Steering Fluid Cooler For Hydro Assist

[mikey_d05]

I'm gonna pick up a cooler for my hydro assist setup.

If you run one, how big is it, and where did you mount it? I'm trying to get things organized before I go home next so I can get something accomplished.

Thanks in advance, that is all.

 

[mrk5]

I don't have hydro assist, but I thought I could give a little info that may help you.

I installed a stacked plate B&M cooler measuring 6"x11"x1.5" thick and it dropped my tranny temps 30*

I do have hydro boost, and I plan to install a cooler. I'll be happy with any size cooler, I figure something is better than nothing.

 

[az-k5]

Use the tube style tranny cooler. The stacked plate ones are hard to get air out of (almost impossible with PS fluid do to its viscocity), air is a horrible thing in steering, and even worse after a ram is installed.

just my .02

 

[mikey_d05]

Use the tube style tranny cooler. The stacked plate ones are hard to get air out of (almost impossible with PS fluid do to its viscocity), air is a horrible thing in steering, and even worse after a ram is installed.

just my .02

Like this one?

 

[mrk5]

I was thinking he meant one like this:

 

[mikey_d05]

OK...that's what I was planning on using. I think it'd be fairly easy to purge either way...and the single aluminum tube coolers are two to three times the cost.

 

[az-k5]

I was thinking he meant one like this:

Bingo. That style comes in all different sizes and as small as 8"x3"

 

[southernspeed]

My '91 has got a factory fitted steering cooler that is a long length of tubing snaked up under the radiator cross member. Will this be good enough for when I fit my cross over and hydro set up?

 

[HarryH3]

Here's my $4 solution, and it uses a GM factory power steering cooler.
http://www.angelfire.com/super/ThunderTruck/tech_articles/power_steering_cooler.htm

 

[ntsqd]

Use the tube style tranny cooler. The stacked plate ones are hard to get air out of (almost impossible with PS fluid do to its viscocity), air is a horrible thing in steering, and even worse after a ram is installed.

just my .02

I used the stock Aux trans cooler off a late model Ford p/u on my Sub - no HB or HS. It's a stacked plate design about 8" x 2.5" x 1" I had no trouble purging the air from the system. PS fluid and ATF look to be pretty close in Viscosity.

What will make air purging difficult is if you hit the steering box limits. Every time it does that you've cavitated the fluid, i.e. you've put more air in the fluid.

 

[miniwally]

I don't have a bunch of experience with hydro assist stuff lately but I do with a full hydro system.
When I was setting up my system for the buggy Howe wanted me to try to run it without a cooler and see what the temps are. I don't seem to need a cooler and have been running the system for a little over two years now.

How hot is too hot?? I see fluid temps around 190 degrees and maybe up to 210 degrees when I push it hard. The only thing I have found is that Howe wnats you to use their fluid OR GM power steering fluid. These fluids seem to be okay to somewhere around 240 degrees from what I have found in my limited searching.

If you need a cooler and you probably do with a hydro assist system get the largest tube diameter multiple pass tube cooler that you can. I have seen a nice one on Howes site and would get theirs if I was getting one. (I just like their products andd service so I pay a little more for it.) At least look at it Howe cooler for and idea of what to look for.

Restriction in the lines is one of the things that you want to fight to keep low. A cooler is a restriction and therefore not good.
My understanding is that a stacked plate cooler is more restictive than a good tube cooler.

Just what I have learned or heard through the years.