Pacific Oil Coolers

Heard good things about Pacific Oil Coolers. They specialize in aircraft oil cooler work so I figured ultrasonic cleaning an oil tank was no big deal so sent the tank in on my ‘65 which I’m resurrecting from a long slumber. Got it back yesterday and stuck my finger in the drain hole and got this sludge with even a few clumps. Appears to have skipped the flushing step. Would have been nice to push that crap through the bearings of my nice fresh engine!!! No good explanation on the phone. They asked for photos so I sent the ones below, then they called and wanted more photos, at which point I said “really!” as if the photos sent wasn’t enough to warrant a return? I’m in the process of shipping it back and they are covering shipping both ways, which is good. I know s__t happens even at a decent vendor but it’s a good thing I always double check work done by others. Something I learned the hard way long ago. Anyone else had this experience with Pacific or did they actually check how clean their tank really was? Jury is out but not impressed thus far.

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Rare but communication is sometimes a challenge.

Did you include a detailed work order? That’s mandatory.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Frank Beck

Rare but communication is sometimes a challenge.

Did you include a detailed work order? That’s mandatory.

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I called beforehand to get the process and they said they normally clean, blast and paint the 911 tanks. My instructions, which were physically attached to the tank, were to clean only, no blast or paint. Simple enough. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy and grateful that companies like this will bother with old automotive stuff. Their shop lead on the phone even mentioned that automotive stuff was hardly worth their while, however that's no excuse for letting this get through their shop. Just curious if I'm the rare case or if others have had issues or do people even check how clean their tank really is.

Absolutely unacceptable but personally I would offer nothing more than a frown toward them.

We are indeed fortunate to get aircraft quality work done on our old jalopy parts. Very atypical of them. It’s too bad they didn’t respond with a little more humility.

People make mistakes. I took my 2019 Subaru to my long-standing dealer/repair facility for its first oil change. Got it back and started smelling smoke the next day. Popped the hood..oil splattered all over. Left the darned cap loose/off the fill spout! After cleaning it up and calling the service manager...three times...finally got a call back where we connected vs. phone tag. Was quite apologetic...but no discount coupon or anything. I still like them, though. At least my car didn't burn to the ground.

Update: I received the oil tank back and it passed the finger sludge test, which is good! It took a few days longer than they said it would and they charged me for shipping it back. I had to contact them twice to reverse this as I had already paid for shipping both ways the first time. I was about to post an update that I guess all was forgiven but then found an additional problem. They had put protective rubber caps on the mounting studs - a nice touch I thought. When I removed them I discovered that both studs were really messed up. They definitely were not like this when I sent it in. It appears they clamped something on the studs to hold the tank when it goes through their process. Whatever it was, it used vice grip type force and did a real number on them, so much so it distorted the stud and changed the thread pitch where it was squeezed. I couldn’t run a die down the entire stud without destroying a lot of threads. I managed to clean it up enough at the end so there are enough good threads so it should hold, however the integrity of the studs is compromised by the deep deformation - meaning they are a bit weaker. What a mess.

Makes you think they hand the automotive stuff off to the first week trainee. I’m not in the habit of complaining about vendors and I know they have a decent reputation and I should be grateful they do this kind of work but I’m really unimpressed to say the least.

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One can hope they are reading this forum, or that one of our forum members who is a regular customer of theirs passes these comments and photos along to them. I have used them twice with good outcomes. They need to know they now have a quality control problem.

Not a good endorsement

Just cleaned my own oil tank on my T, had 30 year old "oil" sitting in it, covered the openings and removed sender to put the bore scope in it, tar and goo!, gallon of lacquer thinner took care of the tar and goo, washed the inside after with toilet bowl cleaner to remove any rust, nasty stuff but great rust remover, washed completely with soapy water as a finish, blasted the outside clean in the cabinet and found two pinholes which i brazed up, applied 2 psi with a soapy water bubble test, good results, promptly had to flush it heavily again to remove the sandblast particles that had penetrated through the pinholes, inside is spotless with my final bore scope inspection, refinished the outside lastly, would rather do it myself.