I am about to change to a full synthetic oil and to make a complete fresh start have decided to drain the colooler. I have found one post on the subject elsewhere, "When I change the oil on my 91 940SE, I drain the pan and then drain the oil cooler by disconnecting the oil lines to the cooler underneath the vibration damper. By draining the oil cooler, this eliminates alot of the oil from the filter and makes for little oil leakage when the filter is removed. I still change the oil every 5K miles even though I use Mobil 1 15W 50. I only put in 4 quarts which leaves the level about 1/2 quart low, and then add the 5th quart when the oil level is down 1 quart mark, usually around 2K miles."

Could somebody explain to me about disconnecting the oil lines beneath the vibration damper? Are there any traps for new players? Also does it make sense to disconnect the oil lines before removing the filter.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

if you warm the car up before you pull the plug, and let it drip for a couple hours, the cooler will pretty much drain itself.

 

Nah... Don't mess with the cooler lines--they are prone to leakage after all these years, so if they are not leaking, leave them alone... By using Mobil 1 you are already doing your part for that motor. Keep in mid, that Red Block will probably be the last thing to go in that Volvo. Make sure you change that trans fluid, the P/S fluid, etc...

 

Excellent pierce.. my first job out of school was as a grease monkey and to this day I have a thing about letting it drip.. I leave my motorcycles draining overnight if I can. As for warming it up however surely the downside of that is everything which had dripped down into the sump then gets lifted up and redistributed around the engine again?

 

Lev Sir.. you are a mindreader. When I was asking about traps for new players that was exactly the thought I had in mind. Red Block.. what a cool name. I did google it once but never quite came to grips with why it had so much emotional appeal. I saw an earlier model raced very successfully by one Robbie Francevic in the first year of the Wellington waterfront race. Wellington 500 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Coincidentally when I visited America in 91 I travelled from LA to San Fran and return in the same model if I am not mistaken.. and it was cool. Red Block almost sounds like it harks back to a race pedigree.

Yep auto trans changed recently with Amsoil full synthetic. Power steering.. now that didn't even occur to me although come to think of it I changed that by accident. A very angry and obstructive mechanic from a local corporate dealership implied I was about to commit a crime when I asked about measuring my tie rods. Being totally out of sorts when I went to do the job, I pulled the end out of the steering column not realising it was just a case of a caliper gauge on that which you could see. I think he got wind that I would be sourcing them from somewhere "more affordable.." My car hates that place.. last time it was in there it came out with a starting problem. Now I am with a skilled and attentive old-fashioned owner-operator who fixed my dad's Ford Cortina when I cracked a piston in it going too fast as a 15yo. Fewer office girls, no collars and ties, and discernably less clean but my "big girl" comes out of there with a smile on her face.

 

Come to think of it, you have NO external OIL COOLER on a '94!
What you read is for a '91T (SE) which do have them! Later years have water (coolant) cooled set up that runs the lines from the filter hosing into the cooling system...

 

Another trap for the new players Lev? If I don't have one I am certainly not going to drain it. Best of all is that this would have been a job I assigned my mechanic but a simple oil and filter change I can do myself.. with a bit of squirming. The reason I was taken in is that on the right hand side of the radiator (left as you look at it as if you are going to work on it) there is a little something which a supposedly informed mate said was an oil cooler. He also has a background in used car sales and so facts are often of less interest to him than impressing people with his "knowledge."

Anyway I am very happy to hear this from the viewpoint of keeping it simple. Many thanks Lev.

 

on the turbos, there's an oil cooler plumbed with coolant water right where the oil filter threads on. there's also oil plumbed through the turbo, along with coolant water.


BTW, the reason I suggest draining it when its warm is the warm oil will drain faster and it will have more of the sludge in solution. My usual suggestion is to park the car after a decently long drive that got everything thoroughly warmed up (say, 10 miles or something), and drain it about an hour later, when its still quite warm, but not burning hot.

 

Out of curiosity, which is better: oil to air or oil to coolant?

 

that would likely depend on how much air you could blow past the oil-air cooler. certainlly, the oil-water cooler will be more compact, and of course you already have the water-air cooler, its your radiator

 

I have asked that question before and never got a good answer. It's sure cheaper to eliminate the external coolant with the extra radiator, lines, housing, etc. so I am sure Volvo considered that... On the other hand, the extra hardware creates problems now that the cars are over 20 years old what with leaky lines, etc.

I ended up converting a couple of cars from external coolers to the newer system. One drawback to the newer system: rubber hoses by the filter carrying coolant that get bad with age, sitting right next to the hot oil passages...

I'd opine that the external cooler is better when the car is new and for heavier performance demands but later as it ages it becomes more of a liability.

 

Also, a lot of other manufacturers use external coolers for extra performance, so I tend to think it was more of a cost saving for Volvo rather than an outright improvement.

 

I was thinking the same thing too. Also it seems like the air going through the mini radiator would cool the oil more than water at around 205 degrees in a small heat exchanger. But water is very good at pulling heat out of stuff. But so is a radiator.