Finished installing a Mishimoto radiator in 92 7.3 today. Everything went smoothly. Reconnected all the lines, started the truck, backed out of the garage and saw a trail of transmission fluid.

The fittings for the transmission lines are as tight as I feel comfortable getting them given that they're aluminum. I feel like I'm missing some o-rings or something, but I can't find anything suggested that those should be used and they weren't included in the shipment from Mishimoto.

Anyone else have this experience? I've got this whole weekend to mess with the truck and would rather not wait until Tuesday to chat with Mishimoto support.

 

Also, I should add that the fitting for each line is a female m14x1.5 nut that goes over the hose connector and holds it down to a male m14x1.5 port coming out of the radiator.

No idea why they don't just have standard female ports like they do for the drain plug...

 

well if there are not orings on those fittings and they are threaded, I would think just remove them and coat with 2-3 wraps of teflon tape and a light coat of TFE paste over the teflon tape, then thread it back in, teflon tape and tfe paste need no cure time, in fact its best to go ahead and try it out after you put it together. the pressure will settle the tfe paste in the rest of the way if needed.

hopefully you got this sorted out, but if not then I hope this helps.

 

I've never worked with that tranny, but I'd assume that your tranny lines have flares with compression fittings? If yes, then did you flare them correctly?

 

Just started leaking coolant again, right after I switched to CAT red coolant. Looks like a cracked radiator, but haven't gone underneath to check it out yet. Is Mishimoto about my only choice for an aluminum radiator? Anyone used the new coolant expansion tank they carry?

 

The title says "trans leaking everywhere" and your post doesn't say where you see it coming from so it would take tons of guesswork to help you.

 

I believe the seals in these engines aren't compatible with that coolant, and the original radiator might not be also. I've repeatedly read that some modern coolants don't play well with the soldered radiators.

 

You can also get an aftermarket radiator for our trucks from Champion. I've heard they have questionable quality though. FWIW, I installed a parts store cheapie in my truck and it works great. The biggest plus is that it has a lifetime warranty.

https://www.championradiators.com/products

 

Sounds like internet B.S that gets spread around. Every conventional radiator has always had a soldered on top and bottom tank plus the inlets and outlets. And the Cat ELC coolant is fine, others and myself have used a comparable ELC for years with no problems, over 20 years for me. The Cat and Cummins engines have the same seals as an IDI. Can't remember his screen name, but 20+ years ago a guy took it upon himself to spread the anti-ELC gospel all over the IDI sites and it spread like wildfire. When it got down to it, he was basing it on some oddball long-life coolant made by Texaco IIRC which wasn't compatible with IDI seals. His theory didn't apply to the other quality long life diesel engine coolants but nobody could convince him otherwise.

 

I didn't hear about it from anything to do with IDIs, it was when researching coolants for various applications. There was something about long life coolants either attacking or just not protecting the solder in radiators. It was said that this was the main reason that manufacturers didn't use long life coolants with them. I remember something about some manufacturers doing it before knowing and having a ton of issues, then going back to 'normal' coolant. I still run old school coolant in all my stuff that has a soldered radiator just in case.

More recently when researching coolants for my 7.3 PS similar stuff came up about different year models and the compatible coolants. While it might be BS, the video I watched was done by a supposed coolant expert that talked about different year powerstrokes and which coolant was ok in which years. He specifically cited issues with seals used in the different years and which coolants were safe for them.

 

The only benefit I see the the elc is the supposed 500k service life and the sca's already added.

Personally I wouldn't want to keep anything in my system for that long. Every two years I flush mine out and go with new. We've had the green coolant since I can remember and I don't ever recall it being a problem with anything other than the lack of sca's and that's just an engineering fault, 7.3 cylinder walls should have never been that thin, and even so cavitation is rare.

I blame it on the people that just run water. I've seen all kinds of thermostat housing and water pump cavitation from it. Holes in stuff 1/4-3/8 of an inch thick.

Most machine shops will just bore it and stack a sleeve in there, with varying results I might add.

Most times they'll drop and hit the crank within a 100k or 2 and the cranks toast at that point as well as the block. I'm curious to see what the lifespan of Justin's 6.9 sleeved 7.3's are.

 

Never heard of that happening other than a "claim" from a certain guy on another site. Our shop could bore an engine to various oversizes but we had to send blocks out if they needed a sleeve job. We never got one back that the machine shops didn't leave a visible ridge at the bottom of the bore for the sleeve to seat against. The ridge of course was bored to the same I.D. as the sleeve. Seemed to be standard procedure, only makes sense, no way the sleeve's going to go anywhere.
And the lack of SCA was Ford's fault, other than Ford pickups, any International truck that had a 7.3 in it came factory equipped with a coolant filter that released SCA.

 

Here's the coolant filter I run on my 6.9. I suppose the 6.9s weren't notorious for cavitation the way 7.3s were but it's a good aftermarket addition.