I purchased the first TC I had ever seen in person from a park and sell lot in 2017. The first
thing I noticed was a large pool of trans fluid when I got home. I took it to the shop I sometimes use
(my regular one was closed for vacation.) They said the trans cooler was leaking. After several days
they contacted me and said they could not find an oem cooler and would have to use an equivalent
aftermarket one. After several more days they said they finally found one. So about a month and $400
I finally could drive my TC. I drove it probably a couple of thousand miles over the next several months,
then the trans let go in a big way at about 75mph. Parked it for several months, then acquired another
identical one with some cosmetic damage, the idea being to make one from two. That kinda fell by the
wayside because I had other projects and also realized most TC's are worth little or nothing. I did some
parting out before deciding to send them to the scrapper. When we exposed the trans coolers we saw
that the oem one was 24" with 4 tubes. All tubes including bends were enclosed in the cooling fins. When
looking at the "equivalent" aftermarket unit we found it was a 12" 4 tube unit with only the straight parts of
the tubes enclosed in the cooling fins.
My question for the experts is is the smaller, less efficient aftermarket cooler sufficient to cool the trans
with the turbo inline 4. Also it was installed with two wire ties and just kinda hanging there at an angle.
I know that even at 60mph the engine was over three grand, so the trans was getting a workout.
Could the smaller cooler possibly be the reason for my trans breaking after only a couple of thousand miles.
thanks, john