I've got an 87 4Runnah with a 22RE and 5-spd that I've been restoring. After replacing my old leaking radiator with a 3-core I noticed my factory power steering cooler started leaking.

I'm hesitant to call the small metal loop that goes behind the grill a cooler but its close enough. It stated leaking because it was rotten and I tweaked it when removing the old radiator.

Anyways, rather than replace or rebuild the stock one.......what if I tie into the radiator and use that as a cooler? The radiator came equipped for an auto trans so the lines are just capped. Would it be something worth doing?

Or is it useless to have a cooler at all unless I'm playing around at MOAB. Its mostly just a daily driver.

 

I thought about this when I was building my truck. I didn't end up using it though. If it helps the fluid warm up faster and stay a consistent temp I'm sure it would help even for a dd. If the existing lines need replacing I'd say why not use the cooler built into the radiator.

 

you should figure out what temp the ps fluid needs to be. if it needs to be cooler than 180 you shouldn't use the rad cooler.

also, I wonder what a power steering milkshake would look like.

 

Yeah....it quickly turned from a "I wonder what this would do" to a "ahhh...nevermind" idea.

Under normal operating conditions the 190 degree radiator would warm the cooler power steering fluid". Probably not the end of the world but who needs warmer PS fluid?

Under severe operating conditions (offroad) the hotter power steering fluid would dump its heat into the radiator, making the coolant even hotter. Yeah...no thanks.

Since its mostly a daily driver for the time being I'll just bypass the old PS cooler loop and tie the two lines together.

Thanks for the opinions though....was fun to think about.

 

If you want one I have two trucks I need to part out.