Originally Posted by articfriends

Why would you want to filter the oil after cooling it? You'll get the least pressure drop,least amount of load on your oil pump and less chanch of opening any filter bypass or block bypass valves by filtering your oil as hot and thin as possible,Smitty

Originally Posted by Wobble

That is true smitty, if you have had to rebuild motor due to bearing it is good idea to cool then filter as it is impossible to clean out cooler 100%.

Even Teagues big offshore cooler only drops oil temp 50* according to them

That's how I do it, but understand your logic.

Originally Posted by articfriends

In this guys case a stock sized cooler wouldn't even be 150$,if it was contaminated would be best to replace it,Smitty

Originally Posted by Wobble

How do you know that new cooler doesn't have solder balls in it. At very least you should run an inline screen type filter.

BTW I inspect heat exchangers for a living, hence my caution.

Originally Posted by articfriends

None of this answers the original question,the merc factory 502 fittings have screwy inverted flare fittings with a mile of hose (at least my 502 did originally). Looking at my old fittings in my spare parts pile it looks like you would have to make a couple of hoses and change a couple of angled ends because some will come up short if your original cooler is on stbd side of motor like mine originally was. Wobble,as far as solder balls floating around a new oil cooler it could be remotely possible. I just ordered a g-tec oil line/oil cooler recirculating,pulsating flow, heated, triple filtered flush machine for a automotive repair shop that I'm partners in thursday(its primary purpose is flushing transmision coolers and lines),when it comes next week i'm
going to see if it could be adapted for flushing boat coolers(there fittings are kinda big for this machine). We already planned on adapting it for flushing truck engine oil coolers on vehicles we replace the motors in,if it looks like it would work i'd be willing to flush anyones cooler that's interested in it for a nominal fee(machine was over 2000$ so i'd have to charge something to help recoup my cost),Smitty

Originally Posted by vandeano

Thanks guys for your input. I have another question you guys maybe can answer. Since the oil filter hits the cooler first, would'nt you think that the cooler would be free from any contaminates? I know a filter can only filter so much. But you would think it could handle a spun bearing, would'nt you?

Originally Posted by vandeano

It is a GEN V. But the cooler had plenty of metalic oil coming out of it when I drained it. I have a new cooler coming. After I read BIGJIM luck, I don't want to take a chance. Do you think I would do any harm running with out the cooler. Im not talking WOT, but just 20 min. cruising. Just to see how new motor is running?

Originally Posted by vandeano

I was at teague marine, and like you said, they build all the HP motors with cooler before filter. I will take your advise and go that route.

I very much appreciate your guys comments :drink:

Originally Posted by Reed Jensen

I would suggest filter BEFORE the cooler. Oil is filtered easier when it is hot and thin... not thick and cold. All of the oil isn't filtered at once anyway. If you are running a spin-on type filter... they all incorporate a bypass valve or a belleville spring under the filter element so that oil can bypass the filter when it can't flow through the matrix. If you take apart a Fram hp-6... or even look down the large center hole... you can see the oil bypass valve. The valve looks like a brown button at the bottom.This valve allows the oil to bypass the filter matrix when it can't pass through it. Under high flow (high rpm) situations... the oil can't all push through the filter. It's better to have adequate unfiltered oil to the bearings than not enough filtered oil.

Originally Posted by Turbojack

Wobble, I do not understand why an oil cooler could not be cleaned up when you can take a block that had a bearing let loose be cleaned up.

After I had just typed the above the answer to your wonderment may be the motor never got cleaned up correctly?

Originally Posted by Wobble

Turbo,

If you opened up a typical marine oil cooler, you would see that a thorough cleaning is likely to be a hit and miss affair.

Maybe hooking one to a transmission line cleaner as ARTIC suggests would work.

Originally Posted by Wobble

I respect everyones opinions stated here. Still, if you grenade a motor, most likely the filter will stop up and then bypass allowiing metal into the cooler, even with careful flushing the cooler can not be considered clean. Running the filter after the cooler with a rebuilt motor and the origional cooler seems like a prudent step. We have done this in many race cars over the years. It's a given that oil filters will bypass some oil if you rev a cold motor hard.

That is why we allways warm our motors as much as possible before running them hard. I feel like you are improving your odds this way if you don't buy a new cooler with your rebuilt motors. There have been several threads here where rebuilt motors have had bearing failures soon after rebuild. You have to wonder.