Happy birthday to me (trans cooler failed)

[patracy]

Finally starting to see some improvement! I think another 10 gallons of hyd fluid and I'm ready to take it for a test drive. I've used a quart of denatured alcohol in with my first 5 gallons of hyd fluid. I think this made a major impact as the fluid started to separate quick then!

So the fluid exchange has been like this.

Coolant/Water/ATF mix - Drain
Refill with 5 gallons of 15W40 - Drain
Refill with 5 gallons of Hyd Fluid - Drain
Refill with 5 gallons of Hyd Fluid - Drain
Refill with 5 gallons of Hyd Fluid - Drain
Refill with 5 gallons of Hyd Fluid - Drain
Refill with 4 gallons of diesel fuel - Drain
Refill with 4 gallons of diesel fuel - Drain
Refill with 4 gallons of diesel fuel - Drain
Refill with 4 gallons of diesel fuel - Drain
Refill with 4 gallons of diesel fuel - Drain
Refill with 4 gallons of diesel fuel - Drain
Refill with 5 gallons of Hyd Fluid and a quart of denatured alcohol - Drain (Ran truck for 2.5hrs with block heater plugged in as well) *still cloudy but improved vastly
Refill with 5 gallons of Hyd Fluid - Drain (Ran truck for 2hrs, plugged in as well) *getting more clear/amber in color, but still a little milkyness to it.

Fun, this is not.

 

[wheelspinner]

You're getting close to the cost of a new tranny. Just saying.

 

[patracy]

You're getting close to the cost of a new tranny. Just saying.

Yeah, I'm up to about $325 in fluids total on the trans flush. Well $330 counting the Alcohol. From what I've seen, it's more like a 750 to 1K for a transmission. Well, there's one in the classifieds now for $350 now that I see it. But I know I'd have another $200-300 to get it down to me via freight.

I'll probably end up letting this stuff settle for a while and skim/filter it and use it in the deuce. My main thing is, I didn't want to pull the transmission if I don't have to. The crane setup is straddling the transmission bellhousing to the point it'd have to be removed to pull the transmission.

Honestly I think I'd have had better/faster results if I'd have done two sessions of diesel fuel and alcohol from the start and seeing it up to warm temps instead of just oils.

 

[patracy]

DANG IT!

I had it to the point where the oil coming out the test port looked great. Clear coming out. Course this was only idling in N. Went for a drive just around the block and check, milky again. I'm going to let it drain again overnight. Tomorrow I'll drop another 5 gallons into it with some more denatured alcohol and take it for a longer drive and make sure it gets through all the gears.

On the positive side, it felt fine on the shifts 1-3.

 

[Tow4]

What kind of pressure is on the cooler line? If its low enough, maybe you could try running it through a water separating fuel filter.

 

[patracy]

What kind of pressure is on the cooler line? If its low enough, maybe you could try running it through a water separating fuel filter.

Wouldn't think a water separating filter would house enough water to be effective.

That said, earlier this week I ran another 8 gallons of diesel through it. Then I honestly got tied up with work and let it drip for 3 days. Poured three bottles of Isoheet (IPA) in it and more hyd fluid. Let it run for a while and the oil is golden coming out of the port. I also put it in all gears. Nothing changed on the color. I'll give it another drive, only longer if it's not a shake again. I'm thinking what happened was there was a lot of "shake" left in the valve body and driving it flushed that out.

 

[o1951]

Well, look at the bright side- you will recover a lot of the $$$ when you burn it.

 

[patracy]

Well, look at the bright side- you will recover a lot of the $$$ when you burn it.

I noticed a 20oz coke bottle I filled up with "froth" already had started settling out. I'm just going to let all this stuff sit for a while and come back to it later. I'm not about to put it in any hydraulics, but if it settles/separates into something clear, I'll burn it as fuel.

 

[wreckerman893]

The torque converter was prob full of crud too. When you drove it all that came out in the mix. Just my thoughts.

 

[patracy]

Drove around the block, oil is still pretty clear, I think/home/pray it's time for a longer drive to heat it up good and drive out the moisture and IPA.

 

[Tow4]

You realize it doesn't take much water to turn the oil white. Depending on the type of oil, you are only looking at a fraction of a percent to a few percent of the volume of oil. Considering how many times you have changed the oil, I think the level of contamination is down to the point you could get the rest out with a water separating filter. Most of the filters I have seen have about a one quart capacity, but I'm sure there are smaller available if you have a space issue.

The problem is you will still have coolant in the oil, even when it looks clear and it will take a long time for it to evaporate out under use, if ever. I would want to get it all out as quick as possible.

Good luck.

 

[patracy]

That is why I shifted to using diesel fuel. Much cheaper per gallon and would mix with water easier. Also I've added IPA into it as well, that helps lift the water out of the oil as well as evaporate it faster along with the glycol.

There's just not a water separating filter that I know of that would be up to the task of flowing the amount of fluid that passes through that 1" hose. I want it out, make no doubt, otherwise I wouldn't have gone through so many gallons of oil and fuel.

