swapping to an air cooled Oil Filter Housing, question

So the usual story of crushing the fins in my 92 oil filter housing/oil cooler. I'm putting on an air cooled oil cooler and the accompanying filter housing. However, I don't want to have to remove the lower timing cover to get to the last bolt. I'm going to cut a hole in the cover with a dremel, so i can access it. My question is how do i know where to cut, what angle do i cut it at, and am i going to be able to get to the bolt with a socket, or a wrench?

 

Well, measure the new filter housing then transfer those measurements to the old. The bolts are obviously going to be in the same spot. Just open up a 1" or so hole and stick a socket in there. Just don't drop the socket or bolt.. Then you'll most certainly have to remove the cover.

You'll need 1 bolt of a different length (shorter) than what you have holding the filter housing to the block now. Currently there should be 4 different length bolts holding the housing on there, I believe you need two of the second shortest instead of one? Basically, you'll end up with one of the bolts bottoming out.

Alternatively I could just sell you a 91+ style cooler, and you could wait to do it until your next t-belt.. (Or just use this as an excuse to do the t-belt if its been over 40k or so..)

 

lol, no way. race motor with not even 3000 miles on it. I don't know if I'll even get as much as 40k on the engine before having to rebuild it. How am I supposed to get a socket in there? It looks like it would be behind the crankshaft pulley

 

Well in that case..

I remember thinking that there should be room.. I suppose I could be wrong. I'd go look but the car isn't here.

 

not to mention that even if i just replaced it with another 91+ housing I would still need to remove this one and put the new one on, which means that I need to access that bolt.

 

If you've crushed the cooler you can swap just that part w/o replacing the entire housing.

 

it's not worth it just to have this happen again. i might as well do it right, now.

 

I'm in complete agreement, the 91+ setup is a disaster, it was the first mod I did after I bought #1185.

Best of luck getting it done, btw. If I make it down to my car tonight (was planning on it), I'll take a look-see, I was pretty sure there was enough room in there.

 

Thanks very much. You guys are awsome. If anyone else has any input on this, please let me know.

 

[ken inn]

i did it on the car a long time ago. i dont remember if i removed the harmonic balancer, but i did dremel a hole in the cover. i think i loosened some of the bolts, and slid out the filter head. i believe the gasket is different, too. the bolt that is hidden under the cover is the different one. make sure you get it, or you are sol. i used the entire setup from a 90 t/e/l, and i had to make a couple of brackets, and move the p/s cooler just a tad. if you line up the cooler with the square hole on the driver's side, everything lines up perfectly. the lower cover behind the lf wheel has an opening that looks like it was made for the cooler lines. you should also tap out the other sender hole(t/e/l have 2 senders) and put an oil temp guage sender there, if you are using and aftermarket sender(i have 2 vdo) tap both holes before you install the o/f head. freakin shavings REALLY pile up. when you install the o/f head, take some aviation gasket sealer and seal the gasket to the o/f head, leave the block side dry. i think the old o/f head on my car came off with the entire gasket on it, if some is left on the motor, it might be hard to remove.

 

quote:Originally posted by ken inn:
i did it on the car a long time ago. i dont remember if i removed the harmonic balancer, but i did dremel a hole in the cover. i think i loosened some of the bolts, and slid out the filter head. i believe the gasket is different, too. the bolt that is hidden under the cover is the different one. make sure you get it, or you are sol. i used the entire setup from a 90 t/e/l, and i had to make a couple of brackets, and move the p/s cooler just a tad. if you line up the cooler with the square hole on the driver's side, everything lines up perfectly. the lower cover behind the lf wheel has an opening that looks like it was made for the cooler lines. you should also tap out the other sender hole(t/e/l have 2 senders) and put an oil temp guage sender there, if you are using and aftermarket sender(i have 2 vdo) tap both holes before you install the o/f head. freakin shavings REALLY pile up. when you install the o/f head, take some aviation gasket sealer and seal the gasket to the o/f head, leave the block side dry. i think the old o/f head on my car came off with the entire gasket on it, if some is left on the motor, it might be hard to remove. Okay, a few questions. I have an auto meter oil pressure sender. Which hole do I tap in order to mount that? Why would I need to tap two holes?

Also, where exactly are you saying I should mount the oil cooler and route the lines? Which way would it be facing after it's mounted? I have no front bumper and I have a big front mount intercooler.

Last, do you have any idea what the part number is for that gasket? I was looking in my CAPS program and only saw one gasket that looked like it goes between the housing and the block. It doesn't seem to have different options depending on the year.

 

[ken inn]

quote: Okay, a few questions. I have an auto meter oil pressure sender. Which hole do I tap in order to mount that? Why would I need to tap two holes? the t/e/l oil filter head has 2 tapped holes for senders. if you are going to use one for oil pressure, and one for oil temp, i was SUGGESTING you tap them, if your senders dont fit like my vdo sender didnt. also, i dont care for pipe threads in this case, so i tapped the holes more and use a crush washer.

quote:Also, where exactly are you saying I should mount the oil cooler and route the lines? Which way would it be facing after it's mounted? I have no front bumper and I have a big front mount intercooler. dont know on this one. if you look at the front of the car, the latch support divides the area where the condensor is. on the left side, i had the cooler near the lower right corner, close to the hood latch. if you had the bumper on the car, this is right in front of the square hole.

quote: Last, do you have any idea what the part number is for that gasket? I was looking in my CAPS program and only saw one gasket that looked like it goes between the housing and the block. It doesn't seem to have different options depending on the year. if you look on caps, did you look under a 90 eclipse? looks to me like MD041018.

 

Okay, I got the old housing off by taking all the bottom bolts out of the lower timing cover, as well as removing the crankshaft pulley. That allowed me to pull the timing cover back far enough to get a small 1/4" drive stubby socket in and get it out. I'm hoping that it's just as easy to put back in with the new longer bolt from the older style.

Also, the gasket that was on there matches up perfectly to the 1990 housing. Is that right? I thought it was going to be a different gasket