oil pipes - front oil cooler / radiator
Looks like I have a pin hole oil leak on one of the oil pipes that run to the oil cooler attached to the radiator.
Can these be bought new ? Are they a Merc dealer only part or is there an alternative supplier?
thinking slightly off the wall here .......... do I actually need the oil cooler ?
As far as i can see I could get away with out it. In that case I could just get a 'bypass' pipe made up to fit the inlet / outlet below the filter housing
will someone please answer this for james, i havent got the knowledge, but the poor guy is talking to himself here
Tom
(My thoughts only)
Yes, the pipes can be bought in any MB dealer, as always by giving them your complete VIN. I wouldn't choose any other course of action. And yes, I think the oil cooler is a necessity!
YWhy not take it off and get it welded and pressure tested.it is seldom that these pipes fail along the tube section unless it has chafed against something... sometimes they can leak at the end fittings if a heavy hand has overtightened the B' nuts......
problem is the pipes are around £300 from Merc :shock: They're leaking just near the bend by the oilcooler / rad
We're removing them tomorrow. I'll see if the fittings at each end might allow me to use some flexi pipes. If not I'll run them down to my local hydraulic pipe specialist & see what he thinks.
Worse case & I'll have to bite bullet & order new ones :(
now then james i have replaced mine with flexable hydrahlic pipes as they dint fit after engine conversion ,and bottem ones threads were about shot after being moved after 19 years , had no problems since , i read on here from a profesional source about it or it maybe one of the other mercedes forums ,i seem to remmeber if you get a mobile hose fitter they will come and make and fit it on site eg' mend a hose' 20 % of each hose was already fexiable any way hope this helps jeremy
Hi James be careful as the fittings in the oil cooler are prone to wring off if you do not hold them in place with the appropriate spanner..ie hold the fitting flange as you attempt to undo the pipe.....strange place for a leak ..or did you replace the radiator assembly recently??
the radiator is being replaced as we speak. Oil pipes were rusty & weak. Old radiator is now scrap :roll:
To top it all off, my new 'barely used' ebay radiator has a pin hole in the core. Hopefully a bit of rad'weld will plug it .
What started off as a quick radiator replacement has turned into a bit of a mare :(
Hi James 463 radiators are prone to leak internally which results in either transmission oil or engine oil entering the water system.have one here at the moment that suffered this problem a year ago and we are still getting traces of oil in the header tank.if your pin hole is from external damage ok but if it is corrosion it may well leak internally..run you finger round the lip under the filler hole and see if you get an oily / greasy finger then you know that you have more of a problem than just a leak.....Rad weld/Barsleaks/etc is only very temporary as the system runs at high pressure to maintain 90c/95c temps.....
Doesn't seem worth the risk of replacing one scrap rad with another questionable one. Especially given Fixwin38's comments above
Why not get it recored? From memory I think I paid around £215 for mine. You know its right then. Allegedly a recored one is more efficient than a new MB one due to improved water flow or something :?
Took the complete pipe assembly around to the local hydraulic pipe specialists & they reckon they can easilly add some new 'flexi' hosing & new end fittings to the existing hardlines that enter/leave below the filter :)
Total cost should be around £70 +VAT :)
I'll report back once its all back in place :)
Doesn't seem worth the risk of replacing one scrap rad with another questionable one. Especially given Fixwin38's comments above
Why not get it recored? From memory I think I paid around £215 for mine. You know its right then. Allegedly a recored one is more efficient than a new MB one due to improved water flow or something :?
Some manufacturers offer copper cores, which have better thermal properties than the original aluminium ones and are less prone to corrosion. However, I've also seen some re-cored radiators warp slightly when hot due to different thermal expansion of the cores and the steel frame, if not properly re-assembled.
I also noted that newer 463 have separate coolers for the engine oil and auto-transmission, which is a good thing: engine coolant entering the transmission could be devastating.
The new oil pipes have worked fantastically all for the grand sum of £117 :D
Unfortunatly the 'new' radiator I bought off ebay is peeing fluid out of a small hole in one of the upper core channels :cry: Bit peeved as it was sold as being 100% :evil:
Anyway, the radiator is being sent off to the local specialist for a re-core so will come back like new :D
So what started as a quick job has turned out to cost a fair bit of money, just hoping this is it for the mean time :)
At long last I now have a working G-wagen again :D
So the job worked out like this :
2nd hand radiator £120
Re-core of 2nd hand radiator £160
Repairs & mods to oil lines £117
New viscous fan thing £80
Labour around £250 + some other odds & sods
All adds up to around £750 :shock:
So for the 1st time I now have an engine running cool .... around 70 - 80 degrees :)
Almost lost my faith for a while there .... but having been out in the fields today & some miles on the country roads I'm happy again :)
Fingers crossed for no more bills for a while
So you managed to have your radiator recored?
I thought that the aluminium radiators from 463s could not be recored?
Anyway... Gs are not particularly cheap to fix but when properly done you know that you are unlikely to have to fix the same thing again for menay years to come.
hot66 some photos would be nice, especially the steering oil cooler.
the thing with this vintage is you do have to spend loads when something major goes, but then you can be sure that that part won't fail you again for at least another 5-10 years if done correctly.
Mortinson I managed to recore mine too, but it was a non-standard size so it had to be custom-made, but any core manufacturer should be able to do it. Your radiator specialist should be able to put you in touch. The downside was he had to re-use the seals from the old one as the new one didn't come with new seals (I guess due to the non-standard size).
Fortunately the old seals were still good, and to this day no detectable leaks, thank God!
......I thought that the aluminium radiators from 463s could not be recored?........
Not sure nowadays, but Nissen used to do the correct core for these radiators. These replacement cores tend to be copper, which is better than aluminium. The old headers are re-used, usually, with a new gasket, on to the new cores.
some poor photos for you :)
Thanks for the photos, better poor than none!
The lines to the power steering fluid cooler at the front of the radiator look new, that must be a new fabrication I guess...
the new shiney fittings are the oil lines from below the oil filter at the back of the engine to the cooler mounted on the side of the rad
Hmm do you mean to say the oil cooler at the front of the radiator was okay?
oil cooler was fine .... radiator was knackered, so the rad was re-cored.
Problem was when we removed the oil lines, one had a pin-holed at the bend , so instead of purchasing new MB lines at great cost, I got my local hydraulic company to make me up some new lines
Ah I see, thanks for the explanation. Now you know all that is sorted for the next decade! I used to have a leaky head gasket and blocked radiator, and after I sorted both problems out, it has only needed a coolant top up now after about a year, and even then nothing major, maybe 300ml.
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as a thought, does anyone know if I an replace these with a flexi line ?