Transmission Cooler Placement

Hey guys, really want to add a trans cooler to my rig for the off-road trails I will be doing. I have a 95 with the 3.0 and 4wd. It doesn't look like there is really enough space on the front of the radiator to mount a cooler to, so I am wondering where you guys think a good place would be? If you have done this mod, can you post pictures? Thanks in advance!

 

Im sure that there are all sorts of ideas on how to go about doing this, but if I were going to put an external cooler on my 95, it would be a no brainer for me. Remove the spare tire(which probably has already been done if you're running tires of any size at all) mount the cooler in the place of it with a aux fan, and fab a skid plate for protection. Could be a awesome add-on.

 

Never heard of getting a cooler for offroading. Towing yes, but offroading?

 

My thoughts are that the kind of off roading I do is slow going and uphill. Puts a lot of strain on the trans and that's without it even loaded. Since a cooler is so inexpensive and easy to install, I figure why not. I'd rather not take the chance on a 25 year old trans. If I can spend $60 now to keep myself from having to spend $2-3k in the near future, I'd much rather spend it now. ‍♂️

 

It has 31s on it right now and the spare still fits underneath. I was thinking of going that route though. Get a couple of sold 12v fans and mount it somewhere that I can cover with some shielding.

 

More importantly...do you have an automatic or manual trans? The coolers are different for each.

 

Auto

 

Well, that should make your job a whole lot easier. Manuals are a bit more complicated.

How about spacing it off your front skid plate with 1"spacers and put a fan on it? On the inside of the skid plate, obviously.

 

Kinda what I was thinking. Wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy for thinking that though. Would you say to just get some rubber bushings to mount it on? Maybe some cheap suspension bushings or something?

 

Sure, or some tubing. If you cut down some sway bar mount bushings to fit.

 

Sweet. That's probably the route I'll go then. That way I don't have to run lines all the way back to the spare tire mount.

 

Is there not room to sneak it in behind the grill, in front of the radiator? This seems like a logical place and you wouldn't have to add a fan.

 

Unfortunately, there is not enough room there. Would've been much easier if there was.

 

I got a trans cooler from Napa and mounted it on the bottom front of the radiator, underneath the condenser.