NINjaX7

Hey, so I'm having problem with my leaking coolant in my car and discovered the plastic end tank on the top of the radiator was leakin from the corner directly under the battery. Well... I wanted to swap in a brass manual transmission radiator into my FD. the thing is, is that it's an automatic. If you're familiar with the radiator set up for the automatic, it has a copper pipe going through the lower endtank so it's submerged in coolant. Transmission fluid runs through the copper pipe. I was thinking of cutting the copper pipe out of the plastic endtank and sealing it inside of a rubber tube full of coolant. This way, I can have a temporary radiator that doesn't leak and I can still have the copper pipe going through some coolant. In a way it might be a little bit better than stock, because 1) it'll be getting direct airflow while it's situated at the bottom of the floor pan and 2) the copper pipe will be sitting in coolant that doesn't run through the whole engine, meaning it wouldn't be hot at all, and will always stay at air temperature whenever i first start the car. The problems that i may run into though is that the coolant touching the copper wire may expand from the hot tranny fluid running through it, and burst the tube, but I'm going to reinforce it somehow.
I know this may seem 'ghetto', but it's only temporary until I get enough $$$ to buy a koyo, and an aftermarket cooler.

poss

iTrader: (5)

don't the autos already have a dedicated trans fluid cooler where the 'R' models extra oil cooler is located?

NINjaX7

yeah... they do, it's on the passenger side of the car opposite of the oil cooler, for the automatic models, it's a transmission cooler, on the R models it's another oil cooler. But after the hoses leave the transmission cooler and head back into the engine bay. The hose goes right into that copper pipe i was talking about that's inside of the radiator. But do you get what I'm saying having the copper pipe in it's own separate tube where coolant doesn't touch the engine?