Power steering cooler delete?

454cid said:

I think I'd look for a used cooler before deleting it, although I have hydroboost, so I have more of a need for one. New oem style coolers are kinda spendy for what they are. Last I looked it was either Dorman or GM.

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Even buying that Derale cooler I am running is about $60 today on Amazon. Would involve custom mounting it, but that was not difficult and it works very well.

Some cars/truck came with just a metal line loop for PS cooler, no fins. About 3'-4' of plain metal tube/line.

ericg75 said:

Just considering instead of buying a new power steering cooler (old one is completely rusted out) I could just buy the pressure and return lines for a lot cheaper from LMC. Anybody go this route and have good/bad experiences?

Power Steering Hoses

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As @L31MaxExpress noted earlier in this thread, the PS cooler is a necessity in certain situations.

An informal study on GMT400 earlier this year made note that GM seemed to equip the GMT400 PS systems without or with coolers of various sizes based on rear-gear ratio (read: high engine RPM yields high PS pump RPM at road speed) and whether optioned with hydroboost. That's how I remember the discussion, anyway.

My 1998 K1500 Suburban 4L60E (i.e., overdrive, meaning lower RPM), 3.42 gears and vacuum brakes has NO cooler. This truck has about 3000# on the front axle and 3200# on the rear, across the scales, lightly loaded. Oh yeah, it also came with EVO/variable steering.

My father's 1995 K1500 RCLB 4L60E and 3.73 gears and vacuum brakes had a small tube cooler that wrapped along the inside of the frame (using the frame as a heat sink).

My brother's 1988 K3500 RCLB TH400 w/ 4.10 (?) rear gears (the engine really buzzes on the highway) and vacuum brakes has the tube-and-fin OE cooler in front by the radiator

Those are few data points for you.

As @someotherguy suggested, if you're not really doing any work with the truck (e.g., plowing snow ... plow hangs over the front tires, 1000# of salt in the bed, and there's lots of steering action) then you're in the same camp as my Suburban, which had no cooler as delivered.

BOOT said:

Some cars/truck came with just a metal line loop for PS cooler, no fins. About 3'-4' of plain metal tube/line.

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My 3rd gen TBI 305 F-car had the loop. Some of these trucks also had the loop shoved inside of the driverside frame rail. I think the 99 K1500 Suburban I pulled apart had a metal loop as well. The 99 Express 3500 I parted out had the metal loop. The vans started using the loop cooler with hydroboost or 3.73 gears and finned cooler with 4.56+ gears. The exact RPO combinations dictating the cooler changed over the years of the GMT400s.

BOOT said:

Some cars/truck came with just a metal line loop for PS cooler, no fins. About 3'-4' of plain metal tube/line.

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My '94 C2500"LD" had this, inside driver side frame rail. Part of the power steering line itself.

Richard

someotherguy said:

My '94 C2500"LD" had this, inside driver side frame rail. Part of the power steering line itself.

Richard

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From memory the 99 K1500 suburban I pulled apart had the same one. Cooler was about like the frame, practically rotted in half. That truck had nearly perfect sheet metal on it, but the frame was swiss cheese from rust.

My 88 C1500 with 3.42 gears has the tube in fin cooler next to the radiator. Maybe because it's a CA truck so, they put it in due to the heat?

PlayingWithTBI said:

My 88 C1500 with 3.42 gears has the tube in fin cooler next to the radiator. Maybe because it's a CA truck so, they put it in due to the heat?

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Good question. Might be a hot climate package of some kind, or possibly an early option they decided later wasn't needed. Totally unrelated but remember the first TBI engines had the AIR pump then it was decided for the non-CA states it wasn't needed so they began leaving it off.

Have you decoded your RPO list? Might be a clue in there.

Richard

someotherguy said:

Totally unrelated but remember the first TBI engines had the AIR pump then it was decided for the non-CA states it wasn't needed so they began leaving it off.

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Yeah, mine came with that smog pump too. FWIU CA and other states that adopted their standards came with A.I.R. while Federal standards didn't require it.

someotherguy said:

Have you decoded your RPO list? Might be a clue in there.

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Not completely but, this truck is a super light duty at 5600 GVWR. It has the Silverado trim package.

someotherguy said:

My '94 C2500"LD" had this, inside driver side frame rail. Part of the power steering line itself.

Richard

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Looking back on some old pics I was surprised to see the '93 C1500 ECSB I'd put together for a former girlfriend had this cooler setup, too. I've got the RPO's for this truck but they're not decoded and I don't currently feel like burning my eyeballs out scanning the RPO list..

Anyway the truck was just a regular C1500 w/5.7, 4L60E, 10 bolt.. though it was interesting that it came factory with 3.73's.

Here's a pic that pretty clearly shows the extra length of the metal portion of the power steering lines going inside the driver side frame rail, creating a sort of low-buck cooler without resorting to adding a tube/fin setup you would generally see on heavier-duty applications.



The SPID label if anyone cares to decode it for reference purposes. Truck is crashed, totalled, and gone so I don't have any concerns posting the VIN. When trucks came into inventory, I took pics of any of the SPID labels that were even remotely legible (and this one looks amazing for an 88-94 era which are usually toast, speaks to how clean that truck was)...

I don't think there's a specific RPO related to just that steering line setup; it's probably something bundled in with another package/option.



Richard