Auto oil cooler relocation

[white90]

As the question has been asked again, I thought that I'd put a few pictures and explanations up for those performing this little job in the future. I carried out this job on my 3.9 Auto RRC, I think it may even be applicable to the Discovery autos too, but couldn't be sure.

First of all, I must thank Charles (Bishbosh) for the information that he gave me before I started the job! B)

As far as I am aware, this is only applicable to fiting low-line winches such as the Warn M8000 and the Superwinch EP9. I don't even think you could get away with a EP9i (solenoids in the bridge over drum) as it would foul the cooler.

First thing to do is ensure that you have a friendly hydraulic place that can make up hoses on request, otherwise you could be off the road for a few days.

Disconnect the hoses and drain the oil into a container. In total about 750ml came out of mine, including what was in the cooler, so make sure you've got something big enough.

You will then need to undo the pipe clamp that is located under the radiator. This is quite tricky, but with the use of a couple of levers, the rad can be lifted just enough to get the bolt all the way out.

Pull (wriggle) the old pipes out and toddle off to your hydraulic place and part with some cash. Mine cost me about £70 completed due to the owners like for the folding stuff!! He did threaten to charge me about £85 quid

It's at this stage I'll mention that any slack in the pipes will be very hard to get rid of. Make sure the new pipes are the same length (possibly an inch shorter) than the original ones. Any longer and you will struggle to lose the extra length.

I got the two pipes made up with 45 deg connectors on one end and straight on the other. However, I would now advise that the pipe that connects to the top of the rad would benefit from 45 deg on both ends. As the picture shows, the pipe gets a little close to the alternator:

And viewed from above:

The original pipes are made up of combinations of rigid and flexis. I went for completely flexible replacements as they were cheaper than having the right combinations made up.

Once you have the pipes re-routed and attached at the engine and rad, turn to the front. The oil cooler can be repositioned at the top of the radiator. This will mean moving the horns, but with a little careful metal-work, they can be mounted beside the headlight. As I have a fairly close fitting winch bumper, it was necessary to route the pipes behind the stays in front of the radiator:

Once both pipes are connected and the horns and cooler secured in place and the grille back on, the front looked a little like this:

And, although it looks a little close to the oil cooler, the solenoid box does miss it with enough spare room:

Final thing to do is run the engine for a few minutes and check the oil level in the auto box. Top up with fresh oil if necessary as what came out probably picked up dust and dirt on its way into the container!!

All in all this probably took about 4 hours to do, including a good hours round trip to get the pipes made up. There was a bit of jiggery-pokery to get the pipes in the right place when we fitted the winch, but only a case of loosen the unions and twist a bit.

I hope that helps someone else.