- #1
ice109
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Just in case anyone has personal experience: This pertains to a early 90s buick regal with the 3.8L V6.
I know there are a couple of gearheads on here and engineers but I didn't want to relegate this to one of the engineering forums so here goes. I'm trying to help a friend whose oil cooler lines tore last week. These lines are soft aluminum for a couple of inches as they lead out of the engine, then they're heat shielded rubber around a sharp bend, and then aluminum the rest of the way until feeding into the radiator. So it's the rubber that broke:
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/9479/in101666gk6.jpg
Right there where it meets the metal. If you can't tell the rubber is crimped to the tube by some kind of industrial process.
Now I have a two options.
1. Replace entire oil cooler hose, including metal. This involves unbolting the old one from under the engine case and from the radiator. Neither locations are easily accessible but it is feasible.
2. Hacksaw off the crimped part of the metal tube and just replace the rubber hose. I would use hose clamps like these:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Hose_clamp.jpg
to secure and seal the hose to the metal tubes.
Option 1 is the pragmatic and safest option but also the most annoying because of having to unscrew a couple of nuts in some very annoying places.
Option 2 is more convenient and cheaper but then again money isn't really an option.
My only concern, and the reason I post this thread, is whether using those clamps I could over torque the screw and clamp the soft aluminum tube closed. I was actually at the junkyard and while searching for replacement hoses saw this on one of the cars. There's also a post on about.experts.com about someone having luck with this method.
So engineers, physicists, gearheads: is the amount of force the hose clamp needs to apply to seal to the tube enough to crimp the tube?
Theres actually another very exotic option that would be worth trying just because it would very cute if it worked using parts from a later iteration of this engine. I can expound on it if anyone is curious and will to bearing with my vague language.
I know there are a couple of gearheads on here and engineers but I didn't want to relegate this to one of the engineering forums so here goes. I'm trying to help a friend whose oil cooler lines tore last week. These lines are soft aluminum for a couple of inches as they lead out of the engine, then they're heat shielded rubber around a sharp bend, and then aluminum the rest of the way until feeding into the radiator. So it's the rubber that broke:
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/9479/in101666gk6.jpg
Right there where it meets the metal. If you can't tell the rubber is crimped to the tube by some kind of industrial process.
Now I have a two options.
1. Replace entire oil cooler hose, including metal. This involves unbolting the old one from under the engine case and from the radiator. Neither locations are easily accessible but it is feasible.
2. Hacksaw off the crimped part of the metal tube and just replace the rubber hose. I would use hose clamps like these:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Hose_clamp.jpg
to secure and seal the hose to the metal tubes.
Option 1 is the pragmatic and safest option but also the most annoying because of having to unscrew a couple of nuts in some very annoying places.
Option 2 is more convenient and cheaper but then again money isn't really an option.
My only concern, and the reason I post this thread, is whether using those clamps I could over torque the screw and clamp the soft aluminum tube closed. I was actually at the junkyard and while searching for replacement hoses saw this on one of the cars. There's also a post on about.experts.com about someone having luck with this method.
So engineers, physicists, gearheads: is the amount of force the hose clamp needs to apply to seal to the tube enough to crimp the tube?
Theres actually another very exotic option that would be worth trying just because it would very cute if it worked using parts from a later iteration of this engine. I can expound on it if anyone is curious and will to bearing with my vague language.
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