Collapsed Transmission Cooler In Rad

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scatpackbee

scatpackbee

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I sent my factory 69 Dart rad out for a new high efficiency core and the rad shop told me my transmission cooler in the lower tank was collapsed. There was no external damage to the lower tank.

Has anyone ever heard of this before?

The only thing I can think might has caused this was I installed threaded plugs in the transmission cooler when I was running a 4 speed.

Do you think that might cause the tank to collapse due to temperature changes and no venting?
 
scatpackbee said:
Do you think that might cause the tank to collapse due to temperature changes and no venting
Click to expand...
Assuming you plugged the old one when it was cold i would expect it to presurize and expand rather then collapse from temp change. After it has been replaced do some forensic disection on the old one.
 
It happens. Everything has a life span.
 
scatpackbee said:
I sent my factory 69 Dart rad out for a new high efficiency core and the rad shop told me my transmission cooler in the lower tank was collapsed. There was no external damage to the lower tank.

Has anyone ever heard of this before?

The only thing I can think might has caused this was I installed threaded plugs in the transmission cooler when I was running a 4 speed.

Do you think that might cause the tank to collapse due to temperature changes and no venting?
Click to expand...
I have never experienced this but can believe your theory .
 
The only other explanation would be the tank was damaged and replaced using the damaged cooler.
 
I got my transmission cooler back from my rad guy and had the time to cut it open at work and here is what I found.

The inner coolant passage has totally collapsed not allowing any cool coolant flow down through the centre of the cooler body. Thankfully it opened up the passage for the transmission oil flow through the outer wall passage of the cooler.

To have the inner passage close up that tight, to me this looks like it was caused by a huge pressure differential between both passages within the cooler due to my plugging of both transmission ports witt NPT fittings when I was running a manual transmission.


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Thanks. I didn't know what they looked like inside. Perhaps another reason to just use an external cooler and not plumbed the radiator cooler in series, like I did in some of my cars. My concern is leaking coolant into the transmission fluid, since I heard that can quickly destroy the clutch plates.
 
Just replace the radiator. Over and done.
 
Thankfully my radiator guy had a good used replacement he installed when recoring the rad.

The cooler is a lot smaller and simpler than I imagined.

Good thing I run an auxiliary transmission cooler too.
 
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