What are my options here? Doing a swap and the transmission has cooler lines that originally went to the radiator. Is it unwise to just delete these? Is there a kit you can buy that just loops them back onto themselves like the U bend hose for the heater core lines? I'm thinking best option is one of those extruded aluminum coolers mounted somewhere up front and braided lines. How important is it to cool a manual transmission in a 2500 pound car anyway?
It may or may not need cooling, depends on what the trans gets for airflow, how much power, etc. If you're unsure, loop the cooler lines and put a tee fitting in them with a temp sensor. If it's getting too warm for comfort, add a cooler. Or just add one anyway.
You can probably get away with looping them but one of the cheapie aluminum coolers would be the safe choice. You don't even need braided lines, generally there's very little pressure in manual transmission cooler systems.
I have several oil coolers left over from Saabs and MGBs as well as a couple of new ones that came in parts stashes with project vehicles. Any differences between oil coolers and tranny coolers? The only tranny coolers I've dealt with before were finned torture device looking things on British cars with automatics, which meant they all ended up in the trash when I did 5 speed conversions. Those extruded cheap aluminum ones look slick. Probably go with one of those just for the cool factor even if I have something already. Been trying to find on line where someone just deleted these things, but keep coming up with Mustang references on which cars had pumps, no pumps, or not even machined for hoses, etc.
An oil cooler or auto trans cooler will work, just make sure you get all the old fluid out. Oil coolers are just better designed because they have more heat to dissipate and pressure drop to worry about. Engine oil coolers are often used as diff coolers or racing transaxle coolers.
How does this fluid circulate - an integral pump in the gearbox? If not, a separate pump & thermostat seem like unnecessary complications for a 600 ft/lb rated gearbox in a 2500 Lb car.
That said - what kind of power are you pushing through it?
Yeah it's very rare to see a cooler on a non-transaxle H-pattern production car. The only reasons other than diff cooling to put a cooler on an H-pattern are if it's installed in a very heavy vehicle (they're common on semi trucks), or one that has a very high top speed (due to high shaft speeds on the output side of the gearbox).
Usually there's an external electric pump to move the fluid, but if this one just had lines going to a radiator there must be an internal mechanical pump.
The TR6060 has an internal pump. I would route the lines to a small cooler, won't hurt anything. The trans has a temperature sensor in it, you might be able to hook up a gauge to it pretty easily.
They have an internal pump that runs off one of the shafts in the transmission. Early Mustang versions did not get the pump. Around 2013 there were tappings added, pump added, and GT500 track pack versions got a cooler. Don't know whats been done to the engine before I got it. It had a definite lope at idle before I pulled it. The Camaro it came in had 3" exhaust, Dynatech long tube headers, and a cold air kit, and had never successfully passed an emissions test according to the car fax I ran. At the very least I will do the camshaft and stuff necessary to bring it up to the LS3 525HP specs. If thats not enough, I left room for boost and intercooler up front. Goal all along has been 500 wheel HP and under 2500 pounds with fully integrated roll cage, lots of lightweight goodies, huge brakes and an awesome suspension.
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