1996 GT Oil cooler leaking oil

[SN95_Project]

Hi all. Back story. Bought car last year. About 3 months ago, I put some seafoam in the crank case to hopefully clean any crap out (probably dumb move). Finally put about 1K miles on it. Did the JMOD, did an oil change, and now I'm seeing an oil leak (never noticed more than a drop here and there until after the jmod - it's DEFINITELY oil and not trans fluid). Took forever to find it. One issue though - a couple weeks ago, if the car sat any amount of time, and then got driven, it would leak about 1/8-1/4 cup all at once, then trail off. Now, it still still leak but not nearly as much. I can see it leaking from the pinhole in the oil cooler (where the oil filter attaches). You can literally see oil bubbling out slightly. Under the same conditions though (sitting a bit, then driving after a few days), it doesn't leak NEARLY as much. Could some of the seals be swelling back up and sealing leaks since the seafoam is gone or is it coincidence? Is the oil cooler failing intermittently?

What places would you recommend to find the oil cooler replacement? Only ones I can find are $600+! I know I can bypass it, but I'd like to keep it stock. Any guidance is appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[mu$tangDan]

I have a 96 gt. Had a similar issue. Purchased a oil cooler o-ring kit off ebay. Removed the oil cooler, cleaned it up and replaced the o-rings. Replaced and issue was resolved. Not a difficult job.

 

[96blak54]

^ good info!

 

[Notthenow]

There are three potential leak areas. The gasket to the block (common), the O rings (get the full internal kit), and an actual pinhole in the aluminum body of the cooler section (mine leak was that).

 

[RAU03MACH]

I replaced mine with just a coolant neck and oil filter,
got rid of the canister looking cooler.
some people want the stalk one but its a pain changing the seals.

 

[Notthenow]

Yeah, me too. Which one did you use? Blak gave me a model to try. He said the hose would need to be stretched a bit, I'm too anal for that so I added an aluminum extension and short bit of hose.

 

[RAU03MACH]

Those water necks at LMR run 230 bucks
I pulled 4 of them at the junk yard for 25 bucks

 

[Notthenow]

What model car?

 

[RAU03MACH]

1 off a crown vic
2 from mustang 4 valve
1 from a f150

 

[Notthenow]

I believe mine is Crown Vic. Was the hose length good with the ones you found?

 

[RAU03MACH]

Yes there is not that much difference

 

[RAU03MACH]

One is slightly up

 

[Notthenow]

Huh, maybe it's the aftermarket aluminum radiator I have, but the stretch was too much in my case to put the stress on the radiator and trust it wouldn't cause a problem.

 

[RAU03MACH]

On my cobra 4 v I put one on
But I went to oreillys and fitted some hoses and ended up cutting one to length
But I also had a champion 4 core in it

 

[Notthenow]

Nice, do you remember what the hose was from, or a number?

 

[RAU03MACH]

Not off the top of my head
But I may have the paperwork on it somewhere
O'riley is pretty cool they will let you go to the back and look for stuff close enough to what your looking for

 

[Notthenow]

Appreciate that, yeah our O'Reilly's is good that way too. I have been over there trying to match a hose many a time, the problem now is they don't stock as much as they used to.

 

[RAU03MACH]

the flex hoses are good to for those types of jobs

 

[Notthenow]

Not familiar with them, do you mean steel braided?

 

[SN95_Project]

Looks like replacing the gasket at the block and the rebuild kit fixed the leak! About 5 days after that fix and no leaks!