Engine Utilize trans cooler on manual car?

hemi_fan

Active Member
Apr 8, 2004
279
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28
Ontario, Canada
I am working on my 90 5.0 street/track-day build. To handle the lapping sessions I am doing some cooling upgrades. I bought the SVE 3-row aluminum rad and electric fan set-up from LMR as well as a stand-alone generic trans cooler. My car is a 5-speed but I plan to use the trans cooler for the power steering since I used to run into ps overflow issues on track.

I didn't realize until I went to install it today but the radiator has provisions for the trans cooler for AOD cars. Now I am wondering is I should run the ps fluid through the radiator instead, or radiator and then stand-alone cooler. I'm also thinking about adding an oil cooler and have seen the nice but very expensive Mishimoto set-up.

Has anyone used the radiator trans coolant loop for steering or engine oil instead? What was your rationale and how did it turn out?
 
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I would do a standalone. Especially if you are actually racing on a track.

PS fluid can get pretty hot, almost 2x the coolant tenp. The cooler in the radiator is s small water to water cooler, and you are limited to the coolant temp as a bottom limit.
 
Thanks for the comments. I’m still on the fence about whether it would be a good idea to put it in series with the stand alone cooler but I ended up deciding not to use it as my overflow bottle is blocking the fittings anyway once I got everything mocked up.