As an alternative to Bufkin there is a SS part from www.gruvenparts.com

[hahnmgh63]

I doubt it is any better than the Bufkin, just in Stainless but almost twice the price at $39.99, same double O-rings on each end as the Bufkin. www.gruvenparts.com

[nene]

Competition is good.
Link to the GruvenParts part.
The site states: milled from Aircraft Grade 6061-T651 Aluminum
They must have another similar part out of Stainless Steel.

The plastic Audi used is bad, but there is a serious potential problem with using this stainless instead of aluminum. The engine is aluminum, so using a stainless will cause galvanic corrosion, so I would think twice before using stainless.
The Bufkin oil cooler pipe is aluminum, thus my choice.
Aluminum will hold less heat (aka seals will stay cooler).

Stainless steel may very well be in of itself corrosion resistant (NOTE: Not corrosion proof - 303 grade stainless is about the lowest grade of stainless - basic bolts are 305, marine grade is 316), but throw it into the mix of Aluminium parts and you're creating a galvanic cell.

Both appear good parts. Bufkin at about $28 and GruvenParts at about $40. In either case, the labor on the job is the most expensive part, unless you tag it along while doing other maintenance that will yield easy access.

[SteveKen]

Also, I've got my engine removed to replace the plastic pipe with the the Bufkin Engineering piece.

The plastic piece in removes was intact, but the o-ring must have failed.

Like a dummy, I inspected this part before my rebuilding and thought it looked fine.

Must have pinched the o-ring so its good insurance to have the double o-ring design.

[Bigglezworth]

There is no benefit to a SS pipe vs. aluminum pipe in this instance. Both parts will work equally well. My uncle is a machinist so I had a trio machined up a couple of years ago when I overhauled the tranny on the one car here knowing I would need to do another one or two over the years....




Bummer to see you got caught on this one item Steve. Irrespective of mileage, or visual appearance, this one specific part should always be swapped out for the milled aluminum piece IMO. I pulled the one out when I had the engine out on the second beast here and it still looked 'okay', but I well know the seals were only going to last so long. The photo below shows the good, bad, and ugly. The ugly one actually wasn't leaking - just yet - but as you can see, it was right on the brink. It also was so brittle from heat, that the plastic was cracking on the one end.....

A lot of owners probably don't know exactly where this piece is and that the middle portion is actually visible even once the side mount engine oil cooler is mounted.

[Bigglezworth]

On another note, I've contemplated removing the 'engine mounted oil cooler' to which this coupling pipe feeds coolant through and rely solely on external coolers. As part of installing a remote oil filter unit, I am considering tapping the block with some threaded fittings to permit be running the coolant through the Aux rads that I removed some time ago. In my part of the world I have hot summer temps infrequently, but oil will always be the same temp.... Then if a aux rad leaks, I can easily remedy without having to do all the heroics of removing thte subframe and loweing the engine to remove the hard to access 7" long bolts that hit the frame otherwise.

[NSU RS6]

Engine out - plastic never looks fine.