Transmission - Radiator - Pink Goo and my feeling of Dread

[toomanycars]

So I bought my 383 donor car that had been sitting for years. Checked the fluids and made sure it wasn't seized, all good. I hooked up a secondary gas tank and she fired up pretty quick. Well I noticed a trans leak but it wasn't red it was pink goo, it seems the radiator had an internal leak and let water into the transmission cooler. Anybody been through this? It seems like it's too thick to just flush out. Hoping to avoid a rebuild if possible.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

You can try to just flush out the trans , trans pans should have drain plugs but rarely do , but draining out as much fluid as possible , replacing the filter & adding new fluid may work out fine although you may have to do this 2-3 times . You may have to replace the cooling lines but hydraulic pressure is very effective so likely blowing out the lines with compressed air & using fluid pressure to remove the rest should work . I assume you have replaced the rad or diverted the trans into a separate cooler .

 

[toomanycars]

Thanks, I'll be installing a separate cooler before I try to run it again. I think I might do this on my other cars also. Is there a solvent or cleaner you can add to the fluid to get a more effective flush?

 

[Chryco Psycho]

There may be a flush cleaner available , I have not looked , heat alone will remove most of the moisture but with the oil mixed with the water you need to flush as much out as possible , the converter is the big issue , see if it has a drain plug on the front face , if so that is a win as almost 1/2 of the fluid is in the converter & is impossible to drain unless you are lucky & it has a drain plug .

 

[Steve340]

Try flushing but water usually messes the transmission up pretty good.

 

[moparleo]

Just like flushing a radiator. Hook the intake line to a large container of fluid and the radiator/cooler line to a large empty container. Start and leave in neutral. It will pump in fresh fluid and pump out the old fluid into a draining container. Do it until clean fluid is coming out. Just like a brake system flush.
Fresh in, contaminated/dirty fluid out. But Donor cars usually end up as just cores.

 

[toomanycars]

I'm going to pull the converter and clean that as best I can. I've read several posts about cleaning it with Kerosene so that might be a place to start.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

I would circulate it through first as LEO said .
if you are going to pull it rebuild it .