Question About Oil Coolers
 

The previous owner had the car painted and the painter failed to mask off the oil coolers. :mad: I know this is probably not a good thing and was wondering if I could use paint remover on them. What material are the oil coolers made of? Thanks in advance!

I wouldn't worry too much about it as long as it doesn't restrict air flow through the oil coolers. I would worry more about bent fins then about them being red.

But yes, paint stripper will take the paint off. Put a little on a rag and wipe. But obviously be careful.
~Tom

That just happened to me too after an insurance claim... they oversprayed my radiator/condenser too :mad:

Unfortunately, mine are not oversprayed. The paint is as thick as on the car. That's why I'm afraid it might be affecting the cooling.

It might not be a bad idea to take it off and soak it in paint tinner or possibly parts cleaner for a few hours/days. If you can go without your car for that long. You shouldn't drive around too much with that much paint clogging your oil cooler.

Well, the 7 is not my daily driver. Actually, it's been down for about a month for a vacuum hose job and dp... and other broken parts found/caused along the way :doh:

The answer to the original question is :
They are made of Aluminum.
So any chemical you use to remove the over sprayed paint make sure it does not harm the aluminum.

Ughh, Man I feel for ya. I had the same thing happen by a body shop. PICS I spent forever cleaning the damn things. The trouble is that the fins are so delicate. First I tried soaking them in laquer thinner, which was a complete waste of time. I got the most crap off of the outside with a couple cans of "Aero Paint stripper" from AutoZone and a horsehair brush. Still wasn't helping the interior of the fins.

Finally, I took it to the shop my brother works at and put them in the safty-clean shaker can (pneumatic agitator) for about 4 hours. It didn't do as good as I thought it would, but it loosened them up enough that I could gently blow the paint out with a compressor nozzel. Then I spent a good amount of time straightening fins.

I think that if I had to do it again, I'd send it off to be done. Here's some info from the scuderia site:

Coolers

I called them and the price qouted was like $200 to $250 by lady that didn't know what I was talking about since they mostly do airplane oil cooler service.
That is 1/2 of the price of a new one. I tell you what, If l was you, I would save and do a new oil cooler down the line.

Thanks for the info.

Crap.. that seems like a lot. That for one, or two coolers? Maybe that's why I ended up doing it myself.

Do I have to take the bumper cover off to remove them?

The orange stripper spray crap you can buy at Home Depot works very well. Leave it on for a day or more and just spray it off or use a soft bristle brush...

Well, I got most all of the paint off. How did you guys straighten your fins? It's taking me a long time just to complete one row.

You should be able to remove it throught tire well. I was accessing my washer tank last night and noticed the easy access to the oil cooler.

HDP:

Don't worry about how to straighten the fins or get the paint off. Drop it off at the body shop and let them sort it out!

If you decide to be a really nice guy and spend your time correcting the damage that resulted from their carelessness, try using a small flat head screw driver (like those used for computers) to straighten the fins. When I fixed mine I used the screw driver to press the row peaks back into position. This generally straightened out the metal in between them. As you probably already know the metal is very brittle so you have to go slow.

At the very least I would get them to give you some money back for the time you spent cleaning up their mess for them.

Best of luck,

Chris C.

I had the bumper off which made it easier. Small screwdriver and long, very thin needle-nose plyers (Craftsman)...

I don't thing so...Have you ever removed your bumper and seen how they are hooked up...I am not saying it's impossible becasuse nothing is but it sure as hell would save you more time to take the bumper off considering how easy it is to do that and how much easier it would be to get them off...

As far as the fins being bent it's going to take time to straighten then...there is no easy wasy, I just used a knife and did it...I don't believe your body shop did the bending...almost everyones fins are bent.

Yeah, that's what I've been using. But I was hoping you guys could tell me a quicker way to do it :(

This was done before I bought the car. The previous owner said he had just had it painted in August.

Don't know if it'll help you now, but I used a pointy pair of tweezers that clamped down flat for much of the straightening. Work it in there, squeeze and pull gently and it did a good job. That, or you can get two #1 slotted screwdrivers (smallish, but doesn't need to be long and thin) and squeeze the damage between the blades as they're pointed at each other (if that makes any sense.)