I am im the process of replacing the seals from base to cooler, and base to block. I have removed the base with cooler, then seperated the cooler and what appears to be a spring loaded valve was in between the cooler and the base.

I don't know where it was or which order it should go back in, so i'm appealing for anyone who has seperated the two to advise how it goes back together.

I will do a write up on this process as i can't find it documented anywhere. As you can see, this was quite an extensive leak which has been going on for some time.

Any help appreciated before i have to make an uneducated guess! I will post a closer picture of the part when i get back from work as i appreciate what i've posted isn't great...

Click image to enlarge

Well, got the missus to come and have a look, she solved it first time!

Glad you got it sorted sir

Interesting Jon, was your leak of water or oil and were you able to find out where exactly it was coming from?
I have/had a very small oil leak from somewhere in the V of the engine on my 2008 MY 3.6 TDV8 (138K miles). It runs onto the bell housing from the back left of the V and lightly coats the left hand side front of the bell housing and the underneath of the gearbox but fortunately never goes on the exhaust.
This type of leak seems to be pretty rare on the 3.6's and I discovered by trial and error that the leak does not seem to happen or is almost negligible as long as the car is not even slightly overfilled with oil. Otherwise the car runs fine and doesn't lose water or anything else since I replaced the thermostat housing not long after getting the car almost three years ago.
I have been somewhat daunted at the prospect of tackling the job that you are doing as well as being unsure if I could even get the parts as I believe the oil cooler and base plate and gaskets between the two are not sold separately.
I am therefore curious as to how many miles your car has done and how serious the leak was to make you jump in and tackle it?
I have only seen one other instance of a leak like this on this forum in the last couple of years and that was from a chap in the north-east who got it fixed by a local independent I think. So there is not much information around about the problem or the solution.
Well done if you get it fixed.
Cheers, Nick Previously a 2008MY Tonga Green Vogue SE 3.6 TDV8

Hi Nick,

A little bit of coolant (you can see red gunge in the bottom casting), but there was more of it about - thermostat housing looks new so i suspect previous owner had that done. The reason for this was an oil leak, quite substansial. It was raining off the sub frame and leaving 10-15 drips a day on the drive. Certainly enough for an MOT fail. I too was putting it off as it's quite involved, but with lockdown i had no need of the car so i could work on it around children and work. Hard to say for sure where the leak was coming from, but i think it's a combination of these two seals being hard.

I agree, i found very little if anything on leaks from this area on the 3.6.

From what i've seen, a leak in that area could be from:

Oil cooler
Oil seperator
Manifold pipe
Manifold split
Manifold gasket
Turbo feed pipe
Glow plug

I have been able to buy the seals from housing to block, and from cooler to housing. The turbo feed pipe o-rings, i have bought some of the same size that are used on the 4.4 - will report back whether or not these fit. You're right though, the cooler and base aren't available seperately and about £700 for the whole assembly. Mine doesn't appear to be split, but i was planning to obtain a second hand cooler if it was.

This was dripping down the bell housing but all over the down pipes, cats, gearbox, sub frame, basically everything is rust-proofed underneath now!

It's done 134k and is a 58 plate so very similar to yours.

I will do a write up on the task when i have it back together. Hopefully will help someone out in the future. 2008/58 FFRR 3.6 TDV8 Vogue

thanks Jon, very interesting. As you know to see where anything is leaking from in the V is pretty much impossible without dismantling enough to stop then being able to run the engine. Even with a cheap USB boroscope camera with a light on the end I couldn't get anywhere on a finding a location for the leak. There are so many o ring seals around the oil filter housing and PCV assembly as well as the oil cooler that it could be one of quite a few things. Certainly on mine the oil seems to be confined to the left side of the V at the rear and I have sucked out sludgy oil residue from the wells in that side of the rear of the V using an old turkey baster!
I will get back under the car in the next few days to check if it is still leaking but with the lockdown and a building project going on I have been tending to use my van for the last several weeks.
I look forward to seeing your write up.
Good luck with getting it back together successfully.
Cheers, Nick Previously a 2008MY Tonga Green Vogue SE 3.6 TDV8