Oil Cooler Aluminum Line Leak

I walked into my garage and found a black mess all over my garage floor. Thank goodness I had sealed the concrete! Fortunately, I was able to clean up the mess. After a great deal of investigation, I found the oil leak. Apparently, the fan shroud vibrated enough to rub a hole through the lower aluminum oil line where it is threaded into the radiator. My research showed that these aluminum oil lines are no longer available. I was able to have tube repaired by having a Master Welder solder/weld/braze/etc the hole. To prevent additional damage, I increased the depth of the slot in the side of the fan shroud and wrapped both aluminum tubes with a small piece of truck inner tube. Hopefully, I won't have to make another repair such as this...

Those al. lines are hard to come by but I bet CUCVUS and Hillbilly wizerd has more then a few available. For the next time.

How do I reach these sources? Are these site members? Please advise..

rmesgt said:

How do I reach these sources? Are these site members? Please advise..

Click to expand...

Yup, members here just look around and you'll find em.

Any where I see a place that will chafe wires, hoses, anything that will cause problems later I will use rubber hose of the offending size and cut lengthways and place. Clamps, grommets, plastic flextube all can be used to prevent chafing.

The long unsupported aluminum tubes in front of radiator always concerned me, flexing, vibrating, and corrosion. I have several trucks with those tubes and I have been waiting for 37 years for one to leak or break. I always figured to use soft or hard copper tube to replace.

I am sure you will find a replacement but check into another metal just in case.

I am fortunate to have a metal genius right down the road from me. He is expensive (and crude) but the only things he cannot weld are a broken heart and the crack of dawn. Everything else is fair game. I firmly believe he could weld plywood if I gave him a dowel rod. As for wrapping stuff and protecting things, I used a bit of inner tube to wrap the lines where they cross behind the fan shroud. Additionally, I increased the gap in the plastic of the shroud, hoping to remove the stress and pressure from the lines.