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Hayden ATX Cooler Install

M

mcgarvey

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Jul 24, 2005
Messages
523
Location
South Jersey
My Hayden #404 cooler came today. I mounted it in front of the AC condenser, and I'm hoping to get a few questions answered before I make the fluid line connections. Ok, here goes:

1. When I undo the bottom transmission fluid line from the radiator, how much fluid will spill out? Will it drain the entire contents of the pan through suction? I just did a drain and fill and I'm hoping to not have to do the whole thing again.

2. When I take that steel line out of the bottom of the radiator, how can I attach a flexible hose to it? Is it a compression fitting where I can just slide the nut back and have a piece of flanged metal pipe there where I can just put the hose over it and clamp it?

3. Does the adaptor fitting that comes with the cooler screw into that hole in the bottom of the radiator?

Hopefully you guys can help me know what to expect. Thanks in advance.
 
I'm going to jump in on this one, I've had my atx cooler laying around the basement for way too long. I've made zero effort to figure out how to install it.

if someone could add a few sentances to their answer to mcgarvey's excellent question for the completely uninformed person, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
I recently installed a tranny cooler, I can try to answer some of those questions...

1.Whatever is in the line will pour out, and the the fluid in the tranny will drip out, that's about it. Maybe a bit over a quart...
2. The end of the steel line is something like a flared fitting. The K&N kit I used came with both the male and female fittings for the rad port, I just bent the steel line a bit back to get space, then used the female fitting with a barb adapter to connect the hose.
3. The kit I bought ( K&N ), came with a couple different fittings, one of those fit the port in the rad exactly.

The entire job should take only about an hour. ;)
 
The cooler itself is mounted, and I may attempt to make the connections Tuesday if I have the time. When I do, I'll let you know what I find. There are instructions on doing this, but they are very vague and dont list any part numbers for fittings and the like. Hopefully I'll be able to figure this out, and when I do I'll do a full writeup for the how-to section.
 
I just remembered I have some pics and stuff frm when I installed mine :

The kit I bought comes with all the hardware necessary :

IMG_0653b.jpg



Here's the pic of the line that runs from the radiator back to the tranny ( circled by the green circle ) ;

IMG_0654b.jpg



That's the line that the new cooler supposed to splice into. Here's a pic of where the cooler will be going , it's between the radiator and the power steering cooler ( Not the best location, ideal is in front of the power steering cooler as well ) :

IMG_0655b.jpg



There were these foam spacer that are supposed to go on the cooler so it's not right up against the rad. :

IMG_0656b.jpg



The cooler slid right in its place with no problems ( a slight persuasion was necessary, though not of the BFH kind :) ):

IMG_0657b.jpg



All that was left to do after this was to hook up the lines ( rad -> cooler , cooler -> tranny ) :

IMG_0658b.jpg


And that was it, I had to fill about .5 liter of tranny fluid in there, to replace whatever leaked out, and the extra volume of the line/cooler. ;)
 
What I really need is the part number of the fitting kit you used. It requires one female threaded adapter with a hose barb on the other end (radiator to cooler hose) and a male threaded adapter with a hose barb (cooler hose to transmission return line. Does anyone have a part number for the fittings? This is all I need.
 
mcgarvey, that kit came included with my B&M atx cooler, those installation kits are sold at summitracing :)
 
Ok folks, it's installed and works great. Here's how I did it:

First, I removed the nut holding the hard return line to the radiator. I needed to remove the radiator support. With a hacksaw, I cut off the last 6 or 7 inches of that steel line, including the compression fitting. At the other end, I used a pipe flaring tool to create a flare. To this end I connected one of the hoses to the cooler, pushed it over the flare, and clamped it. I screwed the compression fitting back on to the radiator.

Next, I cut off about 6 inches of the other part of the hard line and, again, used the flaring tool on the end. It's important not to flare it too much or the hose will not fit right. I connected the other cooler hose to this line and used some heavy duty zipties to secure the hoses.

Finally, I reattached the lower radiator support and started the engine. Between what dripped out and the additional fluid capacity created by the cooler, I had to add about 2 quarts of Mercon. Took it for a test drive and everything seems to work great! When idling, that cooler gets hot as hell, so I guess that means it's working.
 
Nice, i didn't cut any steel line to leave car as stock as possible when selling it.
 
If you looked at the hose routing, you would never guess that an aftermarket cooler was added, except if you saw the cooler itself in front of the AC condensor. Cut the steel lines in places where it makes sense to cut them, and then cut your rubber hose to fit to them. I routed both of the new hoses above the radiator support and that bar they attach to (what's it called?), just following the path of the power steering lines. It looks just like it would if they came this way from the factory, aside from a few zipties to secure things in place and prevent rubber from rubbing against metal. This is the cheapest and likely the easiest way to do it, with no fittings required. The only special tool I needed was a tube flaring tool that flares 3/8" pipe. I bought it last night and now I'm heading to Home Depot to return it and get my $50 back-- I'm no plumber, so I shouldn't be needing that again.

My next project will be to install an inline filter, next time I'm under the car I'll look for a location for it.
 
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