12htOil cooler housing crack… (1 Viewer)

[Silveredition]

Hi all,
Well, after 80000km on my 12ht engine rebuild (with many issues), the oil cooler housing has cracked, and I have booked it in (in 5 weeks time!!) to get a new housing ($1350aud for just the housing)… it has leaked since the rebuild, and has been ‘fixed’ by the engine builder a couple of times - this has been a 350km round trip in 2 cars each time, amoungst other trips for a huge range of issues….
I tried various dynasteel and silicone products to stop the leak, and may have contributed to the crack trough these measures, but it is still disappointing after spending around $20000 on a drive-in-drive out rebuild….
Here are a couple of crappy pics of the leak, and one of a couple of weeks back on a Friday afternoon on the beach about a km from my house…..

 

[duncanrm]

Just be aware that if your "new" housing is in fact a Kilkenny Castings product that it may need some finessing work before fitment. Given the level of work required to change out this cover I would honestly seek out a late 2H second hand housing in good condition before fitting the junk one that Kilkenny Castings sell. Their products are absolutely rubbish compared to OEM.


Also great photos of that crack (hornbag of a 60 too)! The lobe for that housing bolt really looks like a weak point in hindsight doesn't it. The earlier cover had a LOT more meat at that point, a comparison of the two covers below.

 

[sodafeld1]

What a bummer. Dirty aluminium just does not repair well. Good heads up upon the kilkenny's quality, seen a few ads for them and they are not shy of asking top coin.

Been selling a few parts on facebook from my 2h collection. Really quite refreshing that quite a few really bright young fellas are chasing 2h parts, as they have figured it is something fixable, shall last them a long time , reliable and simple.

One young fella, finishing final year electrical engineering degree, I could direct to making the edic control relays all new, he has already made a working proto type and we all shall hear of him soon.

But sadly, I am a poor business man (but kinda of proud of that too, at the same time. They all leave happy with more than they hoped for). So I watch the valuable pieces going off, like the oil cooler, rendering another engine of mine useless.

The main difficult part to obtain of the 2h and 12ht are the heads, unless you go chinese. I have a spare used 2h head which were cast aftermarket here in oz, with a little proud kangaroo. Alas.

Cast iron is a high temp operation and difficult, but aluminium casting is achievable. Gets me thinking, as I watch the oil filter housings and oil coolers go, and hear your story. It is possible to make these things, I have some experience in bronze casting. Shall take some time to set it up. Aluminium melts at a very low temp. for a metal. Why aluminium radiators would be pushed for sale over brass/copper imo, just cheaper to manufacture.

The 2h and 12ht have many awesome design and manufacturing aspects which cannot be beaten, like the timing cogs, truly set and forget. Great integrity, no engine manufacturer shall do that again unfortunately.

Sorry to read your loss and struggle, but glad to see the 'hornbag' photo. It still is fixable, there is still hope. Would be hard to be satisfied with something newer, they got no soul.

 

[Silveredition]

Just a bit of a follow-up…. The repair is complete! Yes, I did get a Kilkenny replacement housing. It fitted up perfectly, and the mechanic was very happy with the quality. He drilled and tapped the temp sensor (I think it is what it is) for the intake heater, but didn’t bother with the cold idle-up bmsv as I have never had anything fitted to it…. If I was to do it again, I wouldn’t have bothered with the intake heater temp sensor either, as I intend on removing the inlet heater in the future.
The section of the original oil cooler housing with the crack in it fell off when I gave it a bit of a wiggle once the mechanic gave it back to me… I will post photos later as it looks like a bit of a design flaw to me…
Here are a couple of photos of todays drive. Was so happy to see the Echidna!!

and when I turned off the car when we got home it kept running (almost switched off but kept firing for 10 or so seconds..) never ends!!

 

[bcsteel]

Check your wiring to the starter. Mine did the same thing. Was faulty and loose wiring

 

[Silveredition]

 

[sodafeld1]

Don't like using the sad face emoji, but it is sad. It would be very difficult to repair that, all those tiny open pores in the casting would be holding dirt, grime, oil and coolant and any amount of vapour blasting , wire wheel or grinding would not remove all the muck in the pores, which would lead to a pathetic weld repair, popping and sizzling blowing out whilst welding. The bummer about old casting of aluminium. New clean aluminium is lovely to weld. alas

 

[sodafeld1]

I assume the 12ht housing is different to the 2h?

 

[sodafeld1]

More I look at it, it looks the same actually..I have pulled about 6 x 2h oil coolers, at least 1/2 are badly pitted from poor coolant maintenance, it is also a classic place for the bolts to corrode and snap when removing the lower ones.

 

[Silveredition]

The Kilkenny Castings replacement that I had fitted is for a ‘late’ 2H. The bolt pattern is the same, but it requires drilling and tapping the 2x holes as already mentioned… with some other work that I had done, it cost me $4000 (AUD)! This is obviously ridiculous, but time is money, and this job takes time (and the injector pump to be removed, which I didn’t want to do).
It is hard to see in the photos, but if you zoom in you can see the lighter coloured area of where it cracked. The darker area must have been cracked for quite a while I think… another 1000km trip starting tomorrow, so hope all goes well as there should be some good 4x4 tracks!!