ATF cooler, overkill?

[trry96]

I'm on a super tight budget for my daily driver project 87 325is auto. I bought the car as a basketcase and it did not include a radiator with atf cooler in it. I don't particularly want to pay $200 for a new one, and the junk yard currently has none.

It seems to me that an atf cooler is overkill. If I were to bypass it, would that cause serious problems?

If not, what would be the best way to bypass? I was thinking of buying a pipe with the correct threads on it and hooking the atf cooler lines directly to the pipe. Otherwise, if I could find a bolt and a cap with the same thread patterns and size as the ATF cooler lines where they hook up to the tranny, I think that would work too. Yet another method would be to find a way to close off the cooler lines (weld shut?).

Any input whatsoever would help loads...thanks in advance.

[jlevie]

I think the only way you'd know whether the transmission cooler is overkill would be when the transmission prematurely died from overheating. Cost to rebuild would be way more than a new radiator and a used auto transmission is always a gamble (a a bit of a pain to change).

There may be some one closer to St. Louis that has what you need, but I have a serviceable radiator that has the cooler ports. There's nothing wrong with the radiator that I know of, but it may be as much as 20 years old. You can have it for $25+shipping. PM me if you are interested .