Narrowly averted dreaded strawberry milkshake! And solved overheating problem (40-50% blockage in radiator!) new Koyo and Hayden external tranny cooler. In the nick of time! 110 outside.... No sweat inside!

Good catch, I should be getting my koyo any day. Ive looked in my rad cap and is really clean, but I dont want to risk it.

Thanks! All the posts on here certainly opened my eyes to this potential problem, and sure enough, absolutely correct! I almost couldn't have waited a week longer. My careful dissection with a BFH proved to me just that!
Get that Koyo in ASAP! ( very easy and straight forward by the way.) and maybe for your own amusement... dissect the old one with a trusty BFH!

Pay $15 for a new OEM radiator cap as well.

Great pics to show everyone that the construction of the OEM radiator is far from superior.

Good catch!

I have 180k on my 3rd gen and out of fear for the 'milkshake', I installed an aftermarket Tranny cooler and completely bypassed the stock heat exchanger in the radiator.

Your radiator looks pretty beat compared to most that I've seen though.

I guess I should'a mentioned that as well. Yep, went with bypassing the internal cooler and got a hayden and mounted it in front of the condenser. May opt to mount an electric fan w a cab mounted switch also, due to the fact that it was 111 degrees today here in Tucson! Overkill may not really be possible.

Yeah, I installed a BM 70268 and bypassed the Stock cooler entirely. The radiator was in great shape so I only added the cooler and its the perfect setup to me. It takes a few mins of driving to get it warm but that really isn't a problem and shouldn't be in most climates.

That fan may not be necessary, even for Tucson. Recently while pushing a hill in the wind, loaded down, and in 95* heat, my ScanGauge had the tranny oil max out at 210* just for a sec, then it stabilized around 195 for the rest of the climb. I believe that reading is taken from the fluid leaving the torque converter which is where the fluid takes the most abuse. From what I've read this is very well within safe temperature range for the tranny oil. If that's the case a fan may not be necessary and your radiator fan should provide enough air flow unless you are at cruising speed in which case normal airflow will cool your Hayden. I'd check your temps in that heat first and see how they hold up with just the cooler on there.

Yep. That'll be my next investment. A scangauge/ultragauge of some kind and or a tranny temp gauge. Probably just going to get a pusher fan and mount it half over tranny cooler and half over radiator, with a cab mounted switch, just for climbing southern Az mountains, or stop and go traffic in middle O summer.

I am at 175k and after reading all the threads about the pink milkshake i am quite paranoid.
I am going to be adding an external cooler and swapping out the radiator here in the next few months. My question is in Washington state will the transmission not warm up enough in the winter if it does not go through the radiator as well as the external cooler? If i plan to drive it a lot in any where that sees mid 40's most of the year should i run it through the radiator and an external cooler? If not would there be a benefit to getting the radiator from a manual transmission runner instead so it doesn't have the transmission cooler inside it?
Thanks for any input.

I live at 4k feet in the mountains and we see temps in the 10-20* range in the winter. From the research I've done I think you will be ok with those temps (40*) in winter. The only people who need to be concerned are the ones living in climate zones that see 0* or less.

Overcool a transmission. - Bob Is The Oil Guy

Also, a recommendation I found on some sites says to place a piece of plastic or cardboard over the cooler in winter to prevent some of the airflow so it stays a little warmer. You're only going to know if you have a temp gauage. I would pick up one of those as well just so you can see where you're at and make a decision from there. From what I've read, you want your Tranny temps to stay between 150-180*. The scary thing is that the stock radiator (heat exchanger) keeps your temps at around 200* due to the temp of the motor.

Some of the newer tranny coolers have a LPD (low pressure drop) line which bypasses the cooler in cold weather.

My cooler doesn't have this so I will be watching the Tranny temps on my ScanGaugeII to see if I need to cover part of the cooler in winter/snow temps. I would rather deal with that minor inconvenience each year than worry about the strawberry milkshake of death!

raidernation, thanks for that info, it helps me out a lot. I will be getting a ScanGauge when i get home as well as the cooler.

No problem, glad I could help. Let us know how the ScanGauge works out and what your temps are.

Last week, in 95* heat, loaded down, into the wind and pushing a hill, my tranny temp only got up to 210*. Normally in 90* or above, my average temps are around 165-180*.

Tranny temp gauge mounted... External cooler mounted.....
Smile....

Why would you consider it an inferior product? Hell, I'm happy with anything on my rig that lasts 150-200+k. Plus, there are a ton of people out there getting well over 200k out of their radiator. Radiators, like many other serviceable parts do have a life expectancy. I certainly don't mind replacing one every 100k.
I don't understand why everyone goes directly to adding a cooler instead of replacing an aged radiator thus killing two birds with one stone