2004 Oil Cooler Swap 2w93-6a642-ed 2W93-6A642-EC

T

TopDownMadness

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Mar 11, 2022
Thunderbird Year
2004
I ran across the below 'warning' concerning the stock oil cooler. Never spotted this and was looking for comments.

"WARNING ~! - 03+ have the dreaded Mitsubishi designed "aluminum waffle" oil cooler as sadly many Fords do - Oil Filter can literally just fall off as you're driving down the highway. Or, even worse, "aluminum waffle" oil cooler fatigues from compression, cracks internally, coolant contaminates oil & the resulting milkshake wipes out engine bearings.

The stock 'cooler' is pretty sketchy looking (below image)

OEMcooler.png

Some people recommend trashing the thing and using a 'sandwich adaptor' routed to an externally mounted 8-row cooler. Not many spots to mount the thing but should the factory coolers grenade, that would be a bad thing. Thoughts? Anyone swap one over? The posts seem pretty serious about the fix as needed but never show the cooler mounted. Seems an issue 03 and up. 02's are safe.


Sandwich adaptor-

cooler adaptor.png
adaptor-cooler.png

The issue reported on 03-05 where the oil cooler assembly blows off the housing or splits from fatigue.

I'm looking for owners who may have made the modification or have considered the need as valid. Below is a British owner comment typical of many documented:

"It's my understanding 02 has no oil cooler - Its fact that the 03+ aluminum "waffle" cooler is bad, bad news - First introduced by Mitsubishi engineers in the 90's its widely known to crush and fatigue over time as aluminum does resulting in oil filter falling off. Or, it cracks internally and contaminates your oil with Engine Coolant and quickly wipes out engine bearings. - Hence the prudent thing to do is to delete it and fit up an air to fluid cooler - Aftermarket has a SOLID spacer with fittings that takes place of the waffle cooler".
 
I am curious if anyone knows why some Birds may or may not have the engine oil cooler? When I look up replacement radiator hoses I see with and without engine oil cooler.
I messed up my knee and can't get the car on a lift right now. I should have paid more attention the last time I had it on the lift. So, I looked from above and don't see any hoses
around the filter housing but they might be on the back or under it where I can't see them. I want to get new hoses ordered but not sure when I will be able to determine if I have the cooler or not.
Maybe a pic of yours from the top looking down? Thanks
 
Thanks Jose, I was able to trace the lower hose and see it has no pig-tails off of it. Yesterday I was just looking at the filter. I am not used to the lower hose coming up that high on an engine either. I am still curious as to why some have the oil cooler and some don't.
 
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Thanks Jose, I was able to trace the lower hose and see it has no pig-tails off of it. Yesterday I was just looking at the filter. I am not used to the lower hose coming up that high on an engine either. I am still curious as to why some have the oil cooler and some don't.
You welcome, maybe more of a heater than a cooler.;)
These aluminum oil coolers tend to leak coolant into the motor oil when damaged letting you to believe there is a head gasket problem also there is an o ring behind it that will leak motor oil.
IMOP you are better off without it.
 
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