Shimaze

Has any one ever tried this? Will this make the power steering fluid hotter or cooler? What is the normal temp of un-cooled power steering fluid? I have a manual trans, but I have a automatic trans radiator and the trans cooler is doing nothing. I would like to hook up the power steering to the trans cooler. I did