I did go for a lengthy drive today. And this is the interesting part. When I first started out, it acted a little weird, but once I got up to speed, everything from that point acted fine. But that's not what I found interesting. This transmission has ALWAYS short shifted. To the point where I just manually shifted it all the time. Now it shifts correctly. I actually just popped it in 5th gear from the gas station and drove the rest of the way home and it acted like it was intended to. Downshifts as well coming to a stop didn't seem to try to plant my face on the windshield. I didn't need to mash down and try to see if it'd downshift into 4th though, even going uphill. (That turbo was so worth it...)

I'm going to let this batch stay in it for a little while. Get a few more drives on it. Then I'll drain and fill again. I've got 10 or 15 more gallons of hyd fluid here.

 

[o1951]

You realize it doesn't take much water to turn the oil white. Depending on the type of oil, you are only looking at a fraction of a percent to a few percent of the volume of oil. Considering how many times you have changed the oil, I think the level of contamination is down to the point you could get the rest out with a water separating filter. Most of the filters I have seen have about a one quart capacity, but I'm sure there are smaller available if you have a space issue.

The problem is you will still have coolant in the oil, even when it looks clear and it will take a long time for it to evaporate out under use, if ever. I would want to get it all out as quick as possible.

Good luck.

You are certainly right.
Excellent idea!
The problem is after it goes thru cooler, it lubes bearings. If the filter restricts flow too much, then he will have to do what he has been trying to avoid - R&R .

He could adapt your idea by filtering externally, or doing an add on pump & filter.

I am not familiar with that trans. Most of the ones I worked on had converter drain plugs, which make flushing out old oil a lot easier, and R trans a lot less messy.

 

[patracy]

External pump and filtering wouldn't get the brunt of the oil. It's all the little nooks and crannies that are the trouble. There's also no converter drain plug. That alone would have saved me a lot of time and hassle.

I'm just going to drive it a few more times on this oil, then refill, then drive some more. Then refill, then drive some more. I think some of the current cloudiness is from the IPA as well. (smells like it)

As I mentioned earlier, the transmission actually is shifting better than it ever had before.

 

[patracy]

Drained the oil out a couple more days and topped it back off again. Drove it around the block, no snot. Oil is pretty clear now.

Also I did manage to think ahead a little and drain off various oil changes into 20oz bottles. The first "test drive" on oil changes settled out in a day or two with "snot" in the bottom. The next oil change has sat, but no water/snot settling out of it just cloudyness, but possibly the IPA. Last oil change has also sat since I let it drip. None at all in it. There's a very very thin layer of IPA separation on it too with the haze.

Transmission shifted well still. Put it in 5th and away we go now.

 

[Carlo]

I never really saw many good things from a engine water cooler trans radiator other than if you lived in the Arctic regions warming the trans fluid when it's less 30 below. But in the summer the trans temp must run the same temp as the motor. I eliminated this stock cooler and went to a air cooler and never saw those 200 plus trans temps again. In the winter I warm the trans at idle and drive correctly till the trans temp comes up.

 

[patracy]

I never really saw many good things from a engine water cooler trans radiator other than if you lived in the Arctic regions warming the trans fluid when it's less 30 below. But in the summer the trans temp must run the same temp as the motor. I eliminated this stock cooler and went to a air cooler and never saw those 200 plus trans temps again. In the winter I warm the trans at idle and drive correctly till the trans temp comes up.

Got a link to the air cooler you used or where to get one? I'd MUCH rather have that instead! It gets down to single digits where I live like maybe once every other year, and only for a couple of days at most.

 

[Carlo]

Got a link to the air cooler you used or where to get one? I'd MUCH rather have that instead! It gets down to single digits where I live like maybe once every other year, and only for a couple of days at most.

It came off a 215 CAT excavator. It's used as the cooler for the hydraulics in the 215. It was a very hard thing to adapt and if I had to do it again I'd buy a HD off the shelf Allison stock cooler. I mounted it to the radiator supports. Wrong to due for I cracked the top support then the bottom. The stock radiator supports are barely enough for the radiator let along a 35 kg hydraulic cooler. How do you guys say there, Spent a dollar to save a dime!
What weight oil are you using for the flush?

 

[patracy]

I've been using cheaper 10wt hyd oil. I'll switch it over to the travelers heavy duty trans oil probably next change.

 

[o1951]

Got a link to the air cooler you used or where to get one? I'd MUCH rather have that instead! It gets down to single digits where I live like maybe once every other year, and only for a couple of days at most.

Ya might want to check that out. In 1978, we were hauling heavy and auto trans got too hot. We had same idea, or alternatively, adding a cooler after stock one in radiator. Chrysler told us not to. Trans fluid supposed to be at a certain temperature.

They sold us a kit that hooked in before the radiator cooler. The add on cooler mounted in front of stock radiator.That way it got cooled, but not too much. Worked great. Returned vehicle to stock when sold it, kept cooler.