Trust Greddy Oil Cooler Warning

Hi Guys

I've not been around for a while, but thought I better write to share a very frightening experience I had as a warning to everyone.

With the hot weather just around the corner here I thought I'd get an oil cooler fitted, so whilst my car was getting serviced last week I had a Trust Greddy cooler installed. I picked the car up late Friday evening (10.30pm) and made my way home, after about 4 miles the road widens into 2 lanes into a long right hand corner over a very high (100ft ish) flyover. This corner is very wide and sweeping and can be taken extremely fast given a clear road. This evening though I found myself behind a handful of cars so was taking it steady (60-70 mph), on the exit of the bend there was a gap in front, so knocked it down into 3rd and accelerated, then before I had time to think the back end of the car whips around and I'm suddenly a passenger spinning down the road. There was nothing I could do but sit there waiting for the impact, but by some miracle it never came and I found myself on the opposite side of the road facing the way I'd been going, right next to the curb. I then had to get the hazard lights on quick as there were cars coming towards me. The car had stalled, so I go to restart it but all I got was a clicking from the starter motor, I'm now stuck on the wrong side of the road facing the wrong way and can't start my car :O

Eventually got the car towed, but spent the rest of the night trying to understand what had just happened. Something just wasn't right, I'd had the back end out many times but there was always warning and it was always easy to catch, but this time no warning and nothing I could do. All was revealed next day when I got the car to the garage and up on the ramps and found one of the oil hose hanging off and to my horror found my engine was siezed.

The pipe for the oil cooler had come off where the spring retainer locks it into the oil filter adapter. The spring retainer should sit in a slotted recess in the adapter locking the 2 parts together, but on close inspection the slot in the adapter was deformed and varied in depth on one side. Obviously the oil pressure/vibration had forced the spring retainer to come out of the slot, the pipe blew off, the oil pumped out very rapidly and the engine seized causing the rear wheels to suddenly lock. The frightening thing is that this small deformation in the aluminium adapter could have very easily cost me my life. I feel extremely lucky, if the wheels had locked just 50m earlier on the flyover or if something had been coming in the opposite direction then I hate to think where I would be now.

The garage has accepted full responsibility and said that they will fully repair the engine, they have stripped it today and found that 2 of the big end bearings have spun. The sickening thing is that the engine was brand new only 10,000km ago, I'm going to get an independant engineer to review the damage to make sure that everything is put right.

If Chris or anyone else out there could give me some advice about what damage could have been done and what I should do I would very much appreciate it.

Finally I hope that the problem I had with the Greddy oil cooler was a one off, I would hate the same thing to happen to anyone else and would advise anyone with one fitted to get it checked straight away.

cheers for now folks.

Nic

JESUS! I thought you were gonna say you'd spun off on your own oil slick, but a seized engine . . . :(

Check that the cam journals and the bearing saddles don't show wear due to oil starvation; I stripped down a Mk3 supra engine that had suffered a similar fate last month, and found that where the rod had come free of the crank it had flailed around and smashed up the oil squirter and the block area around the base of the cylinder bore. Don't know if the oil pump may have suffered after running dry. Basically, check everything that has a bearing or a journal or required oil for lubrication!

And another thing . . .

When Chris saw the pictures of the crank from that engine, he said that even if the journals could be machined smooth to take an undersized bearing, the heat and stress generated by such a violent event could have significantly weakened it, and recommended I bin it (which I did).

Thanks Adam,

yes oil on the rear tyres was my first thought, I was pretty damn sick when I found the engine had locked up...

lucky escape. its gonna b an expensive repair for them. the trouble with oil sarvation is it can effect nearly every part of the engine

good luck.

Glad your ok mate. A very close call!

Use it as a opportunity to get a fully built engine!

I've just been to have a look at my engine (which is now in hundreds of bits ), thankfully the only damage is to number 4 and 5 big end bearings. It looks as though it had only run for a very short time before the bearings seized so luckily no other damage has been caused (this was verified by an independant mechanic.)

I may take the opportunity whilst I'm getting the engine rebuild and whilst the garage are feeling very guilty to see if I can some discount on some new parts!!

cheers guys

Tell em you want a JUN stroker kit at 90% off, to compensate for the mental stress etc

Mental stress.... hell I'd need a new car to compensate for that

Jesus Nick, that was a close call.

Glad you seem to be dealing with a reputable garage there as some of them i'm sure would try to pass the buck on to Greddy. This is the sort of scenario i think we all dread when doing high speeds, imagine if it had of been 120mph

Is there any chance of a picture of the deformed slot\area ?

Originally posted by Adam Wootten

JESUS! I thought you were gonna say you'd spun off on your own oil slick, but a seized engine . . . :(

Thats what I thought!

V V lucky Nic, thank your lucky stars!

Gaz.

Cheers Guys, I didn't get a photo of the part in question but basically the slot that the retaining clip sits into was slightly shallow on one side so the clip would not seat securely.

The garage have been really good, they accepted responsibility straight away and said they would put the car right. I watched as they put the car up on the ramps to see what had caused the problem and it was obvious that the fault was with the part and not the workmanship although you could argue that they should have checked that the part was okay before fitting it.

Has anybody else had any problems with oil coolers? I'm not sure now whether to get the cooler replaced with an HKS one or just leave it off altogether now, views?

cheers

bloody hell Nic - glad to see your ok and that your getting your car sorted out............

hope it doesnt take too long before your back out on the HK roads again

Bad luck, yet good luck Nic, glad you are OK. Pressurised oil lines should always have proper screwed unions, I dislike circlip and O ring joints. As for damage, well, if it has SPUN a big end bearing, ie, the shells have turned within a rod or several rods, then given the fact it was a new bottom end you should insist on new, not re sized rods, although, from what you told me of the engineering facilities in HK re sizing may not be an option anyway

It was a new bottom end, right? I think a new crank, rather than a regrind should be asked for. Reground is naturally not as strong as OE size.

Other possible damage may be cam in head bearings (VERY VERY unlikely though, the crank will nearly always seize first due to the piston loadings), oil pump damage and of course debris throughout the oil system.

For the bearings to have actually seized the engine must have run for more than a few seconds without oil pressure. Obviously the skid was due to oil getting on the rear tyres, probably the underside of the car will not rust, it's almost certainly well wetted with fully synthetic.

If you send any bits over to me please give them a good dousing in Dettol and bleach, and warn me so I can get Jane to bring a bio warfare suit home from work

Hi Chris,

Yes the crank and short block were brand new last September. Thankfully the damage seems to be limited to only the inside surface of 2 of the big end bearings, the outside surface of the bearings is fine and there is no visible damage to the bearing surface on the crank or rods. The garage plan to just fit a new set of oe bearings. I'll attach a couple of very bad photos the first shows the number 4 and 5 bearings the second shows the crank where the bearing were located.

The engine oil had just been replaced and covered the whole of the underside of the car and wheels, so really helped lubricate the tyres when spinning down the road

cheers

Bearings

crank

Get the crank big end journals polished, done correctl it will only take off a few microns and will ensure a perfect surface for the new shells.