transmission oil level after fitting cooler

[railtrolley]

Hello All,

Been seeing a few help letters in the cars guide of the Friday paper. BA Falcons with corroded radiators that have dumped the coolant into the auto trans and wrecked it. The auto on my AUII Tradesman I6 has been running very hot, the floor over the transmission tunnel is too hot to touch, in this weather. So, I'm thinking about fitting an aftermarket transmission cooler, and bypassing the radiator cooler. I expect that I will have to top up the transmission oil anyway to allow for the amount going through the cooler. Going to be a pain in the a**e to check the oil level, and top it up without the dipstick. Can I expect to lose any trans oil from the radiator tank, or the pipes, when I disconnect them? Should I run the engine for a few seconds after fitting the cooler to set the oil level, then top up?

Regards

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by railtrolley

Hello All,

Been seeing a few help letters in the cars guide of the Friday paper. BA Falcons with corroded radiators that have dumped the coolant into the auto trans and wrecked it. The auto on my AUII Tradesman I6 has been running very hot, the floor over the transmission tunnel is too hot to touch, in this weather. So, I'm thinking about fitting an aftermarket transmission cooler, and bypassing the radiator cooler. I expect that I will have to top up the transmission oil anyway to allow for the amount going through the cooler. Going to be a pain in the a**e to check the oil level, and top it up without the dipstick. Can I expect to lose any trans oil from the radiator tank, or the pipes, when I disconnect them? Should I run the engine for a few seconds after fitting the cooler to set the oil level, then top up?

Regards

It won't drop it too much ... the internal radiator cooler doesn't hold much .. and new external coolers don't hold that much ... although you will need to top it up a bit though ... as the BTR likes to have a certain amount of trans fluid in it.

There's a good reason there's no dispstick in them ... just fill it till it starts dribbling out of the side of the fill hole ... then it's at the correct level.

[JoesAu]

hey mate i done mine a while ago, you lose about 50-60ml if that the radiator holds jack all, with my new external cooler made by DeRale it took about 150-200ml to fill it then i connected it up that was about 25000km's ago, it has driven fine ever since, only now i do need a full flush cos shes started to slip a little and free rev everynoun agAIN due for a service of new oil.

just top the cooler up to as much as it can take hook it up can be a littlle slippery, start the car then let it idle for a couple of minutes then drive.

[railtrolley]

Thanks Mechanik and Joe for your answers. My trans is pretty good, so I want to make sure it lasts. It's running fine, no slipping, even with an 1100kg load in the tray, which thankfully is not all the time. The auto trans pipes look they are on the driver's side, one near the top of the radiator, and one near the bottom, so I'll probably mount the cooler near there. Any problems with interference to the air flow to the radiator, with a trans cooler in front of it? I s'pose I should fit it right behind the grill for the most air flow? I'll have to fabricate a few mounting brackets, not a difficult job.

[Mechan1k]

Yeah that's where the pipes run ... and I ran the hose passed the side of the radiator on the driver's side as well.

I had mine initially on the driver's side of the radiator at the bottom .... but since I had issues with overheating (other factors though) ... I moved the transcooler towards the middle since .... and gave more of a gap between the transcooler and the A/C condensor (in front of the radiator).

Since I fixed my overheating issues all has been good ... no issues with transcooler placement now.