A/c Condenser? as tranny cooler?

[plumber mike]

I took ryoken's recommendation and ordered a summit #380331 rad (so at least part of my truck will be as nice as his) It does not have a tranny cooler. I have an aux tranny cooler but it looks small. I was going to yank the A/c stuff while it was torn apart and i thought the unit in front of the rad would make a huge tranny cooler.Would this work?Has anyone done that? Any ideas? Thanks guys!

 

[1979jimmy350]

it may actually cool the trans to much. I think it could handle it but it may be over kill. The nice things about the ones that are part of the radiator is that if the transmission is cold the engine coolant will heat it up to get to operating temperature quicker

 

[plumber mike]

Is there such a thing as it bieng to cool?Fluid not moving thru the valve body correctly or something? Would synthetic help a situation like that?
I was going to order a trans temp gauge later to monitor it if i used the smaller aux cooler. I was more worried about residual freon/oil or something contaminating the tranny. Everything i read on here about tranny coolers is bigger is better.Thanks for the advice.

 

[4X4HIGH]

The AC condensor is a bad idea for two reasons, first is you DO NOT want residual freon getting into the transmission and also the AC condensor is too restrictive for use as a trans cooler.

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

The AC condensor is a bad idea for two reasons, first is you DO NOT want residual freon getting into the transmission and also the AC condensor is too restrictive for use as a trans cooler.

That's what I was thinking, big trans coolers aren't very expensive.

 

[plumber mike]

Thank You guys for your advice. In a brief state of cheapness I thought it would be a good idea. I'm going to place another summit order for a new trans cooler. Man, they must love me

 

[k20]

I used to run one of the stacked plates on mine, the 11x11 B&M one. Thing leaked all over the place after about a yr and a half on the truck. Now I have 2 perma-cool coolers on the front of mine, one for engine oil, one for the trans. They are both the 10x18" 6 pass tube & fin.

 

[ryoken]

yup, I'm actually changing my rad back out to incorporate a rad cooler... happy with the Summit rad, just not my trans being ice cold..

if your in a hot climate, I think a cooler only would be awesome.. but here, in the winter it was waaaay too hard to get the trans up to a temp to burn off condensation...

I ran the setup for 4 years till the tranny nuked, but I can say I can't attribute the difficult warm-up during winter to it's demise.. BUT I have never been happy with how hard it was to get the thing up to 150 in the winter...

I'll be going with a BTO mvb 700r, and I'm thinking thats what there gonna want me to run.. but I'll see when I talk to em... thru the rad, then a big stacked plate...

anyway, just a sidenote to coolers.. I just learned recently that apparently power steering coolers are recommended to be tube/fin, not stacked plate.. didn't know that... I'm gonna switch my trans tube/fin over to p.s, and get 2 new Earls temp a cures for the eng and trans...

oh, and thanks for the props...

 

[Blazr77400]

I beg to differ on not using the AC condenser as a trans cooler.
On my old blue truck I used to have 24,000 gvw cooler with a fan that would usually let the temps reach 230 degrees with a 2500 stall and the built 406 small block. I would usually just have to let off or it would keep going higher. After changing to my stock AC condensor with no fan the temps would never get above 190 no matter how long I hammered the truck. It would usually run on the cooler side, but I would prefer a trans running at 150 degrees all the time instead of one running 195 all the time and having a chance to get higher.

I just used some compression fittings and adapters from EVCO house of hose that would match up with my stock trans lines.

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174498