Can I get rid of the oil cooler somehow like say just putting plugs in the holes where the lines mount to the engine?

Can I just weld D90 mounts on top of a Range rover classic radiator without an oil cooler and make it work? I have [and just found in my parts stash see post in garage sale for list of crap I am selling] a new rad for an 87-88 w/o oil cooler and I want to use that in the D90.

Ron:
I'm not sure you really want to do this. when I put the 3.9 into Shopgrrl's truck, I bypassed the oil cooler lines and we had horrible overheating issues.

It is my personal opinion that the benefit of additional engine cooling by cooling the oil is far underrated.

What brought all this on? Did your radiator fail? Bite the bullet and have it recored, you know it's the right thing to do.

PT

Ron:

It is my personal opinion that the benefit of additional engine cooling by cooling the oil is far underrated.

PT


I soundly endorse the right honourable PT's views on this. The substantial difference in engine cooling when I put an oil cooler on my 2.25 in Dubai (and we are talking about serious temperatures) convinced me unequivocally. I think the key benefit comes from slow speed work when you aren't getting as much airflow through the rad. Then the heat dissipation from the oil cooler is much more beneficial.

Blah blah blah . . .

Will it work as in will I still get oil pressure or not. I figure with a new rad and good everythign else it will not overheat, I mean if 4.6 discos and 3.5 RRCs don't overheat neither should a D90.

Girl Scouts had better run and hide.

Girl Scouts had better run and hide.

You rang? :flipoff2:

So...this reminds of this one time I totally revised my cooling system. So, I'm perusing this local pick-and-pull and it is literally mile after mile of demolished Chevy Camaro. You'd occasionally find matted cat-fur entertwined within the broken glass of a windshiled, only to realize, up close, the hair is on the inside of the car, and actually the remains of a shredded mullet. After failing in my quest to locate the crown jewel of GM engineering...yes, the capable 302 with throttle body injection...I settled on finding a pristine aluminum radiator among the many piles of American Dreams laying about the lot.

After about 30 minutes of searching through half-mangled vehicles (the majority of cars were definitely involved in multi-fatality front-end collosions) I finally stumbled upon an aluminum radiator with intact plastic end-caps, and a large circular pattern of distortion in the fins from a malaligned fan. The deal-maker was the new Stant radiator cap. This was my radiator.

After about an hour of prying about the front clip of the car with a crow-bar, I was able to pull the radiator without much further damage to the fins. I hagled with the 5-toothed attendant and finally settled on a fair price of $12.36 and 2 Thin Mint cookies. I threw the cooling accessory into my car and sprinted home for an afternoon of festivities.

After yanking out the ferrous radiator that occupied the front of my Discovery, I realized that my assumption that "all radiators were the same" was incorrect. [for a history of my incorrect assumptions, start with a search of "muffler bearing;" no, not all muffler bearing are the same...damn AutoZone!]. Problem 1: radiator mounts are completely different. Solution: I have duct tape. Problem 2: the Rover radiator has provisions for the oil cooler and transmission fluid cooler; the Camaro radiator does not. Solution: I have duct tape.

Well, not really. I was able to mount the radiator and duct-tape it to the front clip. This was semi-sturdy, so I looped a few passes of tape all the way around the radiator, lashing it to the A/C condensor. This baby wasn't going anywhere! Now, on to the oil and transmission fluid lines. Since my engine would be soon running cooler due to the superior GM aluminum radiator, I decided I didn't need the oil cooler because the engine wouldn't be running hot anymore. And, because the engine would be running more efficient, it wouldn't take as much work to move the car around, so the transmission wouldn't run as hot anymore. Makes perfect sense. But, if I were to simply plug the lines, I would run the risk of starving the engine of oil...and transmission of fluid. Of course, I couldn't be sure of this, but I was too lazy to go look up the oil system diagrams to figure it out.

Duct-tape was out for solving the problems of the oil and transmission lines. I eye-balled the fittings and realized they were the same dimensions, then went to Home Depot and rummaged through their plumbing section until I stumbled across a female-female coupler that would work. I bought a few pairs of different sized fittings, hoping one pair would fit. So, during a period of deep thought, I began to question my choice of eliminating the oil and trnamission coolers altogether. I figured the next best solution would be to run the outlet oil hose into the inlet transmission hose, and run the outlet transmission hose in to the inlet oil hose. This would give me a "full-flow" oiling system. I had read about this somewhere, and something about 8-second door-slammers. There was a pretty good chance this would make my Rover faster.

Sure enough, one pair of the fittings I purchased had the correct diameter, but the threads were all wrong. I applied a thick bead of JB Weld around the coupler and began to cross-thread the fittings. This secured everything irreversibly, which is what you aim for when you want to prevent leaks. So, radiator is in, hoses are dealt with, now to finish the rest of the install. Even though I am using a Chevy radiator, I hate that my fan makes my engine sound like a 1988 Chevy Blazer (minus the faux throaty exhaust note). I ditch the fan altogether, especially since I've improved the cooling capacity substantially, and because I couldn't get the shroud to stay put and not clip the fan, even with all of the duct-tape.

So, everything is back together. Time to make a "shake down" run (since I've done my "full-flow" oil set-up, I can start using drag-race lingo). I start her up, no leaks...no fluid. Wait, WHAT? Crap! I forgot to refill the coolant, oil, and transmission fluid. I turn the engine off real quick and look around the garage. Coolant? No. Oil? Yes. Transmission fluid? Some. I grab the garden hose and fill the expansion tank with water. Since anti-freeze has some ethylglycolsomethinglene in it, I grab some Jack and a bag of sugar off the shelf. I add about half a fifth of Jack to the resevoir and a cup of sugar. Coolant? Check!

