Transmission Cooler Under Car Suggestions Needed (1965 Belvedere II)

[Paul Cotton]

I presently have a transmission cooler located in front of my radiator and am having engine overheating problems. As you can see, the transmission cooler blocks off a significant portion of the radiator, the electric fan and fan on the motor are unable to keep the motor cool when in traffic.
See Photo Below. 1965 Plymouth Belvedere II, 440 engine, cam and headers.

Part of my fix for the engine overheating issue, is that I want to move the transmission cooler under the car and out of the engine compartment. I plan on reusing the cooler in the photo and just relocate it.

I found the photos below on line showing under car mounts, any comments or suggestions?

 

[pnora]

My opinion a waste of time and it is not going to fix the problem. Does the car overheat at cruise speeds? Is there a shroud on the engine driven fan?

 

[#41]

A fan on the trans cooler will not be as effective as air moving through the grille, but still better than a stock radiator tank cooler.

I agree that your overheating problem is very unlikely to be the trans cooler. That pusher fan you have mounted is very ineffective. Not sure what the engine side looks like.

 

[RemCharger]

Agree with the above.
A real fan, with a real shroud, to pull real air through the rad is what's needed. Then ditch the electric pusher on front

 

[diesel_lv]

You don't indicate when you have your cooling issues, stop n go slow cruising or 45 n above driving. 22" or 26" radiator? I've got 496" w a/c condenser in front of radiator and large trans cooler in front of that. 26" radiator and no room for fan clutch. Using a direct drive 19" fan w stock shroud, temps stay well within limits in 125° summers with the a/c on. In stop n go and highway/interstate driving.

 

[PlymCrazy]

Show us what you got going on, on the engine side of the radiator.

 

[VANDAN]

What about the radiator itself ? Is it not sized correctly, or just not enough cooling capacity for your needs ?

 

[Snook]

My recommendation is... DON"T mount it under the car unless it's strictly a drag car and even then hope you don't spring a leak and coat the undercarriage or even worse your rear tires. Not good. I had an undercar mounted cooler and did not have any issues but I did observe some dents in the fins and tubing from rocks getting thrown up, I got lucky IMO.

Chuck (snook)

 

[Timmayy]

I agree with the majority. Trans cooler and radiator should have air flowing through with no issues. The problem lies elsewhere.

 

[ckessel]

Here is how I set up my coolers. P/S, trans, engine. Mounted them to the stone shield behind the bumper. Only the condenser is in front of the radiator[ BeCool unit]. I read a tech article in a magazine I have a subscription to, Race Car Engineering, that covered issues like this on F1, LMP and some other series. They showed thermal images of different variations of heat exchanger orientations, so that was my guide. On my car, the opening in the center of the bumper will get modded so it has a larger opening right in front of the coolers giving them their own airflow. Radiator and condenser still get there through the grille. The other thing I did was make my own core support. The original one was hacked up and showed it. The new one is wide enough on the opening so the entire core of the radiator is exposed to air and the tanks are behind the baffles

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Here is how I set up my coolers. P/S, trans, engine. Mounted them to the stone shield behind the bumper. Only the condenser is in front of the radiator[ BeCool unit]. I read a tech article in a magazine I have a subscription to, Race Car Engineering, that covered issues like this on F1, LMP and some other series. They showed thermal images of different variations of heat exchanger orientations, so that was my guide. On my car, the opening in the center of the bumper will get modded so it has a larger opening right in front of the coolers giving them their own airflow. Radiator and condenser still get there through the grille. The other thing I did was make my own core support. The original one was hacked up and showed it. The new one is wide enough on the opening so the entire core of the radiator is exposed to air and the tanks are behind the baffles

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Nice work CK.
There is more than one way to reskin a cat.

 

[ckessel]

Nice work CK.
There is more than one way to reskin a cat.

Thank you. Since I totally redid the core support, that was a big benefit. Old one got the boot, new done from square and rectangle tube plus 16ga sheet.