powersteering cooler

[guyver6]

Has anyone tried to use the transmission cooler that is built into the radiator of a vs v6 as a power steering cooler, I've installed an aftermarket cooler for the transmission.

 

[Don Sutton]

Don't bother, the flow would be too restrictive and you could pop the input seal or lower pinion seal if you let go the steering wheel quickly while turning or rock the steering wheel back and forth quickly.

 

[LowVp]

yeah i did, put the cooler on the return line, i could drive 7-8 hours and drop my finger straight in the oil in the 4 years that i had the car on the road never did i have any power steer problems and yeah it copped a bit of oppisite lock

 

[Don Sutton]

yeah i did, put the cooler on the return line, i could drive 7-8 hours and drop my finger straight in the oil in the 4 years that i had the car on the road never did i have any power steer problems and yeah it copped a bit of oppisite lock

You are lucky mate. If you are putting an oil cooler on the return it would be best if it had the same pipe diameter (ID) as the standard return pipe. When you have the steering at full boost and release the steering wheel the resultant pressure spike in the return at the seal is > 2 Mpa and the seal blows at 0.75 Mpa (this is measured with a fast response pressure transducer and viewed on an oscilloscope). The only reason that it does not blow instantly is that the spike is so short that it has lost energy by the time the seal has deflected a little. We used to blow them by repetitive banging of the gear against lock and took about 100 or more successive spikes to fatigue the seal. The 2 seals mentioned are on the low pressure side of the gear and see only backpressure in normal operation. The high pressure seals have to withstand 10 Mpa but are tested on the final test machine to 14Mpa.

 

[LowVp]

yeah was 3/8 i think but its been a few years since i've looked at the plumbing as i've had no dramas

 

[Don Sutton]

I might mention at this stage that the original post by 'guyver6' was asking about using the redundant autotransmission cooler in the radiator as a power steering oil cooler and my original comments still stand.

 

[LowVp]

lol, wouldn't bother, water circulating threw there is already at 80-90 degrees