[S.O.B.06xt]

Bueller?

 

[seagrass]

Your posts may need some interpretation for us to understand your questions.

If you are asking about replacement options for your oil cooler and oil pump, my suggestion will always be to use the genuine parts as supplied by Subaru. They spent all their money on engineering their product so why should us novices advise to use anything but Subaru engineered parts.

By the way the only oil leak I have ever seen in the oil cooler is from the upper gasket (oil cooler gasket) which is less than US$10 and is easy to replace.

Seagrass

 

[S.O.B.06xt]

The thermostatic sandwich plate replaces the factory oil-to-water cooler, sending the oil thru a front mounted oil-to-air cooler. Oil to water coolers are great for warming oil on cold start. Not the greatest for actual cooling and just dump the heat from the oil into the coolant - and the xt radiators are marginal at best. My 0.0002.

I'm currently using a Mocal plate which is leaking. Or the oil pump above it is the leaker. Or the pump's seal ...

I don't want to wallow in repeated oil baths replacing the bits in stages. One dirty job to shotgun the whole thing.

So I'm looking for sandwich plate recommendations from people who found success with a particular plate. Likewise I've heard about oil pumps from other models which move some more oil than the stocker. If the latter question isn't answered then I'll just install the part appropos for my model.

 

[seagrass]

Thank you for clarifying what your questions were.

My daughter owns a 2006 Subaru Forester 2.5 Turbo which has travelled 240,000+ miles using the Subaru OEM oil cooler and oil pump. Neither of these has been replaced and neither of them leak oil, hence my suggestion about OEM parts being my choice and recommendation.

Even in our Australian summers of up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit there has never been a problem with overheating so I am not convinced that the oil cooler installed by Subaru may be inadequate in some way when using the vehicle as a daily driver.

There are various posts on this forum about “changing oil pumps” to a bigger size pump and the benefits and problems this can cause. As far as I have read, the consensus appears to be that if you need to replace your oil pump you should use the replacement part as supplied by Subaru for your vehicle.

Hope this helps,

Seagrass

 

[Ahaze]

The oil pump isn't above the filter/cooler location, it's behind the crank pulley. If your leak is on the right front corner of the engine, it isn't coming from the pump. Only way to know if you need a larger pump is by monitoring oil pressure. If your short block is OEM, I would expect the OE pump is sufficient.

 

[S.O.B.06xt]

The oil pump isn't above the filter/cooler location, it's behind the crank pulley. If your leak is on the right front corner of the engine, it isn't coming from the pump. Only way to know if you need a larger pump is by monitoring oil pressure. If your short block is OEM, I would expect the OE pump is sufficient.

Thanks for this relevant response - the car has always leaked a bit from above the oil filter, including prior to adding the mocal plate but the leak has worsened - hence the question about a better replacement. I'll poke around the parts manual to see if there's a seal behind the flat surface where the stock cooler mounts.

Tired of screwing with this.

As far as depending on the overall brilliance of subaru design and execution I offer counterpoints ...
The SVX,
XT-6 electric power steering (failed mid twisties in traffic),
XT-6 air suspension (replaced with conventional shocks, and a piece of black tape),
various legacy and outbacks - skimping on circuit board trace current carrying ability resulting in cold solder joints, airbag lights and misfiring injectors - issues I've encountered over 15+ years.

Edit: forgot one: EJ25 cylinder #4: no direct exit for coolant and this cylinder runs hot.

... and all this is fine but outside of the scope of the question asked.

 

[Ahaze]

Shot of a bare EJ block to help you out:

The only things above the oil filter that could leak oil are the head gasket (that oblong passage between the water jacket and the filter is the oil return from the head) and the access plug for the #1 wrist pin (threaded hole beside the bolt on the front of the block).

 

[S.O.B.06xt]

perfect! the next time I dive into this I'm going to pay close attention to what, if anything, is leaking above the sandwich plate. The plate itself looked pretty wet around the spring chamber. not sure if it's wet above ...

For orientation, where in your picture does the oil cooler attach?

thanks again,

M.

 

[Ahaze]

The area in red is the sealing surface for the oil cooler. The tube that the oil filter threads onto sticks out of the middle of this aarea. Crank pulley would be to the right and the cylinder closest to you is #1.

 

[S.O.B.06xt]

Thanks again - this really helps!

 

[S.O.B.06xt]

Ordered this:

A total of about 162 GBP - $200 - shipped from the UK. Designed for the EJ turbo engines. 41 GBP for shipping!

My plan to look for oil leaks is to remove the setrab sandwich plate, clean the engine to smithereens and mount the oil filter directly to the block - and test idle it, looking at the head gasket, cyl #1 wrist pin cap from underneath.

Have to say, I communicated with Roger's Clark over their chat, late on Friday night, not expecting much. Not only did I get a reply, I got a commitment to swap out the -8AN fittings for -10 to match my existing hoses and I placed the order thru their site Fri night.

I backed up that request with a reminder email Sat morning and received a reply that the -10 fittings had already been swapped. Hope it gets here soon.

Stay tuned!
-M.

 

[Max Capacity]

Here's some pictures,
Last photo shows the common oil leak front valve cover.

 

[S.O.B.06xt]

Here's some pictures,
Last photo shows the common oil leak front valve cover.

Thanks for this! At the last oil change the sandwich plate spring adjustment (thing) was wet with oil - maybe it was just loose; more likely leaking but I didn't want to tear it down to look, at that time. The leak has increased to the point that it's time to fix the silly thing.

 

[Max Capacity]

Its easy to drop the oil cooler. I think you can do it with the coolant lines attached.