Well, it’s not much of a “how too”, but here how I did it. First off, it’s far easier to remove the lower frame support and access it from below. You'll need to support the engine when dropping the support, so plan on placing an jack under the tranny area.
The manual says to remove the front bumper and by far this gives the best access. If you haven't replaced any of the cooling system, like the odd plastic tube, the thermostat housing and the small hoses that connect to the cooler, I'd recommend just taking off the bumper and do a complete job. VW still hasn't figured out water cooling as this is clearly the weakest system in my Corrado as well as my old Scirocco.
I was lazy and had all those parts replaced about 2 years ago, so I opted to try it without removing anything. The two hoses were tough. As they were recently replaced, they had new clamps, the screw type so I was able to undo them with a small screwdriver. The compression type would be next to impossible without a little better access.
I opted to remove the hose that connects to the plastic pipe at the plastic pipe instead of the cooler just because it was easier to access. For the other hose, I couldn’t find the other end so I removed it at the cooler. It was at an odd angle and very much stuck. I ended up putting my left knee on the top of the engine and reaching down backwards with my right hand. A very awkward position for sure and no matter how I did it, I managed to bang up and bloody my knuckles.
I was able to get the cap off with a torque wrench. There was enough clearance to the end of the wrench between the intake and the radiator. Once I got the cap off, I was stuck. The oil cooler wouldn’t come off the pipe because of a flange at the end of the pipe and the pipe wouldn’t come out either. I had started with a long screw driver, putting it through the holes and pulling. It didn’t move. I moved to a hex wrench setting in a deep socket attached to a long extension. When I started to bend the hex wrench I knew I was in trouble and should stop before I did any damage.
Here is the cooler stuck in the block
After wondering through a couple hardware stores looking for some other tool options, the solution hit me like a ton of bricks. Why not use two jam nuts on the exposed end of the pipe. It was hard to find the right size jam nut and I ended up using 2, ¾ inch jam nuts. I tightened the first one on to about 100 lbs. The next one I dabbed some grease on the inside face of the second nut so it would spin more freely against the first nut allowing the tightest possible fit. The second one went on at about 100 lbs as well using the same torque wrench that I used to get the cap off. I got lucky and both nuts lined up allowing me to cover both nuts with the socket. I gave it a gentle tug and out it came right out.
Here's the cooler, pipe, cap and jam nuts I used to get the pipe out.
View of the block where the cooler was.
Here's a shot of all the parts cleaned up with new seals installed and ready for reassembly. Notice the inner seal has 2 small loops that hold onto the cooler. That makes it a lot easier to re-install. The old seal didn't have these loops and I'm not sure how you'd get the assembly installed with inner seal in the right place.
14 year old rubber! Hey, I thought oil was supposed to rejuvenate rubber.
Getting it re-assembled was a bit tricky as I was lining up the pipe with threads with the cooler attached all with one hand! This would be impossible without the little loops that hold the inner seal in place. This part would much easier if you had the subframe removed and could use two hands.
After the install was completed I replaced the coolant as most of drained out and topped off the oil as there some lost. No leaks so far and except for the weeping head gasket and valve cover gasket, its leak free. The sad news is that after all is sad and done, it now sounds like the water pump bearings are starting to go. Not sure if it was related to the work performed, or I never noticed the loud sound. I do hope it’s the water pump since they is about the easiest part to replace on that side of the engine.
