[T3] Oil cooler seals.

[Jim Adney]

Sounds like you did a nice job. It's amazing how that thick plate gets 
deformed over time, even though no one ever overtightened those nuts, but 
most of them are at least slightly deformed by now, and, yes, the aftermarket 
replacements are all junk.

I also like to take a tapered reamer to the holes in the strainer. Those get 
pounded inwards over time, making the strainer hard to remove. Taking a bit 
off with the reamer makes R/R of the strainer much easier.

Jim

On 27 Jun 2020 at 17:51, William Jahn wrote:

> Jim :
>  I changed the oil today, used Valvoline VR1 , had enough left for one oil
> change.
> What I never checked was the sump plate and I used the one off the 72 which
> has the drain plug. I needed it because the 73 plate was really butchered
> and because I wanted to add a VDO temp sensor all I knew about were the
> ones they offered for the sump.
> 
>  I drove the car to get the oil really warmed up then it drained better and
> while I cleaned the screen and plate I decided to check the plate for
> flatness around the 6 holes. I always just cleaned it , never over
> tightened the  cap nuts. I decided to check it and the 6 holes were dimpled
> . I did the best I could with a ball peen hammer , plate on hardwood
> striking the ball peen with another hammer. It was better yet still not
> flat so I filed each hole flat and then polished the surface with wet /dry
> 600 . I also discovered since I didn't want to ruin the sender I removed it
> and it was too easy maybe 3 ft lbs. I had good copper drain crush washers
> and replaced that. Today I put it all back together. This time I only used
> a nut driver and 10 mm socket and did the same star pattern three times
> with maybe 20 minutes between just to allow the gasket Felpro brand to
> compress. I didn't file off much. Maybe .010" the plate is still plenty
> thick. I had an old Empi chrome plate yet it was complete garbage, nothing
> like the original and certainly not what I would consider flat.
> 
>  I don't know why I never checked the plate around the holes, I just looked
> at it, cleaned it and back on it went. I just assumed since I never over
> tightened it it was fine.
> 
>  I know there are other leaks yet the plate always seems to develop oil
> drops on the 6 cap nuts. Maybe now this will slow things down. Nothing
> looked like much gray sludge, just a bit of black bits that were not
> magnetic, Turns out I had to tighten the two cap breather and I did this
> after the last oil change and as you know to get at the nut you need to
> remove the barrel and washer . I cleaned those yet some of that crud had to
> drop down in the sump just pulling them out.
> 
> William
> 
> 
> On Sat, Jun 20, 2020 at 9:57 AM Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:
> 
> > On 20 Jun 2020 at 9:08, William Jahn wrote:
> >
> > > where I do see fresh oil is on the bottom tins and of course the floor,
> > > especially if I have the engine running
> >
> > Once upon a time, I had a rather moderate leak on an engine that I had
> > just
> > rebuilt. Eventually I discovered that this was around the oil sump plate.
> > When I had bolted the engine case halves together, I assumed they would
> > line up perfectly on their own, but on that case, the 2 sides didn't quite
> > match. There was a "step" at the case seam, about 1/2 mm high. The oil
> > change gaskets couldn't quite seal that much of a mismatch. This step was
> > easily felt when I ran a finger around that gasket surface, but I had not
> > thought to do that as I assembled the engine.
> >
> > At the next oil change, I was able to loosen all the nuts along the bottom
> > case seam and work the 2 sides back into alignment. It didn't take any
> > real
> > effort, so I don't know what I did wrong in the original assembly process,
> > but
> > this is something I always check now.
> >
> > Of course, I've also come across sumps where someone left half a gasket
> > stuck to the case. That's also something a new gasket won't seal.
> >
> > --
> > *******************************
> > Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> > Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> > *******************************
> >
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-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************