Aftermarket Tranny cooler, can radiator cool oil now?

[streetstang67]

I spent way too much time making a fan shroud for my car, then hooked it all up today and found out that somewhere along the way, I busted the radiator in a couple spots, o well. Since I'm getting a new radiator, I'm probably gonna get a tranny cooler as well. With the tranny cooler taking care of the ATF, and the radiator taking care of the coolant, can I run the oil through the bottom portion of the radiator, which usually has transmission fluid running through it?

 

[streetstang67]

anybody?

 

[nds03]

i dont see why not.

 

[streetstang67]

Has anybody tried this? how would I go about hooking it all up?

 

[mustangdave]

Well, I don't know if the cooler in the radiator is large enough to help but what you would need to do is buy a remote oil filter adaptor. This screws onto where your oil filter is now and has an input and output. Run from this to the cooler in the rad., then to a remote filter, then back to the adaptor. You could go to the filter first, then the cooler, then back to the adaptor. Problem is, the fittings and tubes in the radiator are much smaller and you might lose significant oil pressure.

 

[66HertzClone]

I think you would suffer a loss in pressure, another concern is the fact that the cooler may not be able to handle the higher pressures the lubrication system produces.

 

[streetstang67]

Ok, then I guess that part of the radiator won't be used, unless you think it is suffecient for the simple car? Is an aftermarket external cooler really neccessary for my tranmission/car?

 

[Edbert]

Even if it worked I don't think you'd gain anything. I mean the oil and coolant will have similar temperatures with or without the effort. In other words...whatever amount you decreased the oil temperature would have a reciprocal decrease in the ability of your radiator to cool the coolant. You cannot get something for nothing.

 

[ron67fb]

Besides all the points other people have brought up, what's screws onto those trans coolers, like a 5/16" line? Not something I'd run oil through.

 

[ForceFed70]

Asside from flow problems, I believe oil pressure gets much higher than tranny fuild pressure(at least to the cooler). The radiator might not be able to handle the increased pressure.

If I was you, I'd go with a dedicated oil cooler or none at all.

 

[streetstang67]

How effecient is the radiator to cool the tranny fluid? do I really need a dedicated fluid cooler?

 

[ForceFed70]

How effecient is the radiator to cool the tranny fluid? do I really need a dedicated fluid cooler?

Are you wanting to cool tranny fluid or engine oil here?

I'm not sure how well the radiator works to cool the ATF. But my guess is that automotive manufacturers have been doing this for many years... I doubt they would bother if it didn't do something.

I will say that it's a must to cool your ATF. But wether you need a dedicated cooler really depends on your application. Things like gearing, horsepower, climate, etc all come into play. I would say that the radiator cooler is enough for a mild engine and marginal on a medium performance engine. If you have a high performance engine, or a higher than stock stall converter, then I would say that a dedicated ATF cooler is a must.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

You dont have a pile of high-power mods so I doubt you'll have problems not using an external cooler, but it certainly wont hurt anything. along the lines of what 70_N_E said, it may not be needed per se, but will benefit the trans anyway. If you use a dedicated trans cooler, you can get a new radiator that doesnt have the cooler. It will slightly increase your coolant capacity and you may even see better flow and /or cooling. You really do not need an oil cooler at this point, though.

I solve the problem by using a Toploader .

 

[bnickel]

if you go with a 24" radiator and a fan shroud you will be able to keep that little 289 cool enough that using the built-in trans cooler in the radiator will be just fine even with a mild converter, but like has been said it won't hurt anything to run a seperate cooler but at this point i think it's a waste of money

 

[streetstang67]

Does it make much difference that I ordered a 20" radiator, not the 24? It is a 3 row

 

[usedtobe 67p51d]

it would work if the 1/4"lines would flow like 5/8" and if the radiator could handle 80 psi no don't do it

 

[Edbert]

Besides all the points other people have brought up, what's screws onto those trans coolers, like a 5/16" line?

I'm sure the sizes varied over the years and the different engine/tranny combos but I have seen them even smaller than that.

EDIT: Regarding whether it is a good idea for an external cooler or not...I have heard over and over that for every 10 degrees that you can lower your ATF temperature you can double the life of the transmission. I don't know if that is true or a marketing thing, but if it is true i cannot think of why a $40 cooler would not be worth it.