I fill the engine with oil. Add an extra quart for safe measure. I fill the transmission with as much fluid as I have in the garage. It still is reading low on the dip-stick, so I run back inside the house, grab red dye #46 and add it to the remaining motor oil I have in the garage. Now that the motor oil is the same color as the transmission fluid, I top off the transmission and I am ready to go.

Start the engine back up and she's purring like a kitten (that's been kicked repeatedly). No leaks. Woo hoo! Now, back to the shakedown run! I take the Rover around the block and everything seems to be fine. Temperature is holding steady and not hot, and the throttle response indicates I must have picked up a few ponies from the full-slow mod, and ditching the fan. Time to go see just how many horses I gained!

I round the corner and speaking of horses...down the street I see a few fine phillies. Hell yeah. Well, they look fine. I can't tell 'cuz they're nearly a block away, but there's 4 of 'em and that's the number of remaining seatbelts I have in the rig. So, I floor the skinny pedal and powershift into second...uh, the transmission powershifts into second; I've got one hand on the 12 o'clock of the wheel, and my other hand on my junk, you feel me, G? The acceleration is mind-numbing; the rig is flat hauling arse! I hit third gear and I'm doing like 130 or something. I realize that I'm not going to be able to stop for the honeys, so I plan for the fly-by and pick them up on the turn-around. As I approach them, I realize these ghetto-biatches are not women at all, but girls. And their hot clothing is basically brown sashes with various patches sewn on (of course, on the top of the normal clothing they are wearing).

Great...a troop of Girl Scouts :rolleyes: Right about then, I notice that the temperature gauge is pegged off the wall; I then hear a loud "clankity-clankity-clankity" right before the driver's side cylinder head blows free from the engine block Top-Fuel dragster style ('cuz I'm not running head straps yet), and shoots through the hood of the Rover. The projectile head then jetisons across the street and takes out one of the Girl Scouts. It hit the fat one...either because of the increase probability due to her large surface area, or her immense gravitational pull, I dunno. But I do know the fat one got it. I'm flat out stupified from the odd turn of events and accidently jerk the wheel mid-rubberneck from looking at the destruction behind and crash right into an AMC Gremlin.

I smack the windshield pretty hard (my racing harness was on back-order with my head-straps) and I stumble out of the rig in a complete daze. I step away from the carnage that is my car and look to the remaining three Girl Scouts who should be earning their First-Aid badges right about now. From the looks of it, they've written off saving the whale and they're gonna check me out to make sure I'm okay. With a breath of relief, I lean against my (now flaming) rig as the three waifs run towards me. As they draw near, I can now tell from their eyes and voices that they're intent is not a badge of First-Aid, but a badge of Vengance! I push away from the Rover and take off running down the block, only to trip over an errant tricycle laying in the sidewalk. This sends me straight to the pavement and I scrape my knee. I roll over, thriving in pain from whacking my knee cap and a bit faint from the sudden loss of blood, only to be pummeled by a barage of flying cookie boxes. The Scouts were hitting me with everything they've got, box after box of thin mints...one of the little brats looped her sash around my neck and began choking me. At that point, a bewildered rent-a-cop came onto the scene and interpreted what he saw to be a savage midget-attack. He broke out the pepper spray and hosed those little hellions down, which mingled with the cookie crumbs in my eyes and stung me pretty bad, too. But this was just the diversion I needed, and I sulked off in to the shrubery while the neighbors arose from their weekend stupor to see a pimply security guard beating on a bunch of Girl Scouts.

Moral of the story, don't get rid of the oil cooler. Plumb your oil and transmission lines properly. The British can't wire a car to save their island, but an oil cooler is a pretty nifty idea. Plus, I'm beginning to learn that Girl Scouts, in general, do not like half-baked Rover repairs. Your experience may vary :flipoff2:

fawkin A dude....that is too funny.

Evil....if you insist on getting rid of your oil cooler which is a silly idea to start with as 3.5 RRC's do overheat which is why Rover put the oil coolers in to start with, dont plug the lines (bad) remove the adaptor that has the oil lines on it (sandwiched by the pump and the filter) and you will have the 3.5 set-up.

You rang? :flipoff2:
Great...a troop of Girl Scouts :rolleyes: Right about then, I notice that the temperature gauge is pegged off the wall; I then hear a loud "clankity-clankity-clankity" right before the driver's side cylinder head blows free from the engine block Top-Fuel dragster style ('cuz I'm not running head straps yet), and shoots through the hood of the Rover.



Yup, sounds like exactly what happened to me yesterday, sans the dead Girl Scouts.. It's a good thing I was out of town,

Aaprt from all of the above replies, many humorous, many useful, a Range Rover radiator is too wide to fit in a D90, by about 4".
If all you're trying to do is delete the oil cooler (why?) undo the cooler adapter, mounted between the oil filter and the pump housing. Then, screw the filter right back on, in place of the hollow "nut" that holds the cooler apapter on.
Engine oil typically runs quite abit hotter than the water, so the heat input from the oil, into the radiator, doesn't help keeping the engine cool. However, cooking your oil isn't so great either. Best of all worlds is the aluminum radiator, with external oil cooler.

I figured out that it was too long before I got too far along. I will save the old style RRC rad for the 95 lwb.

I dislike oil coolers . . .

Ron:
Is there a reason you're not having the old one recored?

PT