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 Installing a Borg Warner Transmission Cooler in the 1929 Ford Model A Roadster

The build of the 1929 Ford road hot rod is developing well and it is starting to look like a real hot rod. As I have opted to use the suspension and drivetrain from a 1986 Corvette Indy pace car convertible with a 700R4 automatic transmission, the installation of a transmission cooler was next on the list of things to do.
Normally most radiators contain an internal transmission cooler. The 1932 Ford style radiator I am using in the hot rod does not have this feature. Also, if the radiator had an internal transmission cooler I do not think I would use it. My intention on this build is to keep the front of the hot rod chassis relatively clean and minimized the number of wires, and lines at the front of the hot rod chassis.

On many of the vehicles that I have owned in the past with automatic transmissions, I always installed a heavy duty external transmission cooler as an extra precaution to keep the transmission fluids at a good operating temperature. Fortunately, I removed and stashed away a transmission cooler from a 4×4 truck I sold many years ago. So far, the cost of building the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod has been very minimal. There has been lots of buying and selling, with the profits sliding into the build of the hot rod. So, it made sense to re-cycle the used Borg Warner transmission cooler that has been sitting around in the shop for the last few years collecting a bit of dust.

The 1929 Ford roadster hot rod should have lots of transmission cooling with this Borg Warner transmission cooler. It is 11 inches by 6 inches and almost 1.5 inches thick. To make sure I didn’t have a leaky transmission cooler, I plugged one end of the cooler and connected the other end to the air compressor with about 50 psi pressure. Using a soapy water solution, I sprayed the cooler looking for air leaks while I had the transmission cooler pressurized. None were found, so it appears the transmission cooler is okay to use with new life in the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod.

Using some 0.75 inch steel angle iron, a bracket was formed for the transmission cooler and MIG welded together. I choose to mount the Borg Warner transmission cooler just in front of the Holley “Blue” electric fuel pump on the underside of the hot rod floor. This location would only require a short run of tubing to the 700R4 transmission.

I made up four 0.25 inch threaded inserts for the fiber glass covered floor boards for the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod. The transmission cooler will have an air space between the underside of the hot rod floor and the bottom side of the transmission cooler. My intention is to monitor the temperature of the oil circulating in the transmission once I get the hot rod on the road. If the temperature is high, I will mount a few fans, possibly, a computer style fan that will be thermostatically controlled. For now it will be the “keep it simple” rule.

To keep the cost down for the hot rod build, I will use rubber hose to connect the Borg Warner transmission cooler to the 700R4 automatic transmission. At a later date once I test drive the 1929 Ford hot rod, the entire hot rod will be dis-assembled and painted. Once this is done, the rubber hoses will be replaced with either stainless steel lines or a stainless steel braided hose.

After a test fit of the transmission cooler onto the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod, the transmission cooler was painted with high heat paintand and mounted to the hot rod.