After having to come off the track several times because of transmission over temp warnings, I’ve purchased a transmission oil cooler, a B&M 70264, for my 04. Now I’ve got to put it in. I got a lot of good advice from the forum on buying the cooler, now I need some install experience.

I want to put the cooler in the transmission’s return line from the radiator. Temperature measurements on my car say that’s the bottom line. The radiator connectors on the existing lines are different than anything I have access to. So I planned to cut the existing return line 3/8 rubber hose in half and patch into it. NAPA sells brass 3/8 ridged hose bullet splices for air lines that look like they should work to splice the hose from the new cooler to the cut lines.

For those who have installed something like this before, my questions are about mounting and hose routing.

How did you mount the cooler?

The cooler install hardware includes plastic straps that you insert through the radiator fin gaps and cooler fin gaps. If you used these straps, did you go through both the AC cooler and the radiator? Is there a better way? Suggestion’s appreciated.

How did you route the hoses?

I plan to cut a hole(s) in the right side of the shroud to get out of the air box, but I haven’t seen a good way to get through the right side partition in the front of the engine compartment and eventually connect to the existing transmission hose. Suggestion’s appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

The return line is the top line though your "temperature measurement" results are interesting. However there has always been a big debate about the "correct" way to install a transmission cooler. Many, myself included, have used the bottom line and gotten good results.

In my case, we used a hole saw to place holes into the side of the radiator shroud to run the lines.

 

Thanks for the reply.
I'll check the lines to make sure the lower one is the return.

How did you mount your cooler?

 

My cooler is a Hayden cooler.

It is mounted to the front of the airconditioner condensor using the plastic straps.