z m y d u s t . c o m

Install a Transmission Oil Cooler on your 4L60E...

I purchased a B&M Supercooler Transmission Cooler, 24000 GVW, part #70264 from Thunder Racing. I particularly liked this kit because of it's small size and comparable ratings to larger units. The fact that it's smaller and doesn't take up much space in front of the radiator to affect the engine's cooling ability is nice.

Thanks to Brett Franker... I used the write-up on his site to help install mine. Since I've got a B&M unit, I figured another writeup and a few more pics couldn't hurt :)

On with the writeup....

Tools I used:

Pliers, regular, needlenose, and a pair of diagonal cutters to clip the zip ties
PVC Pipe cutter, this works GREAT for cutting rubber hose, but a standard utility knife is fine
Screwdriver for tightening hose clamps
Socket set for removing the driver's side fan. (My case)

Here are a few pictures of the installation location and the lines the way they come stock. You'll see labels as to which lines are which and the ones we'll be using. As mentioned in Brett Franker's writeup, it really does appear as though these cars are meant for tranny coolers, the return line is only clamped as opposed to crimped, making this job relatively painless.

Here's the kit and the fitting I used which came included in the kit. There's a bigger brass fitting that came along with the kit that I didn't use. The fittings come separated, I went ahead and screwed them together with a 9/16" wrench.

First place your cooler roundabout the middle towards the bottom, be sure to have installed the pads that keep the cooler about 1/8" away from the radiator itself.. that way you don't scratch and bend the radiator fins. Since the B&M unit has both the inlet and outlet on the top, I had to give the hose enough room to not bend and kink the tubing. I used the passenger side connection of the tranny cooler as the inlet, and the driver's side as the outlet back to the tranny's stock return line.

Insert the brass fitting into the stock line you disconnected earlier, doesn't matter which side you use. You can feel free to reuse the stock hose clamp here.

I first placed the cooler without the zip tie straps to position the inlet hose properly. I routed the entire length of the hose (4') through a bottom opening and ran it the shortest I possibly could to meet up nicely without kinking up to the stock line. I met those up and cut the hose to length. If you can manage to install the outlet hose with the cooler still in place, go for it. If not, remove the whole thing, hose and all, that's why you left it unhooked earlier.

Route the outlet hose through the opening towards the top of the passenger side. You should have about 5" of excess where it meets the stock return hard line to the transmission, cut to length, slide a hose clamp on it, hook it up and tighten it down. Feel free to connect the inlet hose to the stock hose which now has the barbed fitting attached. Once everything is attached, make sure that no hoses are crimped or kinked in the position the cooler sits. If everything is fine, grab those 4 black zip tie looking things along with their backing pieces. Slide these through the top & bottom holes of the cooler. They will sorta pierce through the radiator and come out the other side. Mine popped out directly behind the fans, and the driver's side fan was in the way, so I popped it out real quick (4 10mm Bolts). Attach the backs of the ties to them, cut the extra length off, and make sure everything is attached real firm.

Doublecheck all your hose connections with the images I provided on the right. They're all labeled, so it should be no sweat :)

Have a blast, now you'll have a happy tranny. I noticed no increase in engine temperature even though it's mounted in front of the radiator. This took about two hours because I was stopping to take pics and stuff so I had to clean off my hands. I think it took longer to write this up than to install it :).