trans cooler mounted to frame connector, Duster

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rmchrgr

rmchrgr

Skate And Destroy
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Currently my Duster has the stock trans cooler lines up to the radiator. It's connected to rubber lines that go under the rad support to an aux. trans cooler zip tied to the radiator. These are just regular rubber lines with hose clamps. Naturally, they are leaking.

Here's my question - anyone mount one of those dual-pass, aluminum, finned 'heat sink' type of coolers to their frame connectors? Like this.

This way, I can get rid of the stock, car-length lines and not have to mess with fitting things around the rad support to mount the cooler properly.

Also, please confirm that the cooler taps on a 904 case are 1/8" NPT.

Pics would be great!
 
A friend of mine has one on his race car. So far so good. You will see lots of street rods running them.
 
I am definitely interested in the same thing. Having problems routing factory cooler lines on my 74 Duster with headers. Looking at alternatives like this one.. Watching this one for feedback..
 
zig said:
I am definitely interested in the same thing. Having problems routing factory cooler lines on my 74 Duster with headers. Looking at alternatives like this one.. Watching this one for feedback..
Click to expand...

Started the same thread on the 'other' board, consensus over there seems to say that there is not enough air flow under the car. Not sure how much different it would be as it is now zip tied to the radiator.

My concerns about routing are minimal, it is already installed. I may actually stay with what I have and just fix it up but I am exploring options.

Hoses are leaking though so there is an actual need here.
 
I'd love to see a test. One of the radials mounted to frame rail and a fluid switch to run a stacked style up front. Just to observe the difference.

I was going to mount one on the frame rail too. Decided to go the old reliable stacked in front.

I do have a bunch of friends that run them on more drag oriented cars, very little street time. Nobody that I knew could answer the question about any temp differences.
 
I'm having a hard time figuring out why it would not work on the frame connector.

Mounted on the frame rail, fluid does not have to travel as far, so less plumbing and quicker circulation.

I would think (though I could be wrong) that there is enough air flow under the car to sufficiently cool the fins. Is there that much of a difference in airflow when the cooler is behind the grill and right in front of the radiator?

Granted there is more insulation/conduction underneath but how much makes a difference? The cooler would be mounted so as to be exposed to air.
 
Besides, a heat sink by design needs less air flow. It basically transfers heat to the surrounding air.
 
At Chrysler school today, asked my teacher about this deal, showed him the cooler. He said some finned coolers are dsigned to radiate heat outward, some conduct the heat back into wherever they are mounted so in this cas, it would be the frame connector. That's a lot of area = good.

He said to be scientific about it, I need to look into the BTU rating of the particular cooler. He also said I should look ito a deep, finned pan.

He also suggested I look into a factory stacked plate style from an off road Patriot. Heavy duty stuff, lots of cooling area.
 
A friend of mine has one mounted on the rear frame rail on his 9 second Dart. It seems to work fine.
 
Yup, it is a drag car. I would think that cooler would work fine on a street car as well, plus you have longer lines too. Run steel lines with that cooler and it may work well.
 
Badsport said:
Yup, it is a drag car. I would think that cooler would work fine on a street car as well, plus you have longer lines too. Run steel lines with that cooler and it may work well.
Click to expand...

The idea here is to ditch the stock car-length cooler lines and run some AN hose to the cooler. It would end up right next to the trans on the frame connector.

Just had the thought as I write this that when fluid is out of the case and in the lines it's sort of exposed to air. Then it goes into the cooler (which does not really cool too much) and back to the case. I wonder if shortening the lines will affect the rate of cooling either way.
 
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