Any One Seen This Before?

[Gman 29]

Evening all.

 

Bit of a strange one, but when checking the car over before a recent trackday I noticed a small oil leak and upon investigating further I found my oil cooler looking like this.

 

It's a 16row mocal jobbie with a thermostatic sandwich plate, fitted to a xu10j4rs.

 

Whilst I have done a few trackdays, I think the damage was caused during day-to-day running. Has anyone seen this or could perhaps offer an explanation as to what may have happened?

 

I am happy to replace the cooler but I am nervous of doing so if the same thing is going to happen again.

 

Cheers

Edited February 15, 2016 by Gman

[welshpug 1,666]

has it been solid mounted?

 

if it has been properly mounted on bobbins then I'd send it back, it should withstand more than the 6 bar that an xu10 pushes out.

[Gman 29]

Not mounted in bobbins, but as per the below photos. There is plenty of room for expansion of the oil cooler, or if the fan cowling were to twist when applying lateral force through the corners.

 

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

How long has it been on the car? Ive got a 13 row with thermostatic sandwich plate on my turbo thats seen at least 2 summers mounted in virtually the same place so its seen some serious heat and its still fine.

[Gman 29]

Probably about 12 months including 2 or 3 track days.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Looks like its been twisted as the front end has been flexing to me

Edited February 16, 2016 by Slo

[Gman 29]

Any other suggestions as to the cause?

[Tom Fenton 1,548]

Over pressure, its blown up like a balloon, as for why thats another question. Only time I have had excessive oil pressure was a yellow Peugeot 8 bar spring in a pattern oil pump. Gave too much pressure from cold and pushed the seal out of the oil filter.

[Gman 29]

It's a standard gti6 engine, so can't understand why it would be over pressurising the oil system.

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

Pressure relief plunger /spring stuck possibly

[Gman 29]

Pressure relief plunger /spring stuck possibly

Where's that located Paul? Could a man of my talent get to it?

[Anthony 1,003]

It's internal to the oil pump itself. It's not that hard to get at, but you'll need to remove the sump.

 

The oil pressure gauge should give you an idea, even though it's hardly the paragon of accuracy. With a jammed pressure relief valve I would expect the needle to be pinned to the end of the gauge at higher revs when warm, rather than topping out around 3/4 which is where it should be if the relief valve is working (approximately 6 bar on a GTi-6)

[Gman 29]

Thanks Anthony - the pressure gauge is operating as normal. Furthermore, I'm running a sandwich plate so wouldn't have thought the cooler would be affected by over pressurisation when the oil is cold.