[tbird_boi82]

Ha" so its far to much work to search thread after thread for what im about to ask so here goes , Today while doing some routine maintenance on my lovely 4.6ltr i noticed i have a radiator leak right were the trans line goes into the plactic body of the it . So i bars leaked it for now till fundage is there , now my question is any suggestion as far as a performance radiator? Like ive seen pics of some of your birds having dual core all alluminum radiators they look all blocky .. like ole boy who had the sparkly orange bird that was wrecked cause of the stupid drunk mom who cut him off.. Any suggestion or links to help me find what id need for my bird would be highly appreciated ..Thanks Sam

 

[thunderstruck712]

you thank....post this like of kind...confusing very and understand to hard was it. post your in saying were you what understand not could i man sorry.



**Read backward.

 

[rmfk13]

:uppoint: umm he wants to know what aftermarket preformance radiator is the best, I kinda would like to know as well since im going to be upgrading soon

 

[Buckcreekbilly]

you thank....post this like of kind...confusing very and understand to hard was it. post your in saying were you what understand not could i man sorry.



**Read backward.

Trying to bump up your post count with this nonsense??

 

[tbird_boi82]

what a douche !

 

[Rob]

That was my orange bird. The woman didnt cut me off, but I think it was more like she hit my front end from the side going at a pretty good rate of speed. It's time to make this post technical again. That big double core radiator was awesome and it had hookups for my transmission. I still had a small airflow problem, but it did drop my gauge down a little bit. It would still warm up on me on super hot days with the a/c on. Most people on here go with a cobra radiator. I like everything about it except that with those external coolers, I have had problems of my transmission overheating and it is not cool. My next radiator will be double core with an internal trans cooler. I am even thinking about making a fluidyne fit this time if the price is decent.

 

[rmfk13]

Couldnt you just run a tranny cooler from the radiator?

 

[Rob]

Not with the stock cobra radiator because they all have manual transmission and hence no built in trans heat exchanger. I wish the cobra radiator did have a heat exchanger though because it HAS to be easier to install than the huge aftermarket one I had. On my 94 I used to have two external tranny coolers in series without being hooked into the radiator and it would still give me problems. I was suspicious of airflow problems, but I guess we will never know now. Thats how my "new" 96 is. It has a fin & plate style cooler with the heat exchanger in the radiator totally bypassed. I hope it works out good!

 

[rmfk13]

Not with the stock cobra radiator because they all have manual transmission and hence no built in trans heat exchanger. I wish the cobra radiator did have a heat exchanger though because it HAS to be easier to install than the huge aftermarket one I had. On my 94 I used to have two external tranny coolers in series without being hooked into the radiator and it would still give me problems. I was suspicious of airflow problems, but I guess we will never know now. Thats how my "new" 96 is. It has a fin & plate style cooler with the heat exchanger in the radiator totally bypassed. I hope it works out good!

So if I were to do I 5 spd swap the cobra radiator is the way to go? Sorry to hijack the thread

 

[NetKeym]

Not with the stock cobra radiator because they all have manual transmission and hence no built in trans heat exchanger. I wish the cobra radiator did have a heat exchanger though because it HAS to be easier to install than the huge aftermarket one I had. On my 94 I used to have two external tranny coolers in series without being hooked into the radiator and it would still give me problems. I was suspicious of airflow problems, but I guess we will never know now. Thats how my "new" 96 is. It has a fin & plate style cooler with the heat exchanger in the radiator totally bypassed. I hope it works out good!

I have the Cobra radiator swap with an external tranny cooler (a medium sized fin type) and I've had no problems. However, I did notice the tranny fluid got dark awful fast (though it does NOT smell burnt), so I picked up a plate style cooler that I am going to add (so I will have have two coolers in series also) when I get around to it and do a fluid change.

 

[Rob]

I hope it works out good. Yes, if you were doing a 5spd swap, going with the cobra rad is almost a no-brainer since it installs so much easier that the super fat radiator I had. Until you do the swap though, you would have to decide what to do about a cooler.

An overheating transmission is embarrassing! Its like the car is going in and out of neutral on you. I sure dont want this to happen again. I will test out this plate style cooler though and see how she works!

 

[Earl]

So, what if somebody decided to go with a built 4R70W in their cobra? What radiator would they use at that point, if the stock radiator does not have a built in heat exchanger for the trans? Could an external plate type trans cooler be used, and still be efficiant, if it where the ONLY source of cooling for the transmission?

 

[RalphP]

So, what if somebody decided to go with a built 4R70W in their cobra? What radiator would they use at that point, if the stock radiator does not have a built in heat exchanger for the trans? Could an external plate type trans cooler be used, and still be efficiant, if it where the ONLY source of cooling for the transmission?

Earl, it's all about BTU transfer.

A good enough external will have the advantage that a hot tranny won't heat up the motor, and an overheating motor won't affect the tranny (as much!).

Again, it's all about BTU transfer.

Biggest negative to a seperate cooler is that it prewarms the air going into the radiator, if it's not well located.

See other threads here for more info.

RwP

 

[tbird_boi82]

wow from the sound of it im prolly better off just going OEM then , i kinda wanted to go with an external trans cooler but if you guys are sayin its not very effective , and could possibly harm my trans ill pass ...

 

[rmfk13]

I would run a tranny cooler as well if I were you dude, first off they look cool, and Ive read around here that they do indeed drop the trans fluid temps. Just dont run the tranny cooler stand alone, run it from the output on the radiator then to the cooler then back to the tranny.

 

[RalphP]

wow from the sound of it im prolly better off just going OEM then , i kinda wanted to go with an external trans cooler but if you guys are sayin its not very effective , and could possibly harm my trans ill pass ...

No, the ones that know what they're doing are saying that you need a big enough cooler, and to put it in the proper location.

Do a search for "Robert Cooler" (here, http://forums.tccoa.com/showthread.php?t=126047&highlight=Robert+cooler ) and see what pops out.

Don't cheap out!

Do NOT cheap out!!

Let me rephrase - compare the price of a rebuilt AOD, and what you pay for a good cooler, and DO NOT CHEAP OUT!

RwP

 

[Rob]

I think external coolers are great. Forgive me for making it sound so bad, lol. That wasn't my intention. I think my engine, sometimes trans, overheating problems were the result of an airflow problem stemming from my missing front air dam. I made an airdam like a week before the car was wrecked and I can say for sure that I had no overheating problems in that period.

This new black '96 has nothing but a plate style cooler that could be a bit bigger, but it has been working great for the previous owner. The trans rebuild shop hooked it up for him after the rebuild because they didnt want the stock cooler in the radiator to cause him any more problems. This could make it that much easier for me to go Cobra this time In fact that is probably what I will end up doing. I may also re-mount the cooler with brackets instead of those crappy round zip tie things through the condenser.

 

[master486]

Just dont run the tranny cooler stand alone, run it from the output on the radiator then to the cooler then back to the tranny.

And the reason for this is...?

 

[_95badbird]

this thread is.....funny.

 

[rmfk13]

I was told not to by a few people, its not like you cant just run the cooler by itself, but running it through the radiators heat exchanger then to a seperate cooler your less likely going to run into problems, and the tranny fluid will be cooled more than it would with just the tranny cooler. And what ralph said its all about location and not being a cheapskate about how you mount it. This is all what I've been told, and it sound like its pretty accurate. Can you tell me what was wrong with the statment I had made?