Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator

How to install a Ecoboost oil cooler / heater in a 4.0 and why

The Mopar part needs 5/8" hose so I bought a small roll of 5/8" heater hose and just used that

Most heater hose is not suitable for oil transfer. I would be concerned that it might deteriorate and fail. Which of course would be pretty catastrophic.
 
Most heater hose is not suitable for oil transfer. I would be concerned that it might deteriorate and fail. Which of course would be pretty catastrophic.

The hose is only for coolant. The oil is 100% contained in the metal part of the cooler.

The only hoses should be water pump to exchanger and exchanger to heater core.
 
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I installed the Mopar oil "cooler" and it fit up perfectly to my '04. My original goal was to reduce oil temp, but as I read this thread, it made sense to me that cooling effect would be very limited. Perhaps it will knock off the peak temps under high rev/load, but not otherwise. I installed it anyway to observe how it performs.

Perhaps it should be called an oil "heater" since it does act to bring the oil up to temp more quickly.
 
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I installed the Mopar oil "cooler" and it fit up perfectly to my '04. My original goal was to reduce oil temp, but as I read this thread, it made sense to me that cooling effect would be very limited. Perhaps it will knock off the peak temps under high rev/load, but not otherwise. I installed it anyway to observe how it performs.

Perhaps it should be called an oil "heater" since it does act to bring the oil up to temp more quickly.

Yeah I installed a glowshift pressure and temp gauge and so far have observed little change.

Since my hoses leak a little I'm thinking of just removing it.

I might put it back if I get HP Tuners or do some other supporting mods

-Mac
 
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Interesting enough one of the big mods on the Chrysler 300...from whence this cooler comes from...it to delete the oil cooler because when it fails...well...guess what...

-Mac

This was a reason I contemplated not doing it. I saw examples online of guys trashing their engines when the sandwich cooler failed.

Perhaps it should be called an oil "heater" since it does act to bring the oil up to temp more quickly.

I believe this was a big reason why SteelCity did the mod. I didn’t need to do it as much since the turbo warms up my oil a little bit quicker as does the slower turning radiator fan during cold starts. It’s hard to remember now regarding how much it’s changed, but I certainly wouldn’t worry about It if you haven’t done any of this stuff.
 
Interesting enough one of the big mods on the Chrysler 300...from whence this cooler comes from...it to delete the oil cooler because when it fails...well...guess what...

-Mac

Got me interested to see if there was a similar issue with the Ecoboost cooler. I really can't find any anecdotes of a failed heat exchanger causing an engine failure, and even then, I only found one post suspecting a leak, but it could have been in the block as well.

So I'd be inclined to trust the Ford version of the heat exchanger. With the tens of millions of Ecoboost engines on the road, you'd think we'd hear a lot more if it were a problem.

There are a lot of anecdotes regarding the PowerBoost coolant to exhaust heat exchanger failing, but that is a separate part from this exchanger and that is unique to the hybrid model only.

Given the relative pressures of the system, we'd expect if a leak developed that oil would probably get pumped into the coolant loop moreso than coolant would be pushed into the oil, so the first thing you would probably notice is sludge buildup in the radiator.

Also given that the 3.5 Ecoboost cooler is oversized for this engine I doubt it would see any accelerated wear in our use case versus factory.
 
Interesting enough one of the big mods on the Chrysler 300...from whence this cooler comes from...it to delete the oil cooler because when it fails...well...guess what...

-Mac

Below doing it I tried searching to see if there were online posts about that part failing and couldn't find anything. Oh well, it's cheap enough I can change it every 20,000 miles (before it fails) and not really care.
 
Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator