When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Since I couldn’t find an exact mounting video or thread for my exact model, 1989 F350, I thought I would post the below. I had a small trans cooler that has been installed for years, but it was zip tied directly to the radiator. When I bought a new radiator a while back, I didn’t want to stick anything through the radiator fins again, so I hard mounted this one.
When I tried to buy Tru-Cool LPD47391, amazon had numerous off brands, and the ones that had the tru-cool part number sneakily listed the actual brand as something different. So I stuck with summit instead of amazon and picked the Mishimoto MMTC-SP-13BK. It was pretty close to the same size as the Tru-Cool LPD47391. It was more expensive, but should be good quality.
It came with mounting hardware, hose barbs and hose. I used my own ¼-20 bolts, locknuts and hose. The included probably would have been fine, but they felt a little cheap and I like actual good locknuts. I also used several ¼-20 rivet-nuts and two ½” spacers. Rivet-nuts make install/removal much easier. If you haven’t used them, just do an internet search. You can get rivet-nut install tool from $8 to $100 depending on what you want to spend.
Below pic, I used one Rivet nut and one existing hood latch bolt to mount the included top brackets. I shifted it toward the center of the truck to allow the trans cooler to miss the AC condenser mounting bracket.
Below is a pic of the trans cooler mounted, bolt heads to the rear to give more clearance away from the AC condenser.
Two rivet nuts installed in the lower part of the radiator support.
I added ½” spacers for clearance and to keep the mounting brackets off the lip of the radiator support.
The trans cooler has slotted holes for mounting, which opened the tolerances plenty to make everything mount smoothly. Always wait until all the bolts are in before snugging up all the bolts (or else you’ll be loosening everything to shift it around to get the bolt holes to line up).
Routed the hoses around the radiator support, zip tied them to the frame and hooked everything up.
Pre-install/no trans cooler, around 40ish miles running empty, the trans temp topped out around 220F. With the new cooler installed, it topped out a little over 175F. Majority of the drive was in the 160s. I may look into getting one of the temp bypass valves later.
Below is the Auto Meter 8457 Trans Temp gauge kit. The Sending Unit: 2252 fits the test port in the driver’s side of the E4OD (that’s in another thread). Below was running 65-70mph, Pyro around 700F, boost around 2psi, engine temp about 200F.
Now my final issue, I want to drive it more, but don’t want to roll the odometer over. Only 200 more miles for the ODO to still be correct. Bought new in 1989, passed from my dad to me a few years ago, so I know that it's original mileage and not rolled yet.
Hope this helps anyone with this same model with the trans cooler install!
