markfagus

Hello guys.

I have an 88 with a 3.0 and auto. It has developed a leak that has progressively worsened. The leak is coming the passenger side fitting where the steel line that is part of the radiator over time has loosened. It does not leak a lot, but it is enough to annoy me and mark its territory.

Is the connection on the passenger side of the radiator the hot or cold return line to the trans?

The radiator itself works perfectly fine. No leaks, no overheating issues at all.
My question is, can I "replace/bypass" the tranny cooler in the radiator itself and install an aftermarket trans cooler and pull the lines from the radiator and route them to the external tranny cooler?

I would rather not replace the radiator unless I absolutely have to. I can get a tranny cooler and install install in less than an hour for $50.


Sorry if my question is a dumb one, I just cant find anything on the web that tells me if an aftermarket tranny cooler works as a replacement to the radiator or in addition to.


Thanks,

Mark

Leviticus6432

idk about which is which but why does it matter with a universal cooler? and yeah, you should just be able to bypass the rad

markfagus

thanks!

I was able to find that the passenger side is the send line carrying the hot fluid from the trans and the outlet on the drivers side of the radiator returns the fluid back to the trans.

Any idea on the cooling properties of an external cooler by itself and not using the radiator?
Most what I have seen after I created this post is that you use an external tranny cooler in addition to the radiator.

$$$ is tight so I am trying to do this as reasonable as I can but if it gonna cause trans overheating issues if I bypass the radiator I might have to bite the bullet and replace the radiator.

thanks

Mark

Leviticus6432

you shouldn't run into any problems with overheating using only an external trans cooler... I feel they work more effectively than a stock cooler built into the radiatior anyway... I worked at a performance transmission shop, and all the hot rods, drag cars, autocross cars, ect ran only an external cooler. Now, some cars needed better coolers than others, but there is a wide variety to suit your needs. Just a regluar cooler that is a decent size (idk dimensions, just not something really small) should be fine for you.

Leviticus6432

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Ca...510_0276269844
this looks similar to the ones we commonly used... I'm sure you can find them cheeper somewhere other than napa, but i'm just showing you the style i would suggest

markfagus

Great, I really appreciate your help.
I was looking at this one:

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...er=238922_0_0_

Plate/fin design seems to be much better than a tube so I definitely know I want that style. This one is about $35 less than the one at NAPA

Leviticus6432

Ya i'd say you'll be fine with that one. If your going to worry about it (if you tow, wheel, etc) you might install the cooler and drive it a while and just feel the transmission and see how hot it is normaly. It should be hot, but not too terribly hot. They run at 120 to 150 roughly... But you can get a feel for it, and if you think its overheating you could pull over and feel it and tell if it feels normal or not. Its kinda dumb and you might get burnt (most likely not), but its def the cheepst method lol. You can always fork out the cash and install a temp gauge. But like I said, I'm confident that an external cooler will work. But just remember, you can overheat an auto in the right conditions... even with a stock cooler and an external cooler

markfagus

Gotcha. This is a temporary measure (maybe 6 months) and then if needed I will install a radiator.

thanks again

Mark