Transmission cooler tank ruptured into Engine coolant

[John Keyburn]

Hello Folks, yesterday was a sad day. My 1962 Plymouth Savoy with its new radiator I installed last summer threw me a curve ball yesterday.. Had the car out last night and noticed some coolant weeping from the radiator overflow tube, not a big deal I thought, but looking closer at the puddle it looked a little pink.

Unfortunately it looks like the internal trans cooler ruptured into the engine coolant

Questions for the experienced:
Is there a good external trans cooler that would tuck away somewhere nicely and not look too out of place on a 1962 Plymouth Max Wedge Clone?
Radiator will be repaired under warranty, but given the extensive time and cost to decontaminate the Trans and Engine due to the leak I am very gun shy about using a combo setup again. I'd rather keep them separate.

Additionally, who has tips on the best way to:
flush an engine contaminated with transmission fluid
flush a 727 transmission contaminated with engine coolant
flush a torque convertor contaminated with engine coolant

 

[zyzzyx]

Dang! Now you've got me worried!

 

[66Newport]

Is that a rebuilt unit? Or was it brand new? Best of luck in getting it straightened out.

 

[John Keyburn]

Is that a rebuilt unit? Or was it brand new? Best of luck in getting it straightened out.

new unit.

 

[Fran Blacker]

There are places that remove cooler lines at trans and pump new trans fluid in. Not sure if engine needs to run but you need to drop the pan.

 

[pnora]

Engine can be flushed with Cascade dish washer soap. Works real well and is commonly used with diesels. As far as transmission goes drain the converter and pull the pan along with blowing out the cooling lines. Let it drain well for a day or two. Refill and run. You may want to do it a second time. If your pan had a drain plug you can crack it a bit to see if any coolant comes out. Best done if the car sits a few days as any coolant will be on the bottom. I would still run the factory radiator and transmission cooler. Your failure is very rare but can happen.

 

[Billccm]

Interesting to know radiator manufacturer. Assume Chinesium?

 

[dadsbee]

Trans pressure higher than radiator.. ATF in the antifreeze, but I doubt there's antifreeze in the ATF ...

 

[Sam69sat]

Early 2000's Nissans were notorious for this. Radiator would break between the coolant and transmission cooling side. Hard to know until the transmission stops shifting and by that time it's too late. Thousands of dollars down the drain. They call is SMOD (strawberry milkshake of death).

 

[pnora]

Trans pressure higher than radiator.. ATF in the antifreeze, but I doubt there's antifreeze in the ATF ...

I was thinking the same. Figured the only reason he asked was because he had seen coolant in the transmission.

 

[dadsbee]

The whole experience sucks... why I always do this before putting one in.

 

[493 Mike]

I remember when my Dad's new 1964 New Yorker did the same thing, under warranty. Thanks for the memory!
Mike

 

[R413]

Pull the trans dipstick and you will know real quick if coolant got in there. Will be a milkshake.

 

[John Keyburn]

All, thanks for all the replies so far. I may have dodged (or is it Plymouth’s) disaster. Checking the dipstick, no milkshake, not much at all on it actually. Which tells me trans fluid went out, but no coolant in(hopefully)
This makes sense is the failure was a small one and since as others have noted trans PSI is about 3-4 times that of engine coolant.

Naturally I’m not going to start the car up to check the the trans level the proper way. I suppose I could pull the plug and check that way too later to be sure.

Radiator manuf is standing by their product and will repair and ship to/fro all covered, so that’s good too.

DadsBee: like the idea of pressure testing the trans loop with the balloon in the engine coolant side. What PSI do you recommend pressure testing to?

 

[Fran Blacker]

I'd consider dropping the pan. Wonder what others think.

 

[RemCharger]

All, thanks for all the replies so far. I may have dodged (or is it Plymouth’s) disaster. Checking the dipstick, no milkshake, not much at all on it actually. Which tells me trans fluid went out, but no coolant in(hopefully)
This makes sense is the failure was a small one and since as others have noted trans PSI is about 3-4 times that of engine coolant.

Naturally I’m not going to start the car up to check the the trans level the proper way. I suppose I could pull the plug and check that way too later to be sure.

Radiator manuf is standing by their product and will repair and ship to/fro all covered, so that’s good too.

DadsBee: like the idea of pressure testing the trans loop with the balloon in the engine coolant side. What PSI do you recommend pressure testing to?

But is it really a balloon??

 

[dadsbee]

DadsBee: like the idea of pressure testing the trans loop with the balloon in the engine coolant side. What PSI do you recommend pressure testing to?

Transmission cooler, as shown is at about 35psi and left for days. The radiator itself, two condoms and the rad cap in, snifter valve in the drain cock port. Best you get is about 2 psi, but if you leave it they will stay either inflated, or in the case of a huge atmospheric pressure change they'll go inside like a vacuum. How I test airplane fuel tanks..

 

[John Keyburn]

Yesterday I removed the radiator for sending back. Rad shop he need great! Answered every email and call right away, friendly and accommodating. The rad was picked up by UPS today, sounds like I’ll have it back repaired better than new my next week.

Installed the old radiator.

In the mean time per their recommendation did a Cascade Powder detergent clean:
- 1/2 cup in warm water.
- Fill engine and rad with water and the detergent, run for 30 mins.
- Drain detergent. Disconnect lower hose for flooding release of coolant.
- Then plug up lower hose and refill engine from top hose with hot water. (I used a small rag inside a sandwich bag). Then Unplug lower hose to dump the water quickly
- Repeat 6 times total.
- Rinsed radiator separately while detached from hoses.
- Repeated the whole cascade wash and 6 x rinse a second time.

Water feels non-slippery now, thats when they say all is good.

Now to wait for the new radiator

 

[pnora]

Yesterday I removed the radiator for sending back. Rad shop he need great! Answered every email and call right away, friendly and accommodating. The rad was picked up by UPS today, sounds like I’ll have it back repaired better than new my next week.

Installed the old radiator.

In the mean time per their recommendation did a Cascade Powder detergent clean:
- 1/2 cup in warm water.
- Fill engine and rad with water and the detergent, run for 30 mins.
- Drain detergent. Disconnect lower hose for flooding release of coolant.
- Then plug up lower hose and refill engine from top hose with hot water. (I used a small rag inside a sandwich bag). Then Unplug lower hose to dump the water quickly
- Repeat 6 times total.
- Rinsed radiator separately while detached from hoses.
- Repeated the whole cascade wash and 6 x rinse a second time.

Water feels non-slippery now, thats when they say all is good.

Now to wait for the new radiator

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View attachment 1631548

It will not be uncommon to see some oil residue at the radiator cap opening. After it runs and sits the oil will rise to the top. Just take a suction gun and suck it out. Just the nature of what happens when oil gets in the cooling system. Very common with diesels with injector cup failures and any engine with a block mounted oil cooler when it fails. Chrysler even had a old TSB on water soluble core oil. It was excess oil put into the blocks after being casted to prevent rust. They just said multiple cleanings the overflow bottle until all was removed.

 

[John Keyburn]

It will not be uncommon to see some oil residue at the radiator cap opening. After it runs and sits the oil will rise to the top. Just take a suction gun and suck it out. Just the nature of what happens when oil gets in the cooling system. Very common with diesels with injector cup failures and any engine with a block mounted oil cooler when it fails. Chrysler even had a old TSB on water soluble core oil. It was excess oil put into the blocks after being casted to prevent rust. They just said multiple cleanings the overflow bottle until all was removed.

Thank you, I will keep that in mind!