Strawberry milk in the trans!

So im a lucky guy, interesting things happen to me- I finally get my 57 olds on the road in half etching primer and bare metal to get a new exhaust system installed and get a call that it started leaking after i left- and it aint pretty. Rebuilt motor, rebuilt trans, rebuilt radiator- Well i payed for one at least- turns out it is more of a fluid mixer then radiator. So i call for a hook and have it dragged home- two gallons of strawberry milk and some interesting coolant mix later and im curious. The radiator will be ok after the rebuilder gets it out his ass- but has anyones tranny surrvived such fun? It was driven maybee 15 miles uknown to me and still seemed to work fine before it was caught. I figure it will take about three fluid changes to have a hope of it being cleaned out. A new stand alone cooler is on order and a aux. filter too- but has anyone had this type of snafu before?

In any case it was the stock hydramatic if your curious.

On a side note for folks in socal who are looking for a good exhuast shop- who still employ craftsmen- positive performance mufflers on glassell in orange (aka Mike Leech) Did an awesome job- it's two guys tom and mike, and mike built an entire difficult system that exceeded my expectation- in addition to checking into a leak they didn't have to. It was the only good thing i got to see last night while crawling around under it.

Thanks for your expeirences in advance,
danny

 

Man! Sorry to hear about your bad luck! It made me sick just listening about it! Keep us updated and good luck!

 

I think the tranny will be fine if you can get it really cleaned out well. I'd probably have it flushed. If the tranny wasn't slipping, then the fluid inside it had to be fairly viscous yet.

A separate tranny cooler and filter sound like a good idea. I personally would tell the radiator rebuilder guy to fuck off and I'd buy a universal replacement radiator from somewhere like Summit and modify your core support if necessary to make it fit. Re-coring radiators is expensive and it can be touch and go sometimes.

You're going to need to clean out your cooling system really good too so keep that in mind.

 

I bought a 904 Mopar tranny like that unbeknowst to me at the time. The guy told me the tranny was slipping in third gear and has been for some time. I drove the car home, and he was right. Pulled the pan, replaced the filter and replaced the fluid. It was full of strawberry milk.

After changing the filter and fluid twice, I'm still driving the car four years later.I would definitely try it and see if it works out.

Good Luck!

 

Get all the strwaberry milk out ASAP the friction surfaces of the plates will begin to disolve otherwise, you need to drain the converter as well.

 

On a side note for folks in socal who are looking for a good exhuast shop- who still employ craftsmen- positive performance mufflers on glassell in orange (aka Mike Leech) Did an awesome job- it's two guys tom and mike, and mike built an entire difficult system that exceeded my expectation- in addition to checking into a leak they didn't have to. It was the only good thing i got to see last night while crawling around under it.

Hey Danny whats up....sorry to hear about the problems. I have to say your right though....my brother just had his exhaust system done there last week and they did a killer job. Anyone looking for some honest guys and great work should look them up! I wanna see the ride. I call you later. Jared

 

I was driving my 34 ford with a c4 in it and after i parked and started to walk away there was a hissing noise like the pressure in the cooling system building up. Then... Blam!.... the front pump seal on the trans lets go and showers my driveway with fluid. Had to go through the whole thing and I also put on an external cooler. The only concern I would have is that the integrity of some of the seals may be comprimised due to any pressure that may have built up in the trans. Theres the old flush it a few times and drive it till it stops method. Hard to say..... Good luck.

 

I ran some strawberry milk in my olds 350 tranny for a little while, put a new radiator in and everything, somehow water snuck in there for that beautiful mixture, I was rebuilding the whole tranny anyhow, but it all turned out fine. I think you're alright if you flush it out nice and keep that water out.

 

I had an old powerglide,that had got water mixed with the fluid. Drain, fill, idle, drain, fill. It will eventually get rid of it,get it good and hot,to boil the water out of it. Sparky

 

Fix a flood car 20 years ago. Same problem. I unhooked one of the tranny lines and made a hose go to a bucket. I poured new fluid in as the old stuff pumped out. Every once in awhile I would run it through the gears. After a lot of cheap fluid I started putting in the good stuff. It eventually cleaned up. I drove it some and changed the filter. It you can drain the pan and convertor first it will save a lot of time and fluid. Some convertors have a drain plug.

 

I wouldn't run it until I pulled the pan and got all the water out, including installing a new filter, because water will clog the filter and starve the pump, etc, maybe even burn it up. No external filter either, until all the water is gone.

 

Thanks for everyones input- it's been drained allready and had a can of flush through it, but it looks like it will take a couple more cycles. Im just gonna see what it does and stock up on cases of cheap atf and more seafoam trans tune for now. I think getting it up to operating temp and let it steam whats left might be the trick. I already had and auxilary cooler, but had it after the stock set up so time to make new lines and get a bigger plate setup. Worst case i will have more motivation to build up a meaner slant pan setup for it.

Jared-

I will get the olds of doom over to see your project within a month- I crammed as much of it back together before my son was born so that its legal- just ugly. And i still can't say enough about leech's work- i went for the oddball road and had him build up a a slick single big pipe for the olds- the y pipe is so nice- new flanges and all no shortcuts or cut paste stuff. The whole thing is mean- only one mounted hanger point and it don't even wiggle. Next time you do a customer call in the orange circle call me- i saw you at the place by diedrichs once but was stuck with some work stuff and couldn't come down.

danny

 

This isn't a good idea to do this. The cooler lines supply the oil to the transmission's lube circuit after the converter is done with it - disconnecting them runs the trans without lube oil pressure. You got lucky if you didn't seriously damage the trans doing this. It's similar to pushing/towing a car without the engine running or driveshaft removed.

As stated earlier, water in the oil can damage the friction lining on the clutch plates and bands. I've also seen it attack the glue that bonds the paper friction lining to the steel plates. If you see sediment that isn't metallic (kinda looks like coffee grounds) in the pan, that is clutch lining material.

If it were mine, I'd drain the pan, drain the converter, and flush the cooler and lines (there's an aerosol kit available for this). Then refill with clean oil and repeat the entire process if it still shows any sign of water.

BTW an easy test for water in oil is to put a couple drops of the questionable oil on a hotplate that's at about 250degF (must be over the 212degF boiling point, a drop of water will tell you). If the oil sizzles or crackles, it has water in it. If the hotplate is too hot (>400degF), you'll just make a stinky mess and possibly a fire.

Good luck.

 

If at all possible, avoid transmission fluid additives. They typically soften the clutch piston seals and swell them to reduce leakage. Not a big problem at first, but the softer rubber parts won't hold up as long. They're only a temporary fix - but no substitute for new sealing rings.

 

as previously stated,
lay off that transmission additive stuff,(to include seafoam),as they ALL contain too many solvents for the workings for about ANY hydraulic apparatus.
especially old automatic transmissions.

stuff is super rough on the seals!
just not right away.