Has anyone done this before? I know they make tube-fin coolers you can put inline, but I don't want the fluid to get too cool. I am converting to a T56 with my LT1 swap and the trans cooler lines in the radiator will as such go un-used.

Was considering it as after long drives, or after very "fun" driving the PS pump likes to whine when hot, but never cold. At idle speeds the wheel gets hard to turn. The fluid return line to the reservoir is low pressure. I was thinking of routing it through the radiator's built in trans cooler instead of installing an aftermarket cooler inline.

Has anyone experienced these types of issues with their LT1 swap using the LT1 pump and thirdgen Power Steering box? Does the LT1 pump just not provide enough fluid pressure or have trouble keeping up with the higher demands of a PS box vs the normal Rack and Pinion in a 4th gen?
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As for why its happening I don't know why, I have had issues since the LT1 swap with power steering being unhappy with long trips. I have another pump I can try to see if the PS pump is worn out and heating the fluid up. I suppose thats something I'll be doing this winter when the engine is out for a new short block to go with the heads/cam.

I will eventually do HPDE and Auto-X with this car. The HPDE's will probably be 20-25 minute sessions. The club rents out Road America once a year, used to be twice a year. I also would like to do more once the brakes/6spd are sorted out. Right now hitting up RA with and auto-trans and factory brakes sounds like a Fail moment so I usually take my Daily Driver up there, it is equipped or RA much better. Its already a 6spd and has bigger brakes.

 

Do you think it can be too cold?
The C4 Vettes with the handling option ( intended for guys who wanted to Auto-X )
had a fin cooler mounted in front of the cross member and I have never seen mentioned of them cooling the fluid too much.

Need to get a temp gun on PS line when hot and see what the temp differential between that and the coolant temp is to see if the cooler in radiator will have any beneficial effect.

 

Well when oil is not up to operating temp and the engine is cold it does have more wear on the engine than when its at the right operating temperature.

I think that once the engine warmed up and the coolant was flowing over the transcooler tank inside the radiator it would also keep the temps up.

I'm just curious if anyone else has done this with their Radiator vs installing a separate system.

When I go T56 its going to be unused, and the PS Pump is on the passenger side right near the inlet and outlet on the radiator. So it would be a very minimal mod for me to route the PS fluid through the radiator trans cooler tank and into the reservoir.

Its all low pressure once it leaves the PS box to return to the reservoir so I'm not worried about busting a line open or putting too much pressure in the tank.

I'm will try it once I do the T56 swap, it won't be hard to undo if it doesn't work out.

 

You'd be linking two systems together that don't need to be. I like to keep stuff separate. Plus it seems like you'd get a lot better cooling from a small finned cooler in the air stream somewhere than from running it through near boiling water.

 

What two systems. The cooler in the radiator is just a liquid to liquid radiator. And I would be using it to cool Trans fluid because I'll have a t56. Unless I install a sump pump into the T56 case there isn't a way to pump fluid from the trans and back.

 

You're correct. I don't like the trans lines going there either. Just a personal thing about connecting separate systems. If I want to remove the radiator the trans shouldn't be disabled etc. What temp does the power steering fluid reach? What is the ideal operating temp and how much cooling does it need?

 

i plan on doing something similar in my car, just with oil. i got an aftermarket alum radiator that came with the built in trans cooler. but i run a manual as well, so its unused. im thinking about hooking up an oil cooler filter attachment that i have and running it into the rad.

 

Normally it seems the simple line loop is good enough to PS fluid cool. But I have seen aftermarket systems that mount in front of the airdam.

Rather than BUY a cooler I'd rather just reuse whats already in the car. The tank will always be there in the radiator. If I had a T56 installed now I would be running it.

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If it wasn't such a pain I'd swap the other PS pump onto the car. But the seasons practically over so I'll just yank it when I pull the drivetrain for the heads/cam/6spd swap.

 

I have a B-body LT1 as well and I autocrossed my car recently and the power steering got very loud. A few guys suggested that it probably got hot and I should consider adding a power steering cooler. I think this sounds like a great idea to use the auto trans cooler as I too have a T-56. I don't see why there would be anything wrong with it, other than that you would have to drain power steering fluid to remove the radiator.

 

Oh yeah, you can pick up some trans fluid flush from Napa, autozoo, etc. Run it through and it'll flush out old crap. from there you can use compressed air to blow the rest of the liquid out.

That is one of my issues. On long trips, or in short bursts of heavy/fast steering input the pump seems to overheat.

Some of it could be the pump itself maybe worn out and heating the fluid up because of excess friction. It could also be that the pump is simply having trouble keeping up with the demand of a Recirculating ball setup compared to a rack and pinion setup.

Glad to see someone else finally got where I was going with my question.

 

Yes my radiator is new since the swap so it should be really simple to hook up (it's one of those champion radiators). Since the autocross event the power steering hasn't gotten loud again but I don't drive my car very hard regularly. It probably just got really hot from a combination of old/worn out pump and lots of hard steering.

 

What is the ideal operating temp for the PS fluid? That would be useful to know to gauge how much cooling may be needed. The line loop doesn't look like much but it seems to have been fine on millions of cars for decades.

 

Did you ever do this? I'm running a T56 and will be installing a new radiator and was thinking it could also cool either the P/S or my supercharger to eliminate an extra cooler thus reducing some clutter.

 

Try it! I'd give it a shot, I bypassed my stock in-rad cooler also, just running a big B&M.

 

Unfortunately I never got around to it, but when my car is running again ill try to remember to try it. It'll be off the road for another month or two probably.

 

If I were to try this , I would take one simple measurement first .

We already know that the coolant in the radiator will be in the neighborhood of 190 degrees .

I'd take the car for a nice long drive , and then I'd measure the temperature of the power steering fluid . Ain't hard to do , a cheap cooking thermometer of the type that has the spear to stick into the food and read the internal temperature is less than $10 at your local shop&save . Stick the probe into the hot power steering fluid . Is it above 190 degrees ? If yes , your mod is valid . But , If it's less than the temp of the coolant your asking it to be cooled by , well you may just find yourself heating the power steering fluid , rather than cooling it !

A temperature reading of the warmed up PS fluid is the only way to know for sure