Oil Cooler Install

[Guggenheim99]

I have read about the 4.0L oil cooler retrofit you can do on these engines. I read the article in the tech library which was nice but a little vague on plumbing the cooler up. I see the 2002 Explorer 4.0 has an oil cooler I can use. But I am unsure how to plumb it into the cooling system. Would you use the heater hoses off the Explorer? Something else? I frequently tow with the truck and haul material in the bed, including during the summer, so I feel it would be a useful install. Any advice appreciated. 2002 Ranger 4x4 4.0 5R55E

 

[superj]

i bet you do use the explorer hoses from the transmission to the cooler. should be a very similar, if not hte same, set up.


or, be bored like i get and get one from an f350 at the junkyard, ha ha ha.

 

[Curious Hound]

Oil cooler doesn’t get plumbed into the cooling system. It gets plumbed into the oil system. Often, an adaptor is installed where the oil filter is. The adaptor has an inlet port and outlet port for you to attach the hoses that go to and from the oil cooler. Often, this is done in conjunction with mounting a remote oil filter in a location where the filter is easier to access for replacement.

if you have an automatic transmission, they often have an oil cooler also. Sometimes, it’s built into the radiator and sometimes it is separate. Just 2 hoses going between the transmission oil cooler and the transmission.

 

[superj]

doh, i misread and thought this was about a transmission cooler.

 

[Guggenheim99]

Yea I should have been more specific. I am talking about a setup from https://www.therangerstation.com/tech/cheap-oil-cooler-modification/#gsc.tab=0. They talk about sourcing an oil cooler but don't go into depth on running the cooling system hoses to the cooler. Like I said, I built an 02 4.0 explorer as an example and found some parts but not sure how the hoses run to and from it

 

[Curious Hound]

Oh. I’ve never read that article before. So, that is a heat exchanger using your coolant to supposedly cool the oil. If I was doing that, I would take the return hose from my heater core and run it to that oil cooler. Then run a hose from the oil cooler back to where the heater hose returned to the engine.

I live in South Carolina where it is usually pretty warm. I don’t think that would do much cooling for me most of the year. In fact, it could possibly heat the oil on some days. I would prefer running the oil to an air-cooled heat exchanger.