So the C6 in my Bronco (er, pretend it’s a Cougar!!) is not attached to the trans cooler ports on the radiator. The radiator looks like new but has “Sold As-Is” written on it which a friend suggested means it’s probably from a junkyard. The previous owner didn’t attach the trans cooler lines, but rather just ran a short section of hose to connect them together. Why? Could be he never got a chance to do it, or, I’m thinking more likely that the used radiator he bought had some kind of problem with the trans cooling part.
So with that being said, my friend told me to go ahead and get an aftermarket trans cooler, mount it in front of the radiator, and be done with it, and it should be really easy.
Is it as easy as it sounds? Any recommendations on a specific kit to go with? He recommended just getting the biggest beefiest one I can find, because it’s a big heavy truck… Er, Cougar… and messing with the trans is just not the way to go. Gotta keep it happy.
I have heard that you make the first pass through the radiator, and then through the external cooler. Hayden is one of the most popular makers of those coolers, they should have something on the web.
This is one of those areas where there are different schools of thought. Yes, I, too, have heard about running through the radiator cooler first as well. But either the P.O. was lazy or there could be a problem with the radiator itself. So yeah, I’d go with an external cooler.
However, I believe a little differently. I feel the radiator’s job should be to cool the motor only. I only run the trans lines striaght to the aftermarket cooler and back. Yes, there are different sizes available. But you don’t need to go overkill either. Keep in mind the size of the cooler that’s inside the radiator.
I don’t like the coolers that zip tie through the fins on the radiator. The one I have on the Hero measures roughly 6" x 18" and cools my beefed up C6 just fine. I fabbed up a few small brackets and run it up and down from the top of the core support to the bottom of the core support becasue that is how it fit the best given the 68’s front hood latch configuration.
I’m with Mark.
Since it’s a Bronco, I’d use hard lines and bend them to fit, keeping the flexible stuff at a minimum or completely foregoing it.
The cooler is absolutely necessary, especially in a vehicle that heavy. The c6 moves a lot of fluid volume, and needs to disperse a lot of heat through the cooling lines. Heat is the main ingredient in a dead automatic trans.
There are two schools of thought here, The rad. serves a double duty, one is to heat the fluid to a certain temp., and to keep it cool to that temp. If you use a external cooler you don’t know what temp you are really running onless you have a temp. gauge for the tranny. The fluid needs to be quite warm in order for max. performance, you can hurt one running to cool as well as too hot.
I am with CatLover on this one. IF this were in AZ I would say no worries, but In Chicago in February? Most of the heat generated in the transmission is in the torque converter when the torque converter is allowing slip. A high stall speed converter generates a lot of heat, but the factory stall for this vehicle is pretty low. Once the converter hooks up, it doesn’t make much heat. The other source of heat is the pump, but it doesn’t compare to the torque converter.
So… To check if the radiator’s trans cooling component is ok, can I just cap off one of the plugs and hook the mityvac up to the other, and see how much vacuum it’ll hold? If there’s something wrong with it, it’s probably a leak, right? Would a vac test be a good way to identify if it’s gonna be ok or not?
Maybe I’m remembering wrong but I don’t think the two ports for the trans cooler even were capped. I think they’re just open, and one of them had a fraction of a drop of trans fluid sitting at the edge about to drop. So maybe it really is that the PO just didn’t connect it up, even though he could have?
Like xr7g428 said, if it’s not leaking antifreeze, just blow some air through it to clear any trash and hook it up. You might flush it out with some trans. fluid, that tube that runs through the bottom is not very long.
Blow compressed air through, hook up a length of hose to one port, point it upwards, stick a funnel into it, pour some ATF through just in case any junk is left in there?
I think I can handle that!
I went ahead and called the PO, I figured it was worth bugging him to get some details. He said the rad should be all good, he was halfway through a job (adding an aftermarket trans cooler in a series loop with the rad cooler, yep) and it got too cold out and he ran out of time so he just put a length of hose connecting the two lines. So I should be in good shape then!
I went to CarQuest today and bought some proper trans-grade tubing, and am looking forward to hooking up the radiator connection, so hopefully no need for the aftermarket trans cooler after all… Fingers crossed.
