Got a bit of an odd problem:

Now I have an oil leak on my 200tdi ("yeh what else is new!" I hear you cry), so I'll just post this picture and you'll see my point:


The Previous owner did a bodge job with a bit of hacked hydraulic pipe and some copper fittings on this particular 200TDI to by-pass the oil cooler! the radiator is a series radiator so has no oil cooler connections, hence the by-pass.

This picture was taken after I cleaned the area up to see where it was leaking from, started her up, rev'd a few times, and before I even took a picture you could SEE the drips of oil, and (to my relief) found that it was leaking from the hacked up piping.

One of the ways I was thinking of fixing this was at the next oil change; take the by-pass hack off and solder/braise a bit of solid copper pipe in place of the hydraulic hose and re-fit.

But before I start, is there a better way? could I just bung up the inlet/outlet where the pipe is now?

Yes you can blank them off but you need to remove the thermostat from the oil filter assembly.
Have a look at Glencoyne 200tdi web info.
"200Di" diesel conversion for Series Land Rovers - by Glencoyne 4x4 (Thetford)
Some argue that removing thermostat is not necessary but as I cannot find a diagram of oil flow when stat warm best just remove it .