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Transmission, Oil, and Power Steering Coolers Install
So, here's what I've been up to.
Since I posted this pic I made a lot of changes. To be honest, I didn't like this arrangement and some people giving me honest feedback finally made me go back and change things.
1- Brooks, the diesel mechanic who's been giving me advice, swung by. He said although the trans cooler would work in this orientation they tend to trap air in the upper plates.
2- Elliot, from the hydroboost thread, dropped me a note and suggested a two pass cooler similar to what's used on the F-350's would be better for power steering cooling.
3- The oil cooler I was going to use has only 3/8" lines and that concerned me.
Solutions:
1- Rotate trans cooler 90 degrees.
2- Use the 20", two pass cooler I had sitting in a box and mount it under the intercooler for the power steering.
3- Take the huge 1/2" line oil cooler I had, that wouldn't fit, cut it up, and make it fit.
Constantly use compressed air to back flush the lines to keep cuttings out. Pry off the unneeded fins.
Salvage the end plate and carefully reinstall it.
Salvage the U-bend and solder back on using an acid flux solder made for radiators. I don't know why, but when I tried to reinstall the u-bend the solder wouldn't wick properly and I didn't trust the new joint for something as critical as my primary oil line. Ultimately, I destroyed it trying to fix the problem and had to fashion a bend out of standard plumbing pieces.
Edit- Since writing the above I decided to take the oil cooler to Preformance Radiator, in Tacoma, to have it professionally silver soldered. Although what I did would most likely have worked, after the issues I had it wasn't worth risking a new engine to save $40.
Now, when I remount the intercooler, this is how things are going to be. The blue tape on the intercooler shows where the body sheetmetal is. I had to keep the main bodies of the coolers between the tape lines, with the powersteering cooler underneath. The oil cooler lines will now make 90 degree bends and come through the sheetmetal into the engine compartment.