Plenty of room out the front for a transmission cooler. I have done many.

The main thing now is to really establish what has happened.

Trans fuid in the cooling system is easily seen as sludge on the bottom of the header tank cap. It is difficult to flush out, and takes a lot of time.

Coolant back in the transmission is a serious issue, and as I said before, the ONLY place it can come from is the heat exchanger inside the radiator.

The fact the transmission has been out, I am still thnking the breather hose is plugged, kinked, whatever, and the trans is pressurising, and the easiest place to blow off pressure is to pop the dipstick.

A lot of strange unanswered questions, and that leads to way too much guess work, and costly repeating of tasks.

 

Totally agree Grant that ensuring the breather IS unblocked as well as R&Ring the rad is essential.
Greg

 

I'm going to mention both points - the breather tube, and the heat exchanger inside the radiator. The breather tube probably makes sense to check first, as it would presumably be the simpler thing to fix. However, that probably wouldn't affect overheating in general, so the radiator will definitely need work.
The garage is going to contact me once they've had a look and can give me an estimate, and when they do, I'll compare what they tell me with the expert information on here to get an idea of how competent they are likely to be.
Probably more competent than the shop, at least - the shop guy expressed incredulity at the idea that a tranny dipstick could blow, and said one of the two mechanics who was there when I phoned was also amazed. The garage guy immediately suspected coolant in the tranny oil.
At any rate, thanks to all the advice here, I now know enough (well, some at least) to be able to discuss the matter with the garage in a somewhat sensible manner, and to be able to check that they're checking the right things....

 

The rad HAS to be removed and the fins of the entire rad stack cleaned out whatever they say. The rad, when removed, MUST be pressure tested for leaks as MUST the tranny cooling coil in it. Then the inside of the rad must be checked to see if there are blockages internally - which there will almost certainly be. Tell them to do all this if you want the cooling sorted.


Greg

 

Thanks. I'm going to note that down right now. (I'm compiling these responses into a memo to take to the garage when they let me know the estimate. Come to think of it, I hope they do give me an estimate as promised rather than just go straight ahead and "fix" things and then give me the final bill. I might wander down there next week anyway, just in case....)