Tranny cooler hose routing

J

JackDonkey

Registered
Where's a good place to run my lines for the transmission cooler. I looked at it a little bit before I called it a day. But I didn't really look too close cause my arms were covered in transmission fluid (looking forward to putting the drain plug on). I just figured I'd ask so I knew when it came time to really think about it, probably noon or 6pm tomorrow depending on wether I do that or the jmod shift "kit" stuff first.

On a side note wouldn't it be a huge benefit to mount the cooler vertically? where the fittings would be on the right or left sides instead of the top or bottom. You know like a "still". Or are the coolers designed where when looking at it the horizontal way one fitting only goes down an inch or two into the housing, and the other fitting goes down to the bottom like 5 or 6 inches. I imagine they would be smart enough to design it that way, otherwise poo poo the people that installed the thing with both fittings on the bottom.

My transmission fluid smelled horrible by the way, I imagine it was burnt pretty good, and it didn't smell at all like the MerconV stuff I bought, nor did my arm skin have any reaction to the old fluid so I imagine it wasn't MerconV.
 
RE: Tranny cooler hose routing

http://mark8.org/lod/trans_cooler.htm

1. Get some more hose! I'll assume you have the B&M kit. The hose included is not long enough IMHO to properly route the hose without subjecting the hose to bends below the minimum bending radius to prevent kinking and restriction of flow. Make sure the hose is rated for this service. You can order hose at www.bulkpart.com

2. Do you have the barbed hose fittings from www.bulkpart.com ? T394:
http://www.bulkpart.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/394.jpg
You need two pair if completely bypassing OEM tank cooler.

3. Mounting it vertically is fine:
http://mark8.org/lod/cooler6.jpg
I do not think there is any wrong way to orient the cooler as long as it has sufficient air flow.

4. I mounted my cooler on the '93 as the LOD tech article. I routed the hoses across the radiator then through the radiator support next to the battery. I removed the battery for easier access to the hard lines. I did not have the barbed hose fittings when I originally done this and it was a PITA to get a connection that would not leak. Later, I mounted the same kit in the '91 LSC in the same manner and was done in less than an hour using the barbed hose fittings.

The drain plug kit will be nice when you change transmission fluid 20,000 miles later. Don't forget to drain the TC also.
 
RE: Tranny cooler hose routing

It's amazing how much fluid is still in the valve body itself. That made a mess. I think I may have to go buy some drill bits for the seperator plate today, so I'll make sure to pick up some extra hose while I'm at it. I do have the bulkpart fittings and I'm going in series with the stock cooler, I live in Minnesota, so I'll need the heat in the winter, until I get a winter car that is.

Well it's my first time working on an automatic (I've been known to say I wouldn't buy another automatic, but I'm a liar I guess) and so far so good, I have the seperator plate and the valve body sitting on some cardboard in the garage, and I'm off to the tccoa website to get dimensions of holes I need to drill.

I did drain the torque converter by the way I only had to crawl under the car twice and only rotate the engine twice to find the bolt, that was pretty lucky I guess.
 
RE: Tranny cooler hose routing

You may want to consider upgrading the 2-3 accumulator since you have the valve body off. I haven't seen one first hand, but it is my understanding the piston design is the same as the 1-2, and the upgraded piston is similar to the 1-2 upgraded piston. You also have the option of leaving out the 2-3 spring. Refer to the tccoa site for more detail.

If you have a digital cam, take some pics of the J-Mod to help those who may be intimidated by the procedure. Be sure to let us know what you think of the improvements after you're done.
 
RE: Tranny cooler hose routing

I do have the new 2-3 accumulator, but I haven't gotten to the accumulators just yet. I do have a camera, I'm just afraid to get it all oily, But maybe i'll risk it.

By the way the most challenging work I've ever done on a car so far has been a throttle body gasket on a 91 galant, or a valve cover gasket on a 95 Eclipse. :)

On another side note, the factory Eclipse service manual was way more easy to understand than the ford one, and it had more pictures and exploded assemblies with the torques listed. None of this "remove the 24 bolts stuff" the eclipse manual acutally pointed out all the bolts. Of course the eclipse probably needs an easy to read manual becuase you need to use it so often... for the crankshaft anyway.
 
RE: Tranny cooler hose routing

Well I seem to have finally run into a problem. Sears, Autozone, Pep Boys none of them have drill bits that are the right size. They have .09375 (3/32") and .109375 (7/64") but not a .0995" #39 drill bit. Well I'll have to do some checking here, maybe I'll have to go to Ace or something... this sucks though, what an unusual stumbling block.
 
RE: Tranny cooler hose routing

Is this the wrong kind of hose?
http://www.cloudnet.com/~dustins/lincoln/P1010102.JPG

My lower 1-2 accumulator spring was only broke in one place. I didn't even notice anything strange about the shifting though, the transmission kind of shifted weird all around, I imagine it was the fluid, I have my fingers crossed.
http://www.cloudnet.com/~dustins/lincoln/P1010095.JPG

I copied your cooler installation driller.
http://www.cloudnet.com/~dustins/lincoln/P1010104.JPG
 
RE: Tranny cooler hose routing

IMO you'll be ok with the hose. The broken spring probably would only show up at WOT as a hard 1-2 shift.

It's OK you copied the cooler mount... so did I. It's the same as Maples 8 from the LOD tech paper on the tranny cooler install.
 
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