Automatic Transmission Oil Cooler as Rad

I bought an automatic transmission oil cooler to use as the radiator for my WC setup. It's very big 11''x7''1/4 and it has fittings for 3/8'' tubing but it's not made of copper. It's very light so it might be aluminum. It was pretty expensive too, something like CDN$80.

The problem is: i'm having second thoughts. Maybe I should have gotten an 89 Chevy Camaro heatercore instead???

Will this do the job or should I go change it for the Camaro heatercore???

Oh BTW I'll be cooling a Celeron 1.1A with a 172W peltier+chipset+GPU block so it needs to dissipate lots of heat.

cooler

hey man, imo the heater core is definitely the way to go. You will get a fair amount of restriction fromt the trans cooler where as the heater core will cause very little restriction and would have been alot cheaper. I bought a heater core for the late 70's olds,buick station wagons with a/c cause its a bigger core its like 12"x6"x2"thick so Im gonna put 2 120mm fans on it. And it only cost me like $37CAD brand new. Your cooler would work im sure but the heater cores I feel are better for flow and price. The camaro heater core is cheaper around $29CAD for a new one.

he is very correct, and there is no way that that little tranny cooler will dissipate 300watts of heat or so.. NO WAY the heatercore will dissipate that and MORE

if your a little more space restrictive you could go with a 86chevette core.. its an inch smaller

Okay well Canadian Tire won't take the transmission cooler without a proof of purchase which I threw away so I'll have to wait for my debit card statement to come in the mail to show 'em I bought the damn thing... (it's even written Canadian Tire on the box!!!)

Anyway I'm not really limited by price as I already had paid CDN$90 for the transmission cooler so anything that's less than that is OK. Also concerning size there's really no limit, the system will be housed in a huge Antec SX1200 Full Tower (8.1"x26.4"x18"), plus I don't care putting the rad outside the case. Basically I'm looking for the best heatercore on the market...

Oh and if the outlets are 3/8" or 1/2" that would be a huge plus because I hate soldering (I have a tendency to burn myself...) although I'd get my soldering iron out for the good cause.

PS: If possible I'd like to have pretty specific year/car model because the guys at the store seem to be mentally challenged and are no help at all.

PSS: I need to do this WC thing quick because the noise from the 7500rpm, 7.2watt Y.S.Tech fan that's cooling my CPU right now is killing everyone in the family. With the window open, it can be heard clearly from about 80 feet outside the house!!!!

omg u bought a new trans cooler for 80 bucks woah thats steap u could have bought a proper rad for that amount

Well I'll get a refund once I receive my bank statement to prove the ?$*%* manager at the store I really did buy the thing.

Just ask for the 89 Camero core. Or explain to them that it's not actually being used as a replacement part and have them go back there and fetch you a core that matches whatever size you want. Really, these things have MORE then enough heat disappation power for any computer on the market today. Just make sure you're pushing some nice cfms of air thru it, that's the most important part!

wait, i dont understand why the tranny cooler wouldnt work? its dimensions are bigger than most common heatercores, although you didnt mention the width... if its 2" and of a through channel design, it should perform just as good if not better. got any pics anywhere for us to take a close look at it before everyone denounces it?

Well I brought the tranny cooler back today and got my money back. I asked for an 89 chevy Camaro heatercore but they said they'd have to order it and it was something like 60$. Also the guy told me he was pretty sure it'd be aluminum and not copper...
I guess Canadian Tire just sucks. I'm gonna go check out the chevy dealership tomorrow.

AMDninjaboy, where did you get your heatercore??

dude just order from dtek, for that money u can get 2 dtek heatercores and have some money left over

A transmission oil cooler (depending on which one you bought)should work better than a heater core. It's made to get rid of much more heat than a heatercore. An intercooler would be the ideal type of radiator to have.

Lt. Max said:

dude just order from dtek, for that money u can get 2 dtek heatercores and have some money left over

Click to expand...

Ordering from dtek is pretty expensive since shipping charges to Canada are high and our money is worthless versus the almighty US dollar.

CrystalMethod: I dont know much about cars but the tranny cooler is definetly not going to work, the barbs were extremely small (1/4") and it was much too thin (only 7/8"). Also the tranny cooler is made specifically for oil and I doubt it'd work very well with water because of different viscosity and such.
Oh and what is an intercooler??? How big is it??? How much does it cost???

Heatercores, radiators, transmission oil coolers, are all made the same way. Hasn't changed in years. Sorry, I meant engine oil cooler, not intercooler. A lot of companies have already figured out that these can be used instead of heatercores, and sell them as part of water cooling kits.


This is what the right size oil cooler would look like.

This looks pretty much like the tranny cooler I had... Where did you find it??? What size barbs does it have???

Summit Racing
They're over priced, and you can find them cheaper if you look around. The one in the picture is from B&M racing. I know crazy PC sells oil coolers from "Perma-cool", as "compact radiators". The oil coolers usually come with 3/8 or 1/2 inch barbs.

Crystal Method, I just realized you're from Montreal, I'm from there too!

Using a heatercore really seems to be the cheapest thing around so I'm gonna stick with that. I just checked out what kind of rads DD and other WC stores were selling and everything is sooooooooo overpriced... If the heatercore I get isn't enough, I'll just get a 2nd one and still will have paid less than what those guys are asking for their rads. I saw a lot of people with camaro heatercores so I'm pretty confident it'll work.

Masked Geek can you look at your 89 Camaro heatercore for the part number please??? That would be of great help since it seems I'll have to order the damn thing and wont be able to see it before I pay.

Crystal Method, you need to look at the big picture of the cooling system. Sure a tranny oil cooler can disapate heat as well, or better, then a heater core. But they are MUCH more restrictive to flow. This results in a lower flow rate thru-out the entire system. Lower flow rates are generally bad. You may end up with higher temps with your larger, more efficient, but more restrictive tranny cooler.

You are only disapating 100 W or so of heat. A heatercore is plenty powerful to do that. Having huge radiators is not necessary. What would result in lower temps would be concentrating on increasing your flow with larger diameter tubing, an efficient water block, and pushing more air thru your rads. A 20 USD heatercore will do within a few percentage of a huge as$ radiator...

They aren't always more restricive than heatercores. They come in various different sizes and are rated for different flows, depending on the application. From 1/4" to 3/4", double pass through twelve pass. I'm only offering an alternative option. I'm not saying "don't use a heatercore". Heatercores are perfectly fine. What I'm saying is that radiators, in a general sense including: oil coolers, transmission oil coolers, heater cores, car radiators, all function in the same way and with the exception of the rad, are interchangeable. The size, shape, avalibility, and cost, is what people should be looking at.

heater core

well, I bought a heater core for a late 70's olds or buick rear wheel drive station wagons with ir conditioning. It measures 12x6x2 and is big enough for 2 120 mm fans. I bought it brand new for $45 CAD at Crappy tire. Part # SPI 2-302. I cut the tubes off and soldered 1/2 brass fittings right on no problem. Most transmission coolers are only 1/4" tubes because most trannys have 5/16" fittings, now like CrystalMethod says if you can find an engine oil cooler that would be basically the same as a heater core, usually eng. oil coolers have 5/8"hose with 1/2" tubes but they are usually very expensive compared to a heater core.

Depends, on what kind of car or truck you're buying it for. You wouldn't use the heatercore from a 3 cylinder Chev Sprint, would you? Of course not, it's too small. You need to find what fits your case, case mod, etc...
Personally I think one of these...

or the ones on the left here.


Would much cooler at the top of my case rather than a regular rebuilt heatercore. What I'm trying to say is that some of us like to think "outside the box", and try new things. Not go with what everyone else is using. For some people that want that extra security, in knowing that it works and is proven, that's perfectly fine.