So I had a crazy idea the other day after I burned my hand (again) on my headers after a long drive while looking under the hood. I noticed my radiator has what appears to be connections for cooling lines for an automatic transmission. I have a manual so they aren't hooked up to anything. The car has been running a bit warmer than I would like so I started wondering if I could run some lines from the oil filter adapter to the connections in the radiator to use the old transmission cooler portion of the radiator as an oil cooler??

If you followed that, my next question is this: There are some oil gallery ports on my block above the oil filter that are currently plugged. Can I use those to connect the cooler lines to instead of trying to find a filter adapter with connections for the lines?

 

That would work if the lines were bigger-the tranny
cooler and lines are too small to carry the volume of oil
needed for the engine, oil cooler is a very worthwhile
add-on though-i have one on my car and would not
run without it now,most of my oil cooler setup was
salvaged from a 1983 impala cop car,the oil radiator
mounted behind the LH headlights,in the charcoal
canister area with an 8"thermostat controlled fan to
cool it.

 

I was afraid the size of the lines and cooler might be a problem. I have an oil cooler on my GMC Sierra and its pretty big. I didn't know if that was how it had to be or if it was just bigger because it was a truck.

There is a mid-90's caprice cop car at the U-pull by me, I'll have to check and see if there is an oil cooler on that.

How is yours for clearance around the exhaust? I have shorties and they run pretty close to the oil filter. I don't want to run the lines real close to those and have them heating the oil back up.

 

I used ss braided line to connect the adaptor and oil
radiator on mine,was -8 as i remember.Lines run from
adaptor,along the upper rail of the oil pan,then turn
under the power steering pump to go up to the oil
radiator.Setup has been in since '95 and not a bit of
trouble

 

I'm definitely gonna look into installing one this winter. Thanks for the help!