Hoping to do some tuning on the sbc in my sons's '60 chevy p/u. Having an issue with leaky trans. cooler plumbing. I have disconnected the cooler lines and used a couple of fittings and length of hose to loop the cooler lines back into the trans. Is it safe for the trans to run this way for a short amount of time? The p/u won't be driven this way, doesn't even have the driveshaft installed - basically sit at idle while I do the carb/timing - thanks
You will be fine. Neil down here built all of our trannys personally and for the shop before he retired. He did the one one my old T as well as the one for my GMC and they have both been used HARD. He once told me all you have to do is get the fluid out of the tranny in most cases. On my Touring that meant a long loop of hardline along the frame.
No driving, no load on the trans., no problem. Even lightly around the block, you should be fine. Don't go too far though. Mike
I've ran a couple of cars just like Tman said. Took a 2' piece of 5/16" steel line and made a loop on the inside of the frame rail. Ran the dog pee out of them and never had issues, probably 2 years or more? Joe Burbrink owned JDB transmission shop, died of cancer, but he told me years ago that he'd rather do that than to run it to a radiator. But I've been told here that it won't work. Most people over think it.
The HUGE majority of the heat in an automatic transmission comes from slipping the torque converter or in other terms shearing the fluid. Kinda like the automatic trans version of slipping the clutch. I have driven many cars on test drives with the cooler lines bypassed to do diagnostics with no ill effects. I agree with Mike VV!
The reason manufacturers run it through the radiator is to warm up the ATF in the colder climates. Like starting out in a nice -20 below morning in Minnesota.
Years ago, I worked on a 59 chevy pickup with a 350/350 setup in it, installed by someone else. The cooler lines were looped. I worked on that truck several times over probably a decade, and it never burned up the transmission. Owner didn't seem to interested in fixing the transmission cooler situation. I don't suggest it, but I did want to let you know that with a stock converter, you should be fine for a while. The sky's not falling.
A lot of late model vehicles have a small, finned cooler built somewhere into the power steerring pipes. I wonder if anyone has adapted one of these coolers for their trans fluid. Seems like something that might be easily mounted up in the frame somewhere out of harm's way. Would it cool sufficiently in a light weight rod that was driven sensibly and wasn't used for hauling a trailer or pulling stumps?
I've considered it before, but never did it. Late 90's- early 2000's Chevy pickup truck have them. It's just a heat exchanger, I don't see why they wouldn't work beautifully.
you can use any size cooler you want, and you can also monitor the fluid temperature. There's a relationship between transmission life and operating temperature. The cooler it runs, the longer it lives. If it'll live longer than you'll drive the car, you're set. Most guys don't put enough miles on their hot rods for it to be an issue.
I saved one to use in my salt car. Thinking of running it inside the water/ice tank for the QC fluid.
I'm debating the cooler/no cooler question on the FED I'm building. My understanding is if the transmission is being "stalled" (ie: drag race starting) the temp of the fluid rises unbelievably quick in the stalled torque converter. So, it would seem in regular driving there would be a lot less of an issue. On the FED, I'm thinking a small cooler (5" X 10" approximately) is what I'll go with just to get some cooling, thinking there might be times that it wouldn't get much cool-down time between rounds....providing it's not eliminated in the first round. Lynn
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