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Auto Transmission Cooler Bracket?

Old Mar 11, 2022 | 08:35 AM
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Auto Transmission Cooler Bracket?

Picked up a new-to-me 94, and I'm working through PO's mistakes and hacks slowly. Found that, in the process of moving to a Koyo radiator, the auto transmission cooler is now...ziptied to the splash guard/air guide/undertray which now has holes drilled in it. Is there a replacement bracket I can't seem to find? Or did it mount to the OE radiator?

EDIT: It didn't occur to me to check. It seems I have dual oil coolers AND an AT cooler. Anyone know a better place to mount this?


Last edited by Kalypto; Mar 11, 2022 at 10:08 AM.
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Old Mar 11, 2022 | 09:38 AM
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From: https://www2.mazda.com/en/100th/
the cooler for the AT cars should actually be under the headlight, it takes the place of the second oil cooler

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Old Mar 11, 2022 | 10:07 AM
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It didn't occur to me to check. It seems I have dual oil coolers AND an AT cooler. Thanks, PO. Anyone know a better place to mount this? I'd like to '99 swap the front, which means a new undertray and drilling new holes and some zipties seems...hacky.
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Old Mar 11, 2022 | 03:33 PM
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First off there isn't a lot on this topic, the majority of FD's are manual and there are getting to be fewer and fewer surviving automatics.

That said, there's nothing special about the OEM trans cooler. Get an aftermarket trans cooler of comparable size and put it in front of the radiator/AC condenser. You will probably need to fab some sort of bracket.

WIth that laying flat it's not going to get much air flow and probably won't be terribly effective.

Dale
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Old Mar 11, 2022 | 03:40 PM
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So I was along the same lines as Dale on this topic. A lot of these newer cars have flatter, more rectangular shaped trans coolers that mount towards the bottom of their radiator (which are more vertical than the FD rads) so if you could source one of those guys and find a way to mount it in the grill or someplace similar that will be more effective but won't interfere with the radiator and intercooler, I think you'll be better suited. Just not a lot of space to mount it unfortunately.
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Old Mar 11, 2022 | 04:03 PM
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Originally Posted by DaleClark
First off there isn't a lot on this topic, the majority of FD's are manual and there are getting to be fewer and fewer surviving automatics.

That said, there's nothing special about the OEM trans cooler. Get an aftermarket trans cooler of comparable size and put it in front of the radiator/AC condenser. You will probably need to fab some sort of bracket.

WIth that laying flat it's not going to get much air flow and probably won't be terribly effective.

Dale
I figure as much, a transmission swap is in my future, but I'll drag the auto kicking and screaming as far as I can first. As for a bracket, digging around here I'd seen fluidyne universals used as a supplement over an outright replacement.

It does have more flow than being completely flat as they swiss cheesed the under tray to let air flow up and through rather than passing under the nose of the car. Not ideal by any means as it'd be flowing from the nose duct and under the car from low pressure.

Last edited by Kalypto; Mar 11, 2022 at 04:18 PM.
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Old Mar 12, 2022 | 07:50 AM
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If the car is generally doing OK and long term you're doing a manual swap I'd probably just leave it. It is a hack way to do it but it works. It may not cool the trans the best but if you're taking some long term life away from something that's heading to a scrap yard in the near future, that's no big deal.

I wouldn't go through a big engineering effort to fix a setup that's generally working. I'd put the money and effort towards getting the parts for the swap together.

Dale
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