DIY Oil Cooler Line Replacement

[davester]

maybe go out and measure the size on your truck?  1/2" seems...a bit too large...

[DHBWA]

As soon as I get home and it dries out I will…

[00cls1camaross]

I came here to say thank you for this information. I was able to fix my oil cooler lines using the info here and youtube. Rather than replace the lines and pull the bumper off, I opted for cutting the rubber section so they slipped out easily. Also, I decided not to purchase new lines and below is what I did:

 

1) cut rubber section and remove the lines off of the truck.

2) cut the 4 ends of the lines to remove the rubber section.

3) rent flare tool from autozone and do a single flare on each side.  (1/2" is the size)

4) file the flares down slightly to make them not as sharp and a bit smaller.

5) squirt some brake cleaner down each pipe and shoot some air through it to remove any small debris form filing the flare down

6) reinstall the metal lines on the truck
7)   use the Derale High-Temperature Hose 1/2" I.D. and make new rubber sections down.

8) use some clamps on each end of the rubber and move on

9) add some oil back in the truck

 

This took me 3 hours and I was working very slow :)

 

[DHBWA]

Flaring the ends is smart. I didn’t and also didn’t remove the lines which made flaring virtually impossible. I had a slight weep until I double clamped them with some higher quality narrow clamps I bought on Amazon.

If I knew then what I know now I could have done the whole job in one hour or so without any leaks (rework)

[mrjulian416]

On 3/30/2026 at 12:04 PM, 00cls1camaross said:

1) cut rubber section and remove the lines off of the truck.

2) cut the 4 ends of the lines to remove the rubber section.

3) rent flare tool from autozone and do a single flare on each side.  (1/2" is the size)

4) file the flares down slightly to make them not as sharp and a bit smaller.

5) squirt some brake cleaner down each pipe and shoot some air through it to remove any small debris form filing the flare down

6) reinstall the metal lines on the truck
7)   use the Derale High-Temperature Hose 1/2" I.D. and make new rubber sections down.

use some clamps on each end of the rubber and move on

9) add some oil back in the truck

This is good info/detail.  Thank you for laying it out.