2018 oil cooler assembly replacement?

[CrashTestDummy]

Saw a couple of oil spots under the front of our '18 PPV. I climbed under the hood to discover that one of the oil cooler lines where the rubber hose is swedged to the aluminum tubing is leaking. I have a new line assembly enroute, and haven't had a look in the FSM yet, but wanted to see if anyone here has done the change out and can let me know how much of a PITA it might be to do.

Hopefully, this isn't one of those typical GM vehicle jobs where step one is 'remove engine'. Thanks for any info.

 

[B-train]

They aren't too bad. Depending on the bends and route, a lotnof times I've had good luck dropping the front differential down (4 bolts, easy). Once that is out of the way, and splash shields off, you have good area to work.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Ours is 2WD, so no front diff. It looked like it might not be too bad, but I've had 'gotcha's' before. The lines run from the driver side of the engine block just above the oil filter housing, forward to just to the front of the engine, then turn right across the front of the engine compartment to two flexible hoses then up to aluminum lines that connect to the passenger side of the radiator.

Hoping we'll be able to do this with getting the front end up on ramps and dropping the skid plates. The plates need cleaning anyway.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Attempt to replace No. 1 was a fail. It seems the Lisle fuel line quick disconnect tool (P/N 37000) will not work with these lines. GM calls for tool CH-41769 to do the job, so I've ordered one. It should be here midweek next week. Fingers crossed.

Just in case, I've also ordered P/N 12630766 which is the cover for trucks without the oil cooler. Since this is no longer used for police work, an oil cooler is a nice thing to have, but not a necessity, so if the thing gives me more grief, I'll just cut the lines at the radiator and cap the ports on the engine with the cover.

Updates as they occur.

 

[Phoenix2k9]

Any updates on this ? I have the same issue and thinking about replacing the oil cooler line.

 

[crazedfost78]

Saw a couple of oil spots under the front of our '18 PPV. I climbed under the hood to discover that one of the oil cooler lines where the rubber hose is swedged to the aluminum tubing is leaking. I have a new line assembly enroute, and haven't had a look in the FSM yet, but wanted to see if anyone here has done the change out and can let me know how much of a PITA it might be to do.

Hopefully, this isn't one of those typical GM vehicle jobs where step one is 'remove engine'. Thanks for any info.

Had the same issue in my 2018 PPV. Ended up replacing the entire oil pan assembly. What is crazy is that a hairline fracture formed in the upper part of the unit with ZERO evidence of trauma. Never seen that happen before but all good now.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Our issue is definitely the cooler lines. They're leaking at/around the metal-to-rubber line joint just behind the radiator. Still haven't gotten to this one yet. Other projects have gotten in the way. I do have a pile of parts to swap/install on this thing, though, so it's trip to our shop may be sooner than later.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Dragging this back up from the deep! I finally had some time to work on this thing (my bride was not on call this weekend!). 3rd time attempting to swap out the cooler lines and 3rd fail. So, I said 'eff it!' and removed the OEM cooler lines. I could never get my quick release tools to seat between. the tubing and the port on the radiator to release the tubing. I cut the lines at the flex. hose and pulled the back end out. the back. of the engine bay.

The block off plate fits, but doesn't come with bolts. The bolts for the OEM cooler are about 3/8" too long and bottom out in the block. I tried some shorter 6mmX1.75 bolts, but then discovered my torque wrench STARTS at 11 lb-ft, not zero. I was wondering why the thing kept turning at 9 lb-ft until I felt one bolt get loose again!

Since I now had a spare set of oil cooler bolts that were nearly 1/2" longer than the bolts I was using, I trimmed them with my angle grinder and tried them. First try resulted in a leak, primarily because I was reusing the _new_ gasket I had just tried. Since I had a spare NIB gasket, I used it and it seems to have sealed things up. Monitoring will continue.

Primary reason for trying to swap this thing out. was to get rid of the drips on the garage floor. The cut ends of cooling lines that are still in the radiator are STILL dripping, even though I've jammed a big bolt into them and clamped the ends down. It'll eventually leak out and maybe then I can clean the garage floor!!