With the engine done, I was ready for the transmission and converter. Trouble was, those pieces were on a big wait list from ATI. They were roughly 100 custom transmissions behind. And since I'm a big fan of ATI, I bit the bullet, placed the order....and waited. In the meantime, it was an opportunity to mount an external trans cooler.
I had a really (Really!) nice Earl's stacked plate oil cooler on hand. It's big, but the reality is, there is no way possible to overcool an automatic transmission. Like some other parts, it has been recently discontinued by Earl's parent company, Holley. I suspect it was too expensive for them to produce and it's probably far cheaper to build something else (offshore?).
Stacked plate coolers are really the best format. They're similar to old Corvette L88 rads. Here's the cooler:
These old coolers will accept almost any hose size, with o-ring fittings. They were originally designed so that they could be used as engine oil coolers. I'm using -6AN hose for the cooler lines.
These are the optional mount brackets for the cooler. For my application, I used both, but had to fab up one more bracket.
I needed to build a bracket that would allow me to mount one end on the rad support and one end on the hood latch support (upright) at the nose of the car. So I dragged out this chunk of angle aluminum extrusion and the idea was to cut away anything that didn't look like a bracket (L-O-L):
I don't have a mill, so everything is done the old fashioned way...by hand! I used a saw, various files, a drill, a hole saw, and sanding blocks to fab parts. Here's the bracket roughed out.
Because the bracket was hefty, I decided to remove some excess material. A decent hole saw and some Rapid Tap works wonders:
Here's the finished bracket after I cleaned it up and block sanded it:
This is the cooler installed in the car. I use a mix of AN aircraft fasteners to bolt it to the car:
These are some later photos of the how the cooler lines are routed (transmission is in place here). I tried to keep close to the GM routing path, since it keeps the lines as far away from the headers possible. The first photo shows a pair of AN adapter fittings ATI builds:
The lines pass under the starter. I built a little bracket to affix the hose separator/clamp to an oil pan bolt. As you can see, I'm using a Tilton gear reduction starter. These are absolutely awesome. It doesn't drag with 14-degrees (or more sometimes) initial timing, turning the 565. By the way, there's a huge difference in these "mini-starters" from various companies. Tilton costs more, but it just flat works.
That's all I have for now. Next time, I'll show you some details on the shifter. I prefer getting it mounted prior to the transmission installation.