[BigMo]

I dont use the trans cooler section in the bottom of my radiator.....but hey, how about using it as a plumbed in oil cooler for the motor? Anyone tried that? Pros/cons.....will it even do enough to warrent all the fittings and braided line? Hmmmmm......just sayin......my coupe dont have much room, already gotta a big trans cooler in front of the rad, no good place to mount another for the engine......

[malc]

It´s not a trans cooler, it´s a trans fluid warmer upper, to get the fluid to a working temp quicker.
Think about it, that tank in the rad is right next to hot coolant.
I´d say your trans cooler is way too big if there´s no room for an oil cooler.
I run both side by side in front of the rad, both thermostatically controlled.
Trans.


Oil.

[hcompton]

Originally Posted by BigMo

I dont use the trans cooler section in the bottom of my radiator.....but hey, how about using it as a plumbed in oil cooler for the motor? Anyone tried that? Pros/cons.....will it even do enough to warrent all the fittings and braided line? Hmmmmm......just sayin......my coupe dont have much room, already gotta a big trans cooler in front of the rad, no good place to mount another for the engine......

No it will over run the radiator with the oil temps. Trans temps are hotter than oil temps. Radiator doe snot warm the trans fluid you will be driving down the road before the thermostat opens and dumps hot water into the rad.

Buy a nice oil cooler and a radiator without the trans cooler. Running them together will over heat your engine.

[oldbogie]

Originally Posted by BigMo

I dont use the trans cooler section in the bottom of my radiator.....but hey, how about using it as a plumbed in oil cooler for the motor? Anyone tried that? Pros/cons.....will it even do enough to warrent all the fittings and braided line? Hmmmmm......just sayin......my coupe dont have much room, already gotta a big trans cooler in front of the rad, no good place to mount another for the engine......

The factory does this on all OEM production since about 1985 to speed engine warm up by running the engine oil through a heat exchanger in the radiator. This however is not intended to cool the engine oil but to get it and the coolant up to operating temp faster. This is a major contributor to both reducing emissions as well as internal wear because start up with its extra rich mixture produces a lot of noxious exhaust while the extra fuel wipes upper end lube off the cylinder walls which greatly increases wear of the cylinder walls and rings. Easily 80% of engine wear occurs from start up to about the first 5 to 10 minutes of operation. The sooner you can get the engine up to operating temp the better. Sump oil temp is typically 5 to 10 minutes behind coolant temp in achieving operating temp for a street driven engine. Competition engines are whole different animal when it comes to temperature relationships and management.

However, if you need to manage engine oil temp from becoming excessive, this will add more heat into the coolant which the radiator may not have the capacity to remove. The sucess of this is really going to be dependent upon whether the engine oil gets so hot as to require cooling along with does the radiator have enough excess capacity to remove that heat without running out of capacity to mantain engine coolant temp. If excess oil heat isn't a problem, then using the coolant as a means of speeding engine warm up is a good idea.

Bogie

[BigMo]

See.....told ya it was a "hair brained" idea!! LMAO.....im putting this on a 30 Ford Coupe, so getting another cooler on the rad with a 7 x 15 on there for the tranny already aint gonna happen....and for some reason, i thought all this time, that GM put the tranny fluid through the bottom of the rad to help keep temp stabilized.....
I do have one of those round tube w fins coolers from another project, it was on the frame of another hot rod. Maybe I can find a place on the inside of the frame for that and plumb the motor up to it....anybody know what one of these will flow? Im using a 7qt. oil pan, Melling M55A pump.

[BigMo]

That finned cooler looks like this......