My brother has a 350 out of a '95 Tahoe in his '88 formula. It still has the oil cooler adapter installed. Well we went to go replace the oil cooler lines and they are rusted stuck in the adapter. After removing the adapter we were able to remove the big "nut" type things that screw on to the adapter that the cooler lines go into. There is no way we can get the lines out without killing the "nuts".

So my question is, if anyone has done this, now that i have the "nuts" off i can screw a cap of some sort on the adapter and block off the 2 cooler line holes. Can i do this? Or is the cooler adapter designed to have the oil go through no matter what. I'm not looking to blow up the motor. But we're kinda in a pinch. TIA.

 

There is probably a thermostatically controlled bypass, (doesn't go thru the cooler if the oil is below X temp) but i am going to guess that just plugging the holes is going to be a bad plan. Just get the right parts so that you don't need the thing. Should be available at the parts store, and even pretty cheap at that.

 

The coolant lines only pass.....coolant.

My stock one on my GTA, got the hard metal coolant lines busted by a balancer that came art. I simply took them off & left the adapter wide open. No problems since.

 

I know the stock coolers on the F-Bodies just ran coolant thru a sandwich adapter, however, on some of the trucks, oil was actually passed thru a cooler in the radiator, similar to the transmission cooler.... knowing which type it was on the original vehicle would be important here.

 

I doubt the engine pumps the oil out to be cooled.

If not, why not just leave it off & put you oil filter directly on the block? Might need to transfer the center threaded section from the cooler piece to the block, but as long as there is room for a filter, that should be all there is to it.

 

The Tahoe 350 sends oil from the adapter to the radiator. And back to the motor

 

Do you have room to ditch the cooler/adapter competely, install a regular filter-only adapter into the block and screw on a filter that points in the traditional "straight down" orientation? Even if you can't fit a long-style filter.

 

I ran my old 305 w/ cooler lines off no problem. I had the same sit. when my balancer grenaded into pieces