Im building a yard car to haul firewood up to the house using all the junk parts from around the house. The radiator i have has a leaky trans cooler but holds coolant fine. Im not planning to put ac on this car can i use the condenser as a transmission cooler? Would there be any downside to this or would it just work

it would keep the ATF too cool but for a farm car and short hard workouts who cares?   if you checked temps you could ziptie cardboard in front of it to reduce airflow if you wanted to curb cooling.

they're all metal construction - i give it a thumbs up.

Edited January 27, 20215 yr by idosubaru

That''s a good point - for short term use around the farm, in CT, how about just bypassing the rad altogether and looping the oil?

I have 2 concerns.

1. Overcooling. Depending on how you're using it, the factory exchanger in the radiator is warming the fluid more than cooling it. And a condenser is going to provide a lot of surface area. Although it won't have much air flow through it, so it might not be an issue...

2. Volume/flow/pressure. I'd be concerned that the ports at the end tanks and/or passages in the exchanger itself would be too small for the volume of flow being pumped through it. The condenser (as the name implies) is designed to have a pressure and state-of-matter difference across it, where a trans cooler is not.

 

If it's a short and easy drive, I'd probably just loop the hoses. If there's some distance, and/or are likely to have some load on it (hills, mud, snow, etc.), I'd probably bend a loop of NiCopp hard line in front of the radiator. Either way, I would then keep an eye on temperatures with an OBDII scanner (if it's new enough) or an infrared gun, and upgrade as necessary.

For a yard car this may not be a problem. With a 4EAT when the ATF is cold the transmission will not shift into 4th gear. If it is hot the shift points are raised.

yeah, details eetc.

 

3 hours of operation  /=  20 minutes of operation

 

I like the coiled connection loop idea, still, might depend on the actual use.....

You'd spend almost as much in fluid hose to get to the passenger side a you would for an aftermmarket trans cooler.

I’ve connected both hoses together, leaving no cooler. Not ideal or recommended but it works and would be suitable for some nontraditional uses if one is mindful of loads, duration and ambient temps. Check temps if you want to/can. 

Being winter I wouldn’t hesitate to do it now just to keep the farm vehicle going til better weather. 

Edited January 28, 20215 yr by idosubaru

Got the beast running yesterday ended up not able to use the radiator I planned to and gorilla glued the crack on the other radiator. Its holding for now

AC condenser tubes can be too small to accommodate trans fluid. Bad idea. Older R12 units may work, but newer stuff has such tiny passages that it would never work for ATF. 

GD

  

Farm ?? 
 

In New Canaan ? 

not a farm no just have a bunch of woods behind the house and some trails with a bunch of downed trees that need to get back up the hill to the house. ended up using the cooler in the radiator i repaired.

Cool. I had thought from your ads when you were selling those cars that you were in a condo. 

This car has paid off now a few times. Its hauled a bunch of wood and it became a plow this morning and plowed throgh a foot of snow

 

Edited February 1, 20215 yr by sirtokesalot

so this thing leaks massive amounts of fluids. might have to actually replace a couple more gaskets lol. when we built it the only parts that got replaced were the head gaskets and the torque converter seal. every other gasket got re used.

well it was fun while it lasted. the cars now stuck in my snow filled yard the front diff seems to have blown up because only the rear tires turn now. i wasent even pushing it hard i literally just eased into the snow filled yard got about 2 car lengths in then there was a small pop/clunk sound and the front wheels stopped receiving power. if anyone in ct has a junk transmission that still worked i would love to acquire it for my yard beater.

Edited February 15, 20215 yr by sirtokesalot

Or did you just break a CV

i jumped on it blowing up to soon. when it first happened i looked under it with the rear tires spinning and did not see the front axles turning so thought it blew up. i did look again after and noticed the drivers axle pulled out of the transmission. my fault i just swapped the legacy struts for outback struts in front and it likely pulled out a bit while it was apart then came out when i tried to drive into the yard. i got it back together and it is working again.

double check diff fluid level afterwards.

Edited February 15, 20215 yr by 1 Lucky Texan