It's getting time to change the oil in my 83' GS and I'm planning on fixing the leaky beehive oil cooler as well. Referencing this thread, it appears that one of the posters (who provides very helpful information I might add), suggests "loosening" the bolts that the FSM states adamantly never to loosen.



So can you loosen these bolts or not? Does anyone know what the torque specs on these are? The whole procedure seems pretty straight-forward. I've got all four o-rings from Atkins Rotary, a new oil filter and I need to pick up the crush washers for the oil line. I previously replaced all the heater hoses, anyone have recommendations for clamp-style, or continue using the screw style that I think is OEM?

 

Never remove air pump.

 

By this, I take it you mean that it's just one of those things that the FSM says that isn't necessarily true, since you can and people do remove the air pump?

 

Yep.

 

You will need to loosen those nuts in order to change the o-rings underneath. No issues with loosening them as long as they're tightened properly after the new o-rings are installed.

 

don't touch me there...!...

 

How tight does it need to be? Torque specs aren't listed anywhere...

 

1hr+ into this and still have not gotten the oil cooler off. I probably struggled with the right-most (closest to the driver) bolt for at least 20 minutes. I cannot get a wrench on that thing. Every task I've done on this car that has anything to do with the beehive oil cooler has been absolutely miserable. I wish I had some welding skills, I'd fab up some mounts for a real front-mount oil cooler. Also A/C is constantly in the way, first thing I should have done when I got the car was get rid of it.

 

Get rid of the hive and do a fmoc from a second Gen. I hate the beehive.

 

Shouldn't need to undo the ones that say don't touch. Just the one oil line, the two water lines and the ones labeled #3. The first thing I did was remove that pos but my car was cleared of all accessory's so it was fairly simple. You don't need to weld, got mine in with some angle aluminum and screwed it to the frame rails. Car runs way cooler.
Hope you solve the problem, oh and make sure the o-rings sit right as a lot of oil comes out of there in a hurry..

 

If it starts leaking again, I'm going to seriously consider getting rid of it. I want to just fix it to keep the car stock like. I hate that thing though, every time I have to work on something near it I get angry and it takes all the fun out of working on my car away. Once I get the car running again I'm taking the car to a shop to get the A/C refrigerant evacuated and A/C is coming out.

I gave up for the evening, I'll try again tomorrow after work. I'll be happy once I get that thing out, so that I can clean 30 years of spilled oil off that side of the engine.

EDIT: Haha, got it off. I couldn't sleep so I went to my garage, with a little bit of help I was able to get the nut off. I had to put my right arm between the A/C line and the strut housing and I was able to snake my arm in a weird angle and get a lil' 10mm wrench on the nut. Now I just need to buy a 23mm wrench to get the banjo bolt off. My crescent wrenches are all too big. I think I probably pulled a muscle getting my arm like that though lol.

 

So doing some searching, can't find any torque specs for any of this stuff, I'm taking it I need it tight enough that it doesn't leak, but loose enough that I don't strip anything. I'm thinking the banjo bolt and the various beehive bolts. Not that I could get a torque wrench on any of these really.

EDIT: Finally got the oil cooler off, boy that banjo bolt took probably 20+ minutes to get off. I could barely get the wrench in there and had to rotate it like every 1/32 of a turn. Regardless, took everything apart cleaned off the oil cooler real thoroughly, took a little screw driver with some paper towel and cleaned out all the fins on the outside. I cleaned off a bunch of oil/grease/grime/crud off of the driver's side of the engine, steering box, etc. Looks better but not fantastic. Hopefully will get the car running again tomorrow, hope it goes back together quicker.

 

Everything is back together. Oil pressure and water temperatures seem good, and no leaks so far. I'm hoping it stays that way.