Hello. My 2zd00666 serial number caterpillar 225blc has been sitting for a year or so. I go to crank it....works great. I blow out the fins on the radiator and hydraulic cooler with air and purple stuff suction air line. Get to using it....I blew a hose. Wasted lots of new aw/32 fluid. I look around...I see the hydraulic oil cooler leaking a little. Damnit. Right behind the battery in front of the radiator. So, what is the experience on these coolers. This machine is pretty nice..but it's sat a few years due to economy and most operators want to run newer quicker machines. I have never replaced the cooler since I bought it in 1997. Never had a problem with anything much except basic leaks and general maintenance. Who fixes these? How? Do they "braze" it? What determines a good fixable cooler and a bad one? Rusty flutes? What kind of shop should I go to? Price to expect for repair vs. replace? Tips or tricks? Pointers? Advice? Thoughts? I really appreciate it. Love this forum!
Reputable radiator repair shop should be able to repair.
As above, with the emphasis on "reputable" - recommendations from someone who's had a similar cooler repaired are always a good sign. In my experience a lot of radiator shops don't know what to make of an oil cooler, and especially often don't take the necessary care to clean things sufficiently to enable a successful repair because they don't take into account the fact that the cooler was full of oil, not water like a radiator which is their normal daily bread & butter work.
True that Nige. I was thinking the same thing. We having been grading full steam since the economic collapse and back in that good ole days.....there were radiator shops everywhere it seemed.... And as I now recall...I do remember having some issues like that with shops. How would they clean out the oil from the cooler? Some kind of solvent? We used to use the word, "rot it out" when dealing with radiators. And I remember the phrase "pressure testing" which sounds obvious....testing the radiator under pressure. So can they test an oil cooler under pressure? With what liquid? Do I then need to clean it back out so I don't contaminate my hydraulic oil when installing on my excavator? Nige, I know that you seem to be in a mining business that runs around the clock with machines. I bet you would just replace a cooler with a new one from Cat right?
If it was my own machine - probably not........ A lot would depend on the price of the replacement and how bad the damage (therefore ease of repair), and for something like a cooler there is often Reman available at a fraction of new price. Also it's easier for us because we have fleets of machines all the same model so we can carry a spare one. We call it Rebuildable Inventory - you buy a new one for the first change then repair the one that comes off and put it back in your Stores. I was looking at one cooler today in fact that made me draw breath a bit quick, $13,000 just for the cooler .........!! I'm building up a complete radiator and cooler package for our big loaders so that basically we just have to unbolt the radiator guard with the cooling package still in it, lift the whole thing off the machine and lift another unit straight back on. The parts alone come to $135k before factoring in labour to assemble it. The thing is that loader moves around 2500-3000 tons/hour, so when it is stopped we're losing money big style, doing it this way we can probably turn the machine around and back to work in no more than 12-18 hours.
I think you meant "rod it out" not "rot it out". When a radiator is severely clogged, they take the tanks off, and then use rods that look like dipsticks
Yes. You are correct. "Rod it out". I wasn't thinking. And about the chemical dip/flush that radiator shops use....anybody know about that? That may also be used to clean out oil stained coolers?
You might be lucky, but my experience is that the fan pulls acid fumes from the battery through the cooler, the fumes combine with dirt and moisture, rotting out the cooler. I'm afraid that if you start poking around with a knife blade you might find that your cooler is lace. Hope I'm wrong.
That makes a lot of sense.... Battery fumes oxidizing the dang thing. And the dust sticks in the fins. Then it gets wet and rusts it. Is mine steel you think? Wow. What do you think an aftermarket cooler would cost for my machine?
You cooler is in all probability aluminium, most Cat excavator coolers are. Finding a welding/radiator shop who can correctly identify what alloy it is, having the correct welding consumables to weld that particular alloy, the right sort of welding machine, and an experienced driver for it - Hmmmmm, I say you've got 2 hopes, slim & none, and slim just left town .............
Battery acid will eat aluminum too.