My stock oil cooler on my 91 Westy had the gasket fail and so lost most of
my oil not far
from my home.
I could see a trail of oil heading back up the road from where I came.  The
cooling part
never failed.   Had a local VW mechanic replace the gasket with no other
problems after
for about 25K miles since.

Steven
91 Westy

On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 9:27 AM, Carl Hansen <carl_hansen@ieee.org> wrote:

> In all my years (decades) of VW ownership, starting with a '78
> Scirocco thru the current '03 EuroVan I have never had the stock
> sandwich oil cooler fail.  There's got to be more than a dozen models
> represented in the mix.
>
> Ch
>
>
> Date:    Wed, 25 Oct 2017 06:27:25 +0000
> From:    Todd Last <rubatoguy@COMCAST.NET>
> Subject: Re: Oil heat exchanger fail.. more
>
> This style of heat exchange is common in many engines these days. I
> had heard that they are to aid in engine warm up as well as cooling -
> the main reason was to help meet tightened emission requirements.
>
> Todd
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Dennis Haynes" <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 10:00:25 AM
> Subject: Re: Oil heat exchanger fail.. more
>
> You are correct in the theory of operation for the cooler and how it
> is plumbed. When I had a motor home with the Ford Triton V-10, the oil
> cooler was fed from the lower radiator hose with a venture manifold.
> Yes, the oil cooler feed and return went to the lower hose. No
> radiator flow such as cold engine, no cooling for the oil. As flow
> increased, cooler coolant from the radiator would be used to cool the
> oil, not hot coolant from under the thermostat.
>
> As for warming the oil faster during warm except for short trips in
> very cold weather there is little benefit. Fun Bus had the original
> cooler removed and replaced with a thermostatically control oil to air
> exchanger, placed in front of the radiator before its first oil
> change. Just turned 321K last Saturday so no engine harm there.
>
> Dennis
>