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bypass rad cooler?

N

_nick_

New member
so my trans line is leaking at the rad and im a cheap bastard :th_laugh-pointup:

anyway, looking at it it looks like i need a new line to the rad, as its rusty about an inch before the bottom fitting and wet with fluid around there. So im thinking this is a perfect excuse to upgrade to an aux. cooler, just buy the cooler, cut the lines and bypass the rad cooler?. Is this a good idea? I live in southern ontario canada...i know alot of people on the internet opt for bypassing the rad so the trans doesn't get up to that 180 degree temp the antifreeze runs at, but in the winter will the transmission be too cold? I dont drive the car hard and i tend to let the engine warm up a fair bit before i drive the car on the cold days, so should i bypass the rad cooler and go with a small cooler?

thanks in advance...
 


You definately experience cooler temps in the winter than in the US but you should be ok. Most drives under 15 minutes even through the radiator isnt going to warm too much up, it is the longer drives when everything warms up that your trans fluid isnt going to heat up as much but you should be fine. Just make sure you use quality clamps on the lines and even double up on the clamps so you dont have a line blow off and leave you in worse shape than you are now.
 
hey thanks for the replies....I guess a simpler question for the job would be how much fluid am I going to loose? When I cut the line is all the ATF gonna come streaming out or does the car have to be running to pump it out? Obviously i am going to loose whatever is in the lines and the rad cooler, but is that all?
 
You will have some leak out but it wont be a huge amount and you are correct that the fluid wont pump out unless it is running so pretty much what is in the lines is what is going to leak out.
 
Got the job done today, not too hard. My only issue was I couldn't get the new rubber lines on to the hard steel factory lines more than about 1.5 inches...i tried pretty damn hard any they wouldn't budge! lol, so i just clamped them...single clamp for now i gotta run out tomorrow and get more hose clamps. Do you think one clamp will hold fine for now? How much line pressure is in those cooler lines? I got two on the lower one but unfortunately one of them let go from over tightening, the top one only has one. Last thing i need as mentioned is a line blow-off.
 


Pressure is typically in the 15-40 psi range through the cooler. Double clamps arent necessary but is an extra measure of safety against leaks or the lines blowing off. Yes those clamps dont take a lot to strip out either so you have to be a little more careful with those than the larger radiator type clamps.
 
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