Hey Guys -

I will try to describe this to the best of my ability. I installed a tranny cooler about four weeks ago. Bsically, I had a piece of hose split while driving down the road and I lost my tranny fluid everywhere on the highway. I pulled over, friend picked me up and I put the stock piece of hose in, bypassed the cooler, filled up the ATF and drove home.

About three days later, me and RedMAxPA 007 reinstalled the cooler and installed his.

I have a leak from somewhere. I checked the cooler fittings, the tranny return and exit and the line from the tranny to the radiator. I can't find a leak there. The leak appears to be coming from the base of the radiator.

It is a slow leak, not losing a lot of fluid, but I cannot isolate it. I have examined the base of the radiator, all lines etc and am having no luck.

Could me having the hose burst last week created an extreme temperature and damaged the radiator?

How does the tranny fluid route through the radiator?

Should I bypass the radiator totally

Any help would be appreciated as I am ready to rip the whole radiator out of the car!

Dave in York

 

The tranny fluid goes into the bottom of the radiator. There is an oil cooler there. There are connections there.

Your oil cooler could have a crack in it or be split.

 

Bags533 is right, You could have damaged the lower tank of the radiator. Bypassing it is one way to see for sure if it is damaged, but not all tranny coolers have the btu capacity to cool the transmission without the radiator. I would suggest that you de-grease the engine, this will help tremendously in being able to visually locate the leak.

 

By now, it is practically spotless. I almost think you should use trannyu fluid to clean the engine. It makes everything sparkly clean!

I will look at it again tonight or in the morning. I just checked and I can see some fluid in the bottom of the engine, pooled in the plastic undercarriage protector.

Where would I get a new oil cooler if I needed one? The dealer I guess.

Do you guys know what size tranny cooler I would need if I wanted to bypass the radiator completely?

I am open to any and all suggestions at this point.

Thanks fellas!

I do not feel safe driving my car right now and I am anxious to get it fixed. I got the disease, I want the car to be running perfectly.

Dave in York

 

I would skip replacing it..the oil cooler sucks.

Which model do you have ?

I would upgrade to a slightly larger unit or go with the Rapid-cool model and call it a day.
But the unit you have might be large and good enough to hold what ya got.

 

I have the B&M #130-70264 from Jegs; it's rated for 24,000GVW (gross vehicle weight). I would assume that it is adequate to run without the radiator.

http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...28&prmenbr=361

Since you have it clean now, you ought to remove the plastic shield, jack up the car, start the engine, then crawl under the car and look for leaks. The A/T will pump fluid while still in park.

 

I am going to check the rating on it when I get home. I do not leak when sitting still. Last night at 2:30am when I was pulling my hair out....... I let it run after scrubbing the plastic sheild, radiator, fittings etc. I also took it for a ride. The only fluid I saw was appearing on the bottom left portion of the oil cooler/radiator. Laying under the driver side looking towards the front of the car, it was on the bottom left side.

Anyway, if I figure it out, I will update this post.
It was funny though, I wound up almost completely pulling the radiator, drained the coolant and took a bunch of stuff apart!

This was all taking place at 3AM in the morning.

I was possessed!

Dave in York

 

Discovered the problem. After five attempts I discovered hwat I thought was a leak.

Apparently when I had the tranny hose burst, tranny fluid pooled in the front frame rail. It is actually square with holes in it.

When I would drive for a while, the trapped fluid was seeping out between the front frame railand the radiator mounts. There are tow thin pieces of metal mounted to the front frame and the radiator mounts sit on these pieces of metal. There is a tiny tiny space between this piece of metal and the frame. The fluid from the orignal accident was seeping through two small holes in the frame rail and oozing out from under these pieces. My tranny fluid is very clean so it is quite thick and red.
I also ran all of my wires for my EGT, FP, and Tranny temp gauge.

Dave in York

 

good to know it was working all the time. better to find out it was working..error on the side of safety

 

 

meh I was going to say, I doubt the oil cooler would split if you burst a hose...that would be the last thing to happen if fluid is LOST.

And just in case this wasn't clean, the oil cooler's contents are separate from the coolant in the rest of the radiator...don't wanna mix those.

 

glad you found it


bout time...

 

 

Yeah, did better tah I thought.. Now I wanna see yours

 

yes it is in and completed

 

AND: My phone better be ringing tomorrow. What do you think?