So the aftermarket radiator I picked up from radiators.com (good people, btw, got that radiator rushed to me [one day shipping] for cheap $150) was obviously designed as a "generic" radiator... it's got the lines coming off from it for the automatic transmission cooler.

 

I figure those lines are sealed, separate from the rest of the radiator, since I plugged one with my finger, and blew into the other, and just built up pressure.

 

Seein' as I've got a manual transmission, I won't be using this to cool nonexistant ATF. Is there anything else I could put those lines to use for? I hate having something on my car that doesn't serve a purpose, as meaningless as that purpose might be.

if your car was turbo you could use it as a resevior for an AWIC

that "cooler" is so lame in usefulness that it's really not worth the trouble in trying to cool your oil, power steering fluid, differential fluid, trans gear oil, anything with it. it's not worth the possibility of hooking something up wrong, additional clamps = additional modes of failure, not worth it. even in an automatic the best thing to do is completely ignore the radiator lines and install a *real* aftermarket cooler that's dedicated to the ATF. when i buy new radiators i get manual transmission radiators if i have a choice because even if it's for an auto trans i'm installing (or already have one installed) an aftermarket cooler. the radiator gets very hot and the side tank that the cooling lines run through doesn't do a very good job of cooling since it's not even much of a heat exchanger. the fins and cooling lines are all dedicated to the antifreeze/coolant, the ATF only pases through the side tank. i'd guess a large part of the "cooling" happens as it passes through the ATF hoses and not the cooler.