Bought and installed all metal radiator from Bullet Proof Diesel 6 months ago. Was a solid looking unit and seemed very well designed. Installed easily per instructions with zero modifications needed. Was very pleased! Last week I noticed that I was not getting any heat out of the heater. Immediately checked the coolant level and found it to be low. Added about 3/4 a gallon of predilluted gold and then noticed a foamy kind of scale on the side of the overflow container. Stuck my finger in and sure enough, greasy like vasoline. Thought maybe I had the famous oil cooler failure then noticed a puddle of oil forming under the trans. Pulled the dipstick and sure enough, frothy and way over full. Removed the drain plug on the trans and out came a strawberry milkshake looking fluid. Drained the radiator and it also contained trans fluid. Conclusion...... Bullet Proofs radiator failed and left me a real mess. I'm told I'll be lucky if I get out of this mess without a trans failure. I'll be contacting Bullet Proof Monday 4/10 to see if they are gonna step up and make this right but what I need input on right now is the best way to possibly save my trans and clean ALL the greased gunk out of the cooling system. HELP!

 

Sorry about your luck , and I am sure you do t want to hear this , I think you are SOL.
You will be buying a transmission .

 

After reading up on this issue from various sources, I'll have to admit, I'm old, things have changed and I'm not in the know anymore. Somewhere along the line someone decided to use a thin cellulose type paper material as friction plates. The last transmission I helped build had Kevlar. Cellulose? I would have never imagined that.
These people talk specifically about WATER getting into the trans and ruining the plates, as little as an ounce of water can do it, in a short period of time, Not one person mentioned any type of specific coolant of any Glycol base, but I would assume because it's mixed with water it will still do the damage they report it to do.
They say it's a waste of money to flush the system and that it may cause even sooner failure if you do. The general consensus is at the very least get it rebuilt, they say the ounce of water can cause rust on hard parts also, so it would be best to get a re-manufactured or a brand new transmission and separate the cooling lines from the transmission and run an oil cooler on it instead.
I learned something today...Yay for the old man.

 

This happened in the Nissan world as well with the 2005-2007 Xterra/Pathfinder/Frontier.
- the OEM Radiators had a bad transmission cooler design and would fail at about 90k. It was called "Strawberry Milkshake Syndrome" and almost always involved buying a new transmission. Most owners on the forums did a preemptive radiator change before getting to that mileage just to be safe...

Sorry man

 

Talked to 3 different trans shops today and one of them mentioned the Nissan problem. All say it's very likely that the trans will have to be replaced or cleaned and rebuilt. It was running just fine when I parked it Friday but we'll see. I did call Bullet Proof Diesel and they were awesome!! I do want it to be known that at this time they were looking to make it right. One step at a time though. Sending out a new radiator today and want me to take the trans and have it flushed. So far so good but we're not talking about replacing the trans yet so I'm not sure how that will go if it comes to that. Hopefully it won't but if it does I'll certainly let FTE know how it turned out. Now........ can someone give me any solid recommendation on how to clean the trans fluid from the cooling system?
Thanks
Bill

 

You'll flush that money down the drain. Something with engine coolant wipes the friction out right away, the lining falls off. I've seen it enough times when I did transmissions for a living. Even if you caught it early the damage is done

 

Coolant dissolves the glue that holds the friction material to it's backing plate. There is a 99% chance that this trans is finished.

 

That's what all the trans guys have told me. Not gonna be surprised if that holds true at this point.

 

I was hoping someone might have some suggestions on how to clear my cooling system of trans oil. Anyone?

 

Get a mishimoto radiator.

 

hate to say it but I think your trans is hooped. If the Trans had coolant go thru it, then more than likely it isnt a matter of if your trans will fail completely but when.

I would opt to have the trans dropped and inspected and go from there, Maybe you ought to mention to the guys at BPD what the transmission places have told you. One way or another your going to be ending up either rebuilding your current trans, or replacing it with a new/used one as much as that sucks to have to do.

I wouldnt risk driving it cause you will have a failure sooner or later. Coolant in the transmission is going to deteriorate the sealing rings and wreak more havoc from there on the materials inside the transmission.

 

I would say you need to have your cooling system flushed and it may take more than a couple of times to get all of the system flushed out, I dont think you would get it out in one or two flushes, it may take a few.

As for the transmission I have seen them vat transmissions that are going to be rebuilt but whether they take that course will be dependent on how bad the damage is in the transmission. I would also be a little concerned for the torque converter in making sure no damage was done there. There is also a possibility of new transmission lines being needed.

I would take it in and have it looked at it and have a transmission shop inspect the Trans though, I wouldn't drive it around like that if I was in your shoes.

Mark and projectnitemare are bang on in their assessments about the damage from coolant in the Transmission, not trying to scare you by any means just trying to save you from ending up with even more going wrong than already has or stuck out somewhere and needing a tow because your transmission does nothing when shifting and being left on the side of the road

 

I would agree with everyone else as you will have to get the trans rebuilt. I would also add a separate trans cooler to avoid this happening in the future. Adding a cooler in the radiator was a cheap way for car makers to control temps in the trans. It did work but if you had a leak the damage it caused was expensive.

 

That will cost 90% of just rebuilding it. Once all the clutches are apart, just install new friction material. Now it's rebuilt.

To inspect the torque converter it has to be cut open. If it is reusable (it won't be without replacing the lockup clutch material) then is has to be rewelded and balanced.

The truck comes from the factory with a separate cooler AND a radiator cooler. The real reason the radiator cooler is there is because it is a very effective cooler. It also works very well in reverse, when there is little airflow over an air to oil cooler.

Ford eliminated the radiator cooler in 1999. By 2000 they had replaced enough burned up transmissions that they added the radiator cooler back into production.

I agree with this.

 

Have thought about the external trans cooler but after the last 6 months of this thing beating money out of me it's probably gonna be traded. Not gonna knowingly trade it with something wrong and try to dupe anyone though so I just wanna get it squared away.