bread

Hey guys, it aint 2024 without me posting atleast once a year.

Lemme give you the TLDR;
Fully installed a mishi radiator just to find it didnt have the 7AT cooler lines (dont judge me I really wasnt paying THAT much attention)
So im back to square 0 (cause i daily the car)

I dont feel like trying to fight for a return as mishi is very picky about that stuff, so I am looking at getting a trans cooler, but more or less a universal one cause the ones that come "made for" the G/Z are a little out of the budget (ironic i know)

I was looking at this one; I mean, it should do the job? I dont track the car (dont judge) but I wanted to treat my car to something nice, thus the mishi radiator (also it was on sale)

What are your guy's opinions on that cooler? You think itll work fine, or should I go with someone else.

Also what about mounting? Has anyone had experience using those plastic peg style mounts to mount the cooler to the radiator directly, or should I try to find/make a bracket of some sort instead

In terms of the hoses / connections, whats my best approach, and what size hose will I need? I saw this video showing where the metal lines connect to the transmission, but he didnt say what size they were. Thanks for all the help

PhatherPhish

I went through exactly this. After swapping my 7AT to a vr30 one I decided to go ahead and get a mishimoto radiator. I didn’t want want to contaminate my new trans, and didn’t feel like cleaning the current radiator. At least that’s the excuse I give myself.

First issue you will need to address is heating. Your transmission fluid will no longer be heated by the coolant, which could prove to be very bad long term. You will want to use an inline thermostat to let the trans get to operating as quick as possible.

For lines I got rid of the steel tubes and went with -6 (3/8”)PTFE hose and fittings. Are you planning on getting rid of the hard lines? If not could get away with some reinforced ethanol rated (better chemical resistance) rubber hose clamped on.

I would look at getting a stacked plate cooler. The tube and fin cooler is not going to be nearly as efficient as a stacked plate cooler. Summit racing and Z1 have some good priced ones. They are more expensive than a tube/fin cooler but well worth the cost IMO.

as for the bracket one like this is what you will need for a stacked plate cooler. I wanted to replace the OE power steering cooler with a stacked plate cooler but couldn’t find and dual brackets to I made one out of a piece of angle iron. If you decide to stay with the tube cooler you could maybe use the same bracket and some threaded rods to ‘cage’ it in.

parts I used to give you some ideas
Inline thermostat
Cooler
Lines
Banjo fittings (not sure about what size it was I ordered, but this is the store I ordered them from(EDIT: for anyone wondering the thread pitch for the banjo bolt is 14X1.5))


I modified the bracket for the OE tube lines to mount the therm to

bread

The thermostat is definitely interesting, I wouldnt've thought about that. Im unsure what kind of cooler I am going with, I dont track this car its only street, sometimes highway pulls but nothing too crazy. I am going to be keeping the hard lines (which im assuming youre talking about these) https://i.ibb.co/fFhTnFf/image.png

I might consider the thermostat more further down the road towards winter time, as its staying a consistent 90 outside right now. It seems very easy to install too, (self explanatory)

For the rubber hose I was just going to use something like this: I mean its meant exactly for what it says it is so this should be okay right? Also was told to double hose clamp it up cause of the pressure. Definitely will prob use hose clamps that require the pliers. If not similar ones from the photo above.

In terms of the cooler, if I were to go with something better, I was looking at this, I probably will not be using the provided hose, but going from 10AN to 3/8th is kinda hard because usually 10AN will go into 5/8, so its just alot of size reduction, because im pretty sure stock hard lines on the transmission now are 3/8 if im not mistaken?

Glad to know were on the same boat here, definitely sets some realistic expectations for what I am about to go through (again)

PhatherPhish

That hose will be fine. general fuel rated is what I meant. Ethanol rated would be PTFE hose...

IMO If you will not be running a thermostat I say go with a larger cooler like 19-25 rows. I am not sure if this holds any water, but my thinking is that even though long warm-up times aren't desirable, it would be better than the transmission getting heat-soaked on a hot day and cooling being limited by an undersized cooler.

When I was getting my parts together for my cooler I made a post and a member told me the transmission valve body would regulate flow to the cooler on its own. The reason I added the therm is that I assume since it was designed to gather heat from the engine coolant, the valve body is at full flow to the cooler during warm-up. The therm would be essential in cold weather

the stock lines are 3/8. For this application, I don't think it would cause any issues reducing 10AN to 3/8. One of these should do it https://www.summitracing.com/parts/s...RoClokQAvD_BwE

bread

found a 30 row on amazon, evil energy always had good luck with them, comes with reducers, paired with 6AN - 3/8th barb 90°s, and a bracket which i might not even use and will prob self tap into the plastic. should be in business fr for under $200

PhatherPhish

Awesome. I was skeptical about Evil Energy at first but, their stuff has given me the least amount of issues.

One thing I found out after installing the mishi radiator, the added thickness is enough that a typical 2-inch thick stacked plate cooler won't sit completely on the core support ledge in front of the radiator. I had to put some 10mm spacers behind my oil cooler bracket and trans cooler brackets.

bread

could you link the spacers so i can get an idea of that. when i installed the mishi the first time it looked like there was room but i could be wrong. I was thinking of just tapping directly horizontally flat into that support but i bought the vertical bracket just in case, but i was hoping for an easy mounting with that thing 😭

PhatherPhish

Here’s the spacers. I had to get longer bolts as well. Something like 20mm long. I guess you could just flip the bracket around. If you have the OE crash bar that might cause a clearance issue. I highlighted where I used the spacers.

bread

I still have OE crash bar, ill see, I might be able to squeeze something. I was gonna use this bracket meant for the evil energy cooler:

bread

Alternatively, I could possibly take some metal plates, and almost extend it out that way, from the original support frame, something like this, https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...5299/202033910 without having to use the vertical mount. Its just gonna be a lot of engineering and trial error, and I gotta try to do it all before I actually install the radiator because of the A/C n what not. Which wouldnt be a problem if it wasnt blazing hot outside :|

SkysG37

I used an off brand trans cooler as well. Had to make brackets from some aluminum angle though.
No issues with the cooler itself, but the "transmission cooler line" I picked up from auto zone split from the pressure.
Big mess, and could have cooked my trans.
Luckily the smoke from the fluid hitting the exhaust scared me enough to pull right over.
Ended up with HEAVY rated hose from a local industrial hydraulic supply house.
And installed a shift kit. The shift kit not only made sport mode actually sporty, it also fixes a runaway pressure issue my 5 speed is known for.
Not sure if that's an issue for the 7 speeds, but might be worth looking into
No thermostatic valve as the trans does that itself and I live in Florida so warm ups aren't really an issue.
The generic thermostatic valve on my external oil cooler "honks" annoyingly as it warms up. And is on my list to swap over to a different brand.
had good luck with evil energy fittings and hose kits as well.

bread

Yikes! The hose im buying is also coming from evil energy, working pressure at 250psi and burst at 1000. Temps up to 257 degrees, so Ill just roll the dice. Ive seen people take slightly bigger hose, or just the existing hose and cut a slit down it and sleeve it over almost like a cushion/support in case of rubbing or fraying. Just like they do with wires.

This is gonna be quite the jerry rigged project but I think everything will turn out okay. Its just a matter of fitment with this thick *** mishi radi

bread

this is my current purchased list

https://i.ibb.co/hf5PyyM/image.png

bread

everything was a success! The mishimoto radiator fit just fine, and the trans cooler was installed. I didnt have to use the spacers, but I did use the vertical mounting bracket, but not in the way you'd think. I actually was able to mount the trans cooler horizontally on the support frame (or whatever you want to call it), and im using that vertical bracket almost like a support brace, because the cooler is hanging about halfway off of it, basically its just there to act as a backbone / extra stability and strength to keep it upright with only 2 bolts holding it on.

I used 3 hose clamps on the hard pressure line as I couldnt get it to slip down all the way + it was showing slight signs of slippage as I was trying to tighten them down, and just double clamped the rest. Used quality PTFE thread tape on all the fittings to the trans cooler, and filled up the cooler with some valvoline multi vehicle (a risk I know but it was rated for matic s so ill take the chance) its only 0.75q anyway.

I have the hoses running on the front of the trans cooler rather than behind it, because of tightness between the mishi and the cooler, and have the hoses wrapped up around the upper part of the metal support frame, I plan to add some zip ties to keep them upright as well

But all is good, it works just fine, happy with the results. Curious about the long term results from the transmissiojn