Oil Cooler Replacement Concerns - 96 F250

[BeauCefus]

I just recently bought my first new used 1996 F250 Powerstroke.
It has a lot of rust underneath as the previous owner used to plow snow.
The oil cooler is VERY rusty and has had a slow leak as far as my mechanic
can tell. The first mechanic wanted to just replace the seals, but the new one
feels the oil cooler looks so bad that just replacing the seals only may mean that it would all have to come off again if the leak persists and the actual cooler may have a leak. Better safe than sorry he says & we should just replace the entire thing.
How much do you think I should expect to spend on this repair ? Hopefully it will take care of the leak in question. I sometimes hear of replacing one part and then another goes bad right afterwards. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Joyce Whitehead
Arlington, Va.

[Excavator]

Hi guy/gal and welcom to TDS
Most trucks just need the o-rings and gaskets to fix the leak however one of my 3 Powerstrokes was a salt /plow truck that I still plow with and when i bought it it too had much rust on cooler and oil pan. I did replace the cooler tube and o-rings and gaskets. Here is a link to get all the parts you would need.
Powerstrokeshop.com

You could do the repairs if you are handy as we could help you out.
If you take it somewhere it could get pricey

[fixithud]

When I have issues such as yours I get prices on the parts for both the good and the bad scenarios.

The oil cooler job is about 2 hours +/- if you have never done it. I figure in my mind how bad the job is and how much it would be worth not to do it again.

If the cooler is suspected of being bad itself, probably just the tube, the ends are make of pretty healty material. I think the tube costs the better part of 200.00. Sure would be good if you could verify the leak before you pull it off.

I think the o rings are about 50.00 for the kit now. It is a diy job, a press makes the easier but a wood working bar clamp can do the job. Anytype of clamp that the tube will fit into and apply a moderate amount of pressure. You don't need 10 tons of pressure. Maybe even a ratchet strap would do it.

Do a search for the directions and DON'T LOSE the valve in the filter end cap. It is a spring and plunger setup that may try to pop out.

Hud

[sdan27]

I think a '96 truck is new enough you shouldn't have to worry about losing any of the valves in the oil fitler housing. I have a '94 which the valves are only held in by punch marks. When I did my oil cooler a few months back both valves fell out but I could only find one of them so I also had to replace my filter housing. Mine was leaking oil and just o-rings probably would have been enough but the tube section was pretty bad looking so I just replaced the whole thing. I got the tube section and o-rings/gaskets through powerstrokeshop.com and they were very helpful.