I'm swapping my water/oil cooler on my '83 GSL for a perfect air/oil cooler from an '86 I found in the junkyard. I know most of the time when people talk about this conversion, they say to solder closed or otherwise deadhead the fittings where the oil water line ran to/from the cooler...

my question is, what would happen if you just connected them with a lenth of heater hose? Effectively, you would have two circuits running in parallel - one going from the lower radiator hose, through the heater core, and back to the block... the other going from the lower radiator hose, around the motor, and back to the block.

Do you think I'd see any problems?

 

That would be pointless, plus your heat might not work as good and it won't warm up as fast in the cold since its out there getting cooled off. Plus you would have to put some sort of T fitting on the rad to accomplish this, which is the same amount if not more work as plugging the T on the block. I've heard you can just cut that off leaving a piece sticking straight out and it will work, but I just plugged it with a bolt stuck in a hose.

 

What you're saying makes sense, because one is suply glycol to the oil cooler beehive, and the other is return back to the rad.

Its a circit.

Its like bypasing the beehive

I have no Idea wether or not you are asking for trouble, but it is good in theory.

 

you could get a oil filter housingf from a 86 I beleive and remove the beehive all together.

 

oh is that what he means? to use the beehive as a pedastal of sorts? whoops i misread that. Yea that would work in theory, but you might be asking for leaks, give it a try.

 

No, I'm replacing the "beehive" with the small pedestal off of the '86.

I actually wouldn't be taking the water from the lower radiator hose for the bypass, just going from the "T" at the the heater core inlet to the "T" where the heater core line returns to the block.

I do see the point about possibly losing some of the effectiveness of my heater core...

I'll probably block it off w/ a short length of hose and a bolt too. I just wanted to bounce the idea off you guys in the forum once. Thanks!

 

oh I see what you mean, the easiest way to deal with that is to replace the hard water line with the 79-82 one, it doesn't have the T on the top by the firewall like the 83 one does, then you just have to cut off or plug the one on the engine and your set.