radiator transmission lines help

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chryslerman6772

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i have a 71 dart with a 440&727 in it. i'm looking for some transmission lines that would work it. would the transmission lines for a 67-69 383 dart,cuda work for my car? also have a aftermarket radiator in it as well.
 
It depends on which fittings your raidator has. It would appear (but I haven't really looked into this completely) that later radiators have one fitting where the early cars had another. My Barracuda had a '73 slant in it with the '73 radiator, etc. Those lines won't fit my 60s radiators.
 
6602, 6701, 7001 - they should all work about the same. The 6701, for example, covers (really) small to BB applications. They basically come out of the same point on the tranny's and go to the same point at the bottom of the radiator. The bends between those two points will vary but you're not doing a factory resto and that's what those lines are designed to duplicate. Even your aftermarket downflow radiator will have cooler fittings located very close to the factory.

There are tight bends that come out of the tranny fittings, some weird bends in the bellhousing area, and then it's a straight shot forward along the oil pan rail before they bend left and right to line up with the radiator fittings. In your case you just need to find the best match (since 440's didn't come in 71 Darts) and make slight mods as needed. A '69 BB Dart (RTC6602) appears to be the best match.

Then, you just need flare fittings to match the lines on one end and the pipe fitting holes on the rad. A decent auto parts store should have them.

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70Duster440 said:
6602, 6701, 7001 - they should all work about the same. The 6701, for example, covers (really) small to BB applications. They basically come out of the same point on the tranny's and go to the same point at the bottom of the radiator. The bends between those two points will vary but you're not doing a factory resto and that's what those lines are designed to duplicate. Even your aftermarket downflow radiator will have cooler fittings located very close to the factory.

There are tight bends that come out of the tranny fittings, some weird bends in the bellhousing area, and then it's a straight shot forward along the oil pan rail before they bend left and right to line up with the radiator fittings. In your case you just need to find the best match (since 440's didn't come in 71 Darts) and make slight mods as needed. A '69 BB Dart (RTC6602) appears to be the best match.

Then, you just need flare fittings to match the lines on one end and the pipe fitting holes on the rad. A decent auto parts store should have them.

images
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well thanks i was thinkin about gettin those lines just wasn't sure. sounds like they will work then.
 
There are no guarantee's with some of this stuff. Sometimes you just have to try it.
 
I would not buy cooler lines from Summit, I purchased a set from them for my Duster and the lines were not properly flared correctly. I wound up going with steel braided lines. I would buy them from year one or one of those guy's.
 
then after you get it all plumbed in so nicely you'll be waiting for the time when the cooler will fail and mess the motor and trans up but go ahead and plumb it into the radiator if you want.
 
Any good auto parts store will carry 5/16 cooler line in 60" pieces
You will need 4 pieces of line and 4 5/16 female flair nuts , and 2 5/16 line unions.

Cut one end off each line with tubing cutter, replace male fittings with female fittings,
bend lines to match old ones and replace lines in sections to clear all obsticals (dont kink lines when bending), fairly easy job to do, couple lines in center with unions.

Lon;
 
I think by the time you do all the leg work and frustration with bending and scrapping hard lines, you would be better off with the braided. This is what I did, looks great, not to tough to install, etc. Kind of spendy up front, but you don't have to worry too much about rubbing holes in them.
 
Purple Haze said:
? Explain
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Too many parts in these older cars have rigid mountings. Stress and vibration cracks stuff. Then your engine and trans can move. See where I'm going here ?
Newer cars can get by with plastic radiator tanks but.. those lines have rubber hose sections and the radiator is mounted in rubber saddles.
I would be afraid to use the trans cooler built in a aftermarket radiater too unless I put a rubber line section near the radiater. That still isn't as fail safe as a external aftermarket cooler.
 
I have used Classic Tube for my fuel and brake lines. High quality stuff. Go stainless if you want it to stay looking good. When (if) you go to connect the lines to the radiator cooler connections, check whether they are pipe thread or inverted flare. Champion radiators for one are inverted flare..... Jamming a pipe thread fitting into an inverted flare port will ruin the aluminum threads.
 
Purple Haze said:
? Explain
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:eek:ops:
ok so i will. yes it happened to me. the trans fluid turns to a pepto bezmal state and goes completely through the engine and trans. the trans has to be taken completely apart and everything cleaned. the motor has to have the T-stat removed and flushed out until there is no more pepto coming out. it takes awhile to do. the radiator is toss into the scrap heap. the cost to using the radiator trans cooler is one rad, one external cooler, a trans rebuild and the hour to back flush the motor. that was the last time i use the internal trans cooler.
 
Just gave way like that or was it something else, like twisting the connection do to an over torqued line fitting?
 
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