The only dumb question is the one not asked!

 

Learned that the hard way.... while moving the vehicle, turning the wheel caused the open lines to bleed profusely....

 

Well thank you for that. Now I ask another question directed to Blazerforum.com members who drive Jimmys or Sonomas or Blazers with a Jimmy front end mod. It looks like the plastic grille doesn't allow any room between the radiator/radiator support and the grill assembly itself. I opened the hood and removed the pass side headlight and noticed no room to run hoses for a tranny cooler. It looks like the grill assembly is more or less like an engine cowling on a jet engine forcing air into the turbine fan (or in a GMC Jimmy's case, a radiator) Do I have to run out and buy a Dremel to cut an opening for trans cooling hoses or can it not be done with a Jimmy grill? Thanks a bunch for all of your patience with this matter. I am trying to keep this geekified GMC Jimmy on the road for another 10 years or more. Wouldn't drive anything else with the junk these car companies produce today. If I ever had to buy another car, it would be a pre-2001 GM truck.

 

If you bought a B&M Supercooler they come with every thing needed to install. It took me about an hour to install mine. The only thing that didn;t come with the kit was the 1/4 fuel line I used to line the hole I cut to feed the cooler hoses through.

 

Can anyone who drives a Jimmy/Sonoma (98+) with a trans cooler shed any light on this? I can't seem to find an opening in the side of the grille assembly to run the hoses. I am going home for the weekend on Friday and I'd like to try putting it in, so I am trying to clear up any and all issues with this beforehand so I don't get stuck on the install. Thanks.

 

Make one... It is just plastic off the passenger side of the radiator. Drill, dremel, whatever you want to use to make the hole. It isn't difficult when you just look at what is there.

 

Ok, I guess I can call this project "done". Since I didn't have the correct tools to install the cooler (and also because I didn't want to mess it up and cripple the truck since I have to go back to college on Monday), I had a local transmission shop close to home install it. A friend of ours recommended it because he had to take his Ford F-350 Dually there for a transmission rebuild. Basically, the cooler I ordered (B&M #70264) was a VERY tight fit. They could only mount it this way (see pics) because of it. They didn't make any holes in the side of the grille to run the hoses. Basically, they mounted the cooler horizontally onto the radiator, cut the upper (return) trans cooler line near the engine oil filter, ran a hose from there to the trans cooler and ran another hose from the trans cooler to the upper radiator fitting. They ran the hoses downward to avoid the grille. I don't know if the cooler being upside-down would cause any issues since it didn't say anything about it in the instructions but they seemed to do a great job and they were also very neat about it when they ran those lines. See the pics.

Funny thing was that there was an older Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Pickup in the shop getting transmission repairs while they were putting the cooler in. I asked the guy about it and he said that all the American cars are about the same with the transmissions. He said he rebuilds a couple Chevy transmissions like mine a couple times a week. The average mileage is around 70-80k.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone for the advice. Sometimes I need to leave projects to mechanics if it is difficult for me to do it, if i don't have the tools, or if I don't want to mess it up when I need the car to get back up to college.

Admins: I am done bothering everyone for advice on this. Sorry if I caused any trouble.

 

Sorry to revive this thread, but as I described it in the last post, is this tranny cooler installed correctly? As it is installed, will it keep my transmission cool? I may have to tow a 3000 pound trailer in a couple weeks for 250 miles.

 

Sounds like it is. Regardless of which hose it is plumbed into, it will cool a lot better than stock.

 

Thanks alot. Just trying to keep this car running another 10+ years! Wouldn't drive anything else.