and I have found where it has been leaking coolant from.

The water pump to rail hose had split ever so slightly round the back. Anyway, after removing the hose and having a look inside, I was gutted to find a nice film of mayonaise in there although the coolant does not appear to have lots of oil in it.

Fingers crossed its the oil cooler.

If so is it normally best to replace the whole matrix of just the seals? Do not really want to spend £300 on a new oil cooler!

Cheers
Russ



 
If your oil cooler or seals go, it won't be a little bit of mayonaise in the coolant system... you will know all about it! Given the oil system runs at 5bar and the coolant system max is about 1 bar, the oil pumps hard into the coolant system... you would have a nasty oil/water emulsion pumping from the header tank overflow. You would soon have the oil light on because of loss of oil, then when you switch the engine off, you have water go back into the oil system, and spread the yellow gunge there too.
Getting rid of it after the fault is rectified takes numerous flushings of the coolant and oil system, and recomended to change the bearings too.

From what you describe, it sounds more like there has been a problem in the past, and this part of the system hasn't been cleaned out properly. If you don't have oil elsewhere in the system, clean it out as best you can now you have disturbed it anyway, put it back together and be relieved that your oil/water intercooler and seals are fine!!!

If it comes to, I can go through how to pressure test the oil/water intercooler to determine if it is that or the seals.

Regards,

Tref.
 
Thanks for the info, feeling more confident now!

Looking through the history there appears to have been no problems and the car has been in the family since 1993, if there had been previous work, it would have been noted.

I'll do the coolant and give it a run and see whether my paranoia is justified.

Cheers
Russ
 
Flushed the system over the weekend and went for a 20 mile run on fresh coolant and oil...... drained the coolant and it is like milkshake[:mad:]

Are the seals for the oil cooler a Porsche only item?

Cheers
Russ
 
No... I think Bert Gear stocks them too, at about half the price. Of course, I only found that out after paying full price from an OPC!

Regards,

Tref.
 
Porsche did a series of upgrades on the seals and even changed the steel plate too. The most up-to-date spec for the seals is the green ones and IIRC the steel plate comes with the housing seal bonded to it. I have not bought from Bert so a phone call could be in order to try to ascertain the spec. The seals can be changed with the engine in situ, if you are very careful and posses the necessary patience and skills; I did the ones on my 944, but it was to no avail, the head gasket was at fault. Do a compression test comparison (hot). Regarding the two 944 head gasket failures I have seen, the gasket has failed between cyls one and two. Much is talked about the seals failing but this is a case of corridors, the sound of hooves, and assuming Zebras. Why not assume horses, and, as the analogy suggests, worry about it being the head gasket first. Of the two, head gasket failure is always the more likely.

What you don't say is whether the oil level has dropped significantly.
A drop in oil level accompanied by an increase in coolant level is a first clue to it being the cooler seals. I don't know how practical this is but you could change the oil and the coolant and put a gauge on the cooling system then go for a drive. If the system pressure goes above 1 bar when you are moving along, with a corresponding drop in oil level then obviously the oil is bleeding into the coolant (at about 4 bar pressure differential) and the cooler seals are suspect. If it doesn't go over one bar, the head gasket is definitely suspect.
 
It was the oil cooler seals in the end.

Bought original seals from Porsche and the alignment tool for about £90 all in.

Touch wood she's running like a dream at present [8D]
 
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