I have a 97 F250 HD with the 460 in it.

Today I bought a 7" by 12" transmission cooler that I want to install.

It appears as if I have a small factory transmission cooler in front of the radiator on the passenger side with hard lines going to it. The new cooler I bought only accepts soft lines.

Is there any write ups for this?

I also want to flush my transmission, drop the pan, and change out the filter. The lube shop wants $220 bucks for this so I am going to do it myself.

What is the easiest way for me to go about this? Are there any write ups for flushing my transmission?

Thanks!

 

Look around. It's on here somewhere, search for my name because I asked something similar.
What kind of cooler did you get. A stacked plate type (like stock) or a multipass cooler (little more restrictive)
I would pull the pan and change the filter. Then fill the Trans with fluid. Unhook the front hard line from the Trans and put a long hose on it and into your drain pan. Fire up the truck and start dumping more fluid into the Trans. When you've dumped in 6 extra quarts and have 6 in the drain pan shut it off and you're done. Put the line back on.
The stock cooler is a high flow stacked plate design. Very rugged.
Figure out which line is the out and bend a 90 in it about 3-4" down. It's a standard brake line fitting. Get a 6" brake line and rubber hose from the parts store and then find a hosebarb to fit the stock line and then hook the hoses up.

Or something.

 

well if you're going to lose the factory cooler and only use the new one then you can get fittings that will let you hook a soft line to the hard line. if you want to run them both you need to find out which line is the return from the cooler and splice into that line for your soft lines.

I used to work in a lube shop and if you want to do a flush AND filter change those are two separate operations and preformed together or separate they still take the same amount of labor and fluid which is why they want so much. unless your fluid is really bad you'll be fine just dropping your pan and doing the filter change or even doing the filter and driving it a week and draining 2-3 quarts and topping it off. if you really want to flush it unhooking the line to the cooler like posted above should work as long as you can pour the fluid in fast enough. I've also heard of guys sticking the return line in a bucket of ATF and letting it suck it in that way but I've never done either.

 

DId the factory spring a leak or get damaged ? I would like to buy it if not! Please PM me here- https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...newpm&u=599242 we can talk money and such off the threads.

 

The factory trans cooler is just fine. I'm using this truck for snow plowing and have been told to add a tranny cooler so I assumed the factory one is crappy??

 

not that I'm aware but it's still not a bad idea. plowing is hard work at low speed with little airflow so an extra cooler is probably the way to go. I would also get a trans temp gauge and maybe a larger finned pan.

 

I assume you have an E4OD. Check your torque converter for a drain plug. If you drain the pan and the converter, you have removed all the fluid except what's in the cooler.

Your factory cooler may be more efficient than your aftermarket cooler. You might want to check that out so you don't go backwards.

Synthetic fluid will help with the extra heat you are planning on generating. I've had good look with Schaeffer. You may have a distributor in your area which saves on freight. If your transmission is in good shape, synthetic fluid will buy it a little extra life. If its past its useful life, it may not be worth the extra investment.

If you replace your E4OD in the future, check out John Wood Automotive. He will build and ship you a transmission that will last you an eternity if you install it according to his directions.

 

How can I tell which cooler will work the best?

 

From your description of your new cooler, I would guess that its old technology from the 70-s. Worked great back then but the new style factory coolers are much more efficient.

If I were you, I'd start by changing my trans oil and worry about adding the cooler later. Return the cooler for refund until you figure out what you're doing. A lot is going to depend upon what you find in your trans pan. If your trans is on its last legs, a new cooler won't help, unless your factory cooler has lost cooling capacity because its full of trans material.

You might look to see if you can add an electric fan to increase air flow over your factory cooler. I don't think that's possible and I don't live in snow country so I don't know if adding a fan is just asking for trouble.

An E4OD properly built and maintained using factory cooling will perform as well as an Allison and do so in excess of 150K miles under the harshest conditions. The trick is "properly built". So, if your trans is original, I'd just service it and see what's in the pan before adding aftermarket items which may do nothing to improve your situation.

 

I have a 95 f250 with 460 and auto.
I use it very hard and tow stupid things with it. I've never had an issue with the trans temps.
That cooler is fine, but prefer the setrab type or stacked plate type.
I'd say put a temp gauge in the pan or the service port and see how hot it gets after the fluid and filter swap. You should have one if you tow a lot anyway.

 

Where is the TC drain plug?

 

Remove the front inspection plate. And look next to each tq converter bolt. Usually it's beside one of them.
Some converters have them. Some don't. My 90 e4od doesn't have one. No problem if it don't. When you flush the system it will be fine.

 

Does your trans have a rubber plug in the bottom of the bell housing just behind the sheet metal cover that covers the flex plate. Pull the sheet metal cover as suggested and bump the starter or turn the crank with a socket and ratchet. If you have a drain plug, it will show up; takes a 3/8" socket if I remember correctly. The converter takes a while to drain so give it some time.

 

you don't want to plow snow with an auto trans without a trans temp gauge.
you wont know when to;
a.stop and wait for the trans to cool when required.
or;
b.add an aftermarket cooler with e-fan,so you can possibly stop less,and,or stop for less time while she cools.

when i push snow,i like to just stop when trans fluid reaches 200 degrees and wait for it to cool down around 170-180 again before i continue.
this year,i added a t-stat for my aux cooler (because it was running too cold during the winter without the '8 blade on that is) and an e-fan for my cooler.
i still expect to see trans fluid temp hit 200.but now rather sit and wait in park or neutral (either works.) to cool down by just flowing through the coolers,i now can flip a switch and turn on the e-fan which will reduce my cool down time (or leave the e-fan on the cooler running i guess i should say,cus i'll flip it on before i start pushing.)

trans temp gauge first.driving (or stopping/waiting to cool down) accordingly to trans temps when working the truck (any season) second.
aux cooler(s) with e-fan to reduce (possibly eliminate) cool down wait periods last.


AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION FLUID LIFE / TEMPERATURE RELATIONSHIP:

 

ford250hdxlt. What temp is to cold to operate for the tranny? I just installed a new rad and it came with connections to hook up as a tranny cooler. some one sugested to be to run both by spliceing the retrun line on the factory cooler and then into the rad. ??