Solved: Full Blown Motorsports Oil Cooler Leak (Pics and Video)

[Sachmet43]

Originally Posted by Zentec

Good point!! Those wrinkles could have a lot to do with it. Also is the seal on your oil filter smooth now or nicks in it due to the sandwich plate?

Last I checked the filter gasket looked normal. I think the surface looks rougher in the pictures than it is.

[Sachmet43]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

Wonder if the two sealing surfaces are not parallel. I know you are probably tired of messing with this but start it up, mark where it leaks, rotate the spacer, and see if it leaks in the same spot. Check with calipers or micrometer. With the o-rings you would think it would have to be pretty far off. But with the center bolt holding it, it may not allow enough deflection for the o-rings to seal if it is off by a significant amount.

So I was on my way to doing this process to check the spacer. The car was idling and I was peering at the spacer with my head basically on the engine when I noticed a drop of oil running down from a spot on the underside of one of the fittings that screw into the sandwich plate.



I realized that it was possible that the threads from the fitting were the source of the leak and the oil was running into the crack around the sandwich plate/ spacer O-ring. When I did the original install my local auto parts shop was out of the "recommended" high temp thread sealant:



So I went to a hardware store and used another:



Both are oil resistant and rated for high psi and temps of 400 degrees+ so I figured I was fine. But now I'm thinking that the thread seal was the problem.

So I found a shop that had the recommended thread sealant and took everything the thing apart to redo the fittings.









When I talked to FBM they said some some customers over tightened the fittings and cracked the sandwich plate. I was relieved to see my sandwich plate looked alright



I cleaned all the threads with a wire bristle brush and cloth and reinstalled with the Peratex thread sealant. I'm going to give it a day or two to set, then I come back with results.




(The oil you can see on the sandwich plate came from the inside the filter when I screwed it back on)

[Ultramaroon]

The Mocal plate is tapped with a half inch BSPP (British Standard Pipe Parallel) thread. Looks like Full Blown cheaped out on their kit. Also, that pattern seen on the mating surface is the result of a final finishing process called 'tumbling.' It's done after the final cut to microscopically deburr the surface.

http://www.batinc.net/mocal.htm

Oil Cooler Take-Off & Sandwich Plates

[CoolHandMoss]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

The Mocal plate is tapped with a half inch BSPP (British Standard Pipe Parallel) thread. Looks like Full Blown cheaped out on their kit.

http://www.batinc.net/mocal.htm

Oil Cooler Take-Off & Sandwich Plates

In what way did Full Blown cheap out? Is there a flaw with the Mocal design? Are you saying the size and thread of the inlett/outlett is bad? They flow more than the 3/8 npt that other plates use. I've got a mocal plate waiting to install because I couldn't find what I thought was a better option, so please explain how you think the Full Blown kit is cheaped out and if the cheapness you refer to is in the Mocal plate.

I'm curious to see the next update to this thread to find out what the cause of this leak ended up being.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by CoolHandMoss

In what way did Full Blown cheap out? Is there a flaw with the Mocal design? Are you saying the size and thread of the inlett/outlett is bad? They flow more than the 3/8 npt that other plates use. I've got a mocal plate waiting to install because I couldn't find what I thought was a better option, so please explain how you think the Full Blown kit is cheaped out and if the cheapness you refer to is in the Mocal plate.

I'm curious to see the next update to this thread to find out what the cause of this leak ended up being.

I suggest surfing/browsing on screwing an NPT male into a BSPP female. Mocal plate is excellent. Those elbows, while usable-ish, are incorrect.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

I suggest surfing/browsing on screwing an NPT male into a BSPP female. Mocal plate is excellent. Those elbows, while usable-ish, are incorrect.

So, what's the "fix" ........??


humfrz

[CoolHandMoss]

Ohhhh I see. Full Blown supplied their own male fittings instead of using the fittings that mocal offers with the plate. I knew that the Mocal was tapped to BSPP but I didn't realize those fittings were npt. Thanks for the clarification. And good observation.

[Sachmet43]

Sorry for the delay.

So after giving the new thread sealent lots of time to set, I started the car up today to check the leak.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiwQZk0yovA"]Startup[/ame]

Now rather than seeping oil, it is pissing oil and from a new spot. I am extremely frustrated. The original problem was oil leaking from the threaded point where the fittings screw into the sandwich plate. This leak seems to be gone, at least at idle. Now there is a huge leak coming from the FAR SIDE OF THE HOSE FITTING. WTF. The oil seems to be coming from the back side of the female end of the hose (which was already installed when the kit was shipped.)

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X9vhmK5cAs"]VID 20180221 152155859 - YouTube[/ame]

[FullBlown]

Hi, sorry you are having issues with the kit. The leak you are experiencing looks like the AN compression connection is not tight enough. To get a good seal, you want to hold the 45 degree fitting with a wrench and tighten the -10 hose end.

I see you have high temp thread sealant on the flare ends. You should't have to put any thread sealants at this joint.

Regarding the other issue where it leaks on the o-ring. Mocal had a design flaw on their spacer. The spacer would bottom out on the oil filter adapter before the o-rings gets a good crush on it. They have since redesigned it and replaced the defective adapters. If you have any questions or concerns, please give us a call and ask for LJ 952-431-1399 Thanks.

[CoolHandMoss]

I just installed my mocal sandwich plate today. Everything looks good, I even had clearance on that DI fuel line. Though after some hard driving it does look like there is somewhat of a leak coming from one of the Mocal supplied BSPP fittings. I don't doubt that a little extra torque will fix this issue. Overall I'm quite happy. Though I would have been more happy if there was space around the bolt to fit a typical socket. I could hardly find anything to get on there.

[Sachmet43]

Originally Posted by FullBlown

Hi, sorry you are having issues with the kit. The leak you are experiencing looks like the AN compression connection is not tight enough. To get a good seal, you want to hold the 45 degree fitting with a wrench and tighten the -10 hose end.

I see you have high temp thread sealant on the flare ends. You should't have to put any thread sealants at this joint.

Regarding the other issue where it leaks on the o-ring. Mocal had a design flaw on their spacer. The spacer would bottom out on the oil filter adapter before the o-rings gets a good crush on it. They have since redesigned it and replaced the defective adapters. If you have any questions or concerns, please give us a call and ask for LJ 952-431-1399 Thanks.

So I finally got the car back onto the track last week and this solution worked.

[Sachmet43]

All leaks 98% solved. See solutions above.

With the help of Full Blown Motorsports I was able to get all the of leaks 98% taken care of. There is still a tiny smudge of oil around the o-rings occasionally, but it has not gotten any worse after a couple months of daily driving, spirited track driving and a good hard track day.

Review after a couple months

At the end of the day I would give this cooler 7/10

The position of the cooler pushes up against the wheel well liner a bit, so the fit is not perfect IMO, but it gets the job done. I found the instructions that came with the cooler to be light on the details for someone like me who was never done this kind of install.

But in the end I like the mounting location, because it's out of the way, but the cooler was not optimally effective until I installed a vent in the fog light space (http://www.ft86speedfactory.com/oem-...2013-ft86.html). With the vent the cooler is doing very well.

Here's some data I took over the course of three track days:

12/10/17 at Thunderhill East(no cooler) - 120, 128,131 (70 ambient temps)

1/27/18 at Laguna Seca (cooler)- 116 118 116 116 118 (62 ambient)

4/27/18 at Thunderhill West (cooler and vent) - 105 110 (72 ambient)

Ill be watching oil temps and may put together some ducting and to force more air through the cooler in the future.

Full Blown Motorsport did a good job sending me a replacement spacer when they thought that was the problem, and was eventually able to help me find the solution. I would do business with them again.

Thank you to everyone who posted helping me out. Sorry for the delay.

[Drake_93]

I'm going to kind of bump an old thread here, I just recently went through and dremmelled out my vents, was surprisingly easy and the vent material was kind of fun to work with.
I didn't have temp numbers beforehand but can report that I have noticed my temps were sitting around 110C, after numerous hard pulls and heavy driving for a solid 30 minutes, after getting to operating temp on an 87F day. This is with an SBD400 turbo on the car as well.
Great temps, but unfortunately I have fallen victim to the same leak. Looks to only be at the base of the sandwich plate, and fortunately only under really heavy loads. (High temps, hard driving and high pressure)
Going to be doing an oil change today, and am looking to see if we can fix up the leak. I'll post later some results.

[Sachmet43]

Final Review After 2 years of daily driving and track driving

At the end of the day this oil cooler had a number of issues:

-The position of the cooler pushes the wheel liner into the wheel. The rubbing isn't terrible, but it causes a burning smell during regular driving and especially when doing tight turns like in a parking garage.

-After 2 years of tinkering I was never able to get the oil leak problem 100% solved, but it never got worse. (Dribbles of oil at most).

-Even with adding the fog light vent, the position of the oil cooler did not allow enough air flow to keep my oil temps in the safe range under heavy track use. On hot days I would have oil temps as high as 120 deg C, which is into the danger zone for our oil.

Bottom Line

For these issues I am switching to another oil cooler. In the end I give this cooler a 3/10, because it just didn't get the job done.