hello i have a 96 f150 with a 302 engine automatic trans and 93k miles on it. i recently looked in the radiator and its a brownish green but there are no other signs of a blown gasket. so i was wondering if the radiator just needs flushed because i havent changed the fluid in about 13k miles except for the from time to time adding fluid. engine still runs fine no rough idle no smoke no leaks no lack of power, nothing. any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

if its an auto your trans cooler could be leaking into ur radiator if not then flush it out. get new coolant and go from there.

 

i did have a new trans cooler put in roughly 2k miles ago.

 

Bubbles in the radiator?
Water in the oil?
White smoke out of the pipe?
Extreme overheat episode?
Multiple, less extreme overheat episodes?

 

non of that stuff is happening, never even came close to overheating even when it was 102 out and i drove 150 miles. no smoke no water in oil no smoke. i am going to look into the trans cooler thing, never thought about that.

 

Thought you said you installed an external?

 

replaced the old one and put an external on. was having problems with the trans getting to hot.

 

So it ain't the internal cooler. You'd be transferring Neg. pressure to positive pressure source. Under normal conditions, that's called magic! Your not overheating now, which is what would happen w/ an uncapped ruptured internal trans cooler.

However, If it was sealed on both ends, Radiator temps could cause contents in the tranny C/C tubes to "Swap spit" w/ the rest of the radiator, as it could rise to a temp that would cause a gaseous state to occur in the tube, forcing into the radiator. As it cooled, it would suck coolant into the tube. Like a pressurized system within a pressurized system.

That's if the ends were capped. If not capped, coolant would just leak out.

A Transtune treatment, followed by a transmission servicing would have cured the original Tranny overheat problem. Depending on the set up, an external Tranny cooler can actually be detrimental the transmissiom longevity. There's such a thing as "not warm enough"!

 

ill be taking it into the shop tomorrow and have them change the fluid and check the hoses to make sure. ill go from there

 

If it's the same place place that installed the external tranny cooler, ask how the Transmission fluid maintains it's correct operational temp? When part of the coolant system, that was how the correct temp was reached & maintained.