I have a 1986 trans am i have recently taken then engine out and converted to carb. i have a 700r4 tranny, but tonight i decided to finally put coolant in it. there was none in the block or radiator because i drained it all when i removed the engine. Well i also have my tranny pan off, i was filling my radiator and about half way through the 3rd gallon coolant spilled it looks like it came out of the pan im so confused! do these cars come with tranny coolers outside the car? well mine does and im not sure if the hoses are routed correctly.. Heres how they are routed follow the colors


Red is top of cooler purple is lower


upper port on cooler into radiator

lower part on cooler to hard line from tranny and yellow line connects at bottom of radiator (right below lower radiator house) and it goes to on eof the hard lines also..

 

Yours has a aftermarket cooler fitted in series with the stock trans cooler in radiator
Fluid goes through both coolers before returning to trans

If you are sure it came from trans ;
only way would be for the trans cooler inside the radiator to be broken and letting coolant into the trans cooler lines
Disconnect the trans cooler lines at radiator and see if there is coolant in the line
( if engine was running with broken cooler then trans fluid under pressure would probably be forced into the radiator )

If so cheap fix ( instead of new radiator ) is to run the trans lines only to the ext cooler in front
and plug the 2 fittings on the radiator so coolant doesn't come out.

 

That cooler is also a cheap tube and fin design. Although it will work, it's not as efficient as a stacked plate style.

Tranny oil temp should be roughly the same temp as engine oil with is roughly 10-20 degrees hotter than the coolant. To maintain a uniform tranny oil temp, there's a specific way to route the aftermarket cooler.

Hot oil from the tranny should go to the aftermarket cooler first to remove as much heat as possible with air flow moving across the cooler fins. The oil then flows through the rad cooler. If the oil is still too hot, the rad will bring it down to a proper temperature. If the coolant is too cold after going through the aftermarket cooler, the rad will heat it up to the proper temperature. Either way, the temp of the tranny oil going back to the transmission will always be at a uniform temperature.

If the tranny oil goes through the rad cooler first, the rad which is also trying to bring the coolant temp down is now trying to bring down the tranny oil temp which can put a huge load on the cooling system. If the oil is still too hot coming out of the rad cooler or has been brought down to a colder temp, it then passes through the external cooler which brings it down even more. This causes too much inconsistency in tranny oil temps. Oil returning to the tranny can be just about right or far too cold.

The rad cooler ports are inlet at the top and outlet at the bottom. Aftermarket cooler doesn't matter. I can't see in that picture but make sure those rubber hoses have Transmission printed on the hose. If they don't then replace them with transmission hose. You may also want to put a slight flare on those hard lines coming from the transmission so that the hose clamp and lines can't be pulled off the lines.

 

Another pet peev of mine, never use those through the rad zip ties, the trans cooler should be mounted at least 1" in front of the rad.

Mounting the cooler on the rad really interferes with the air flow through both making both less efficient, I know people have been doing this for years but its not the best way, its not that tough to mount the cooler properly.