Transmission Cooler/Water Issue
 

Hello all,

In finishing up my brother's LS swap on his Nova he got a new fancy aluminum radiator and connected it all up.

He connected one of the tranny cooling lines to the radiator drain instead of the second cooler line. We fired it up and it was leaking water (unrelated area) after a few seconds so we shut it down and noticed it had a ton of pink foam.

I am guessing we filled the trans with a good amount of water. What would be the best way to proceed with cleaning it all out?

Link filled with broken photobucket pics if you are interested: http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...d.php?t=727985

Re: Transmission Cooler/Water Issue
 

Prognosis is not good... Here's some reading on it.
Google: "water in my automatic transmission"

https://www.mistertransmission.com/w...-transmission/

Re: Transmission Cooler/Water Issue
 

At the minimum, take transmission out and thoroughly clean everything and install new friction discs. If there is water/coolant in it, there is no way to get it all out without disassembly.

Re: Transmission Cooler/Water Issue
 

The thing that puzzles me is how was there any fluid return to the trans . If the out side flow of the tranny line was attached to the drain plug there could not have been any return to the trans from the radiator . Now if the return to the trans line was attached , that's a different story . It would suck coolant straight to the trans .

Being there was a lot of pink in the coolant my guess you had the out side attached or you would not have the pink in the coolant and also you would have a floor full of fluid out the trans cooler fitting that was not hooked up .

This may may have saved your trans . If you wanted to be sure drop the pan and if all looks good you got lucky .

Re: Transmission Cooler/Water Issue
 

Update:

We flushed the trans like 8 times. It seems to be slipping pretty bad so we chalked it up to a lost (junkyard trans, water in it, over flushed, etc). So we pulled it and my brother was talking to a trans shop and they asked if we hooked up the TCC switch and I realized we didn't...

For you trans guys out there, would not connecting the TCC make it feel like it slips? I don't want to put it back in to find out I need to pull it back out. I know the switch controls lock up but I'm not a trans guy so any help would be appreciated.

Re: Transmission Cooler/Water Issue
 

Need to read this...

And answer this...? Which line got hooked up to radiator drain, the fluid out or the fluid return line? If the remaining line was hooked up to the proper trans cooler fitting in the radiator, then you either got a mess all over the floor, or you just simply filled the radiator with trans fluid. That would mean the return line was sucking air not water...? Right? You either filled the tranny with water, or filled the radiator with tranny fluid, I dont think you could have done both?

Re: Transmission Cooler/Water Issue
 

I read that link. I assume the trans is fried but was worth flushing it a bunch to give it a shot.

I missed that last post. Both lines were hooked to the radiator. It is an aftermarket aluminum one with a number of fittings (all the same thread). In the excitement to drive it my brother plugged the wrong fitting. It was sucking in water and pumping out fluid into the radiator.

I have been searching and found this thread which answered my most recent question: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=682333

thanks again for the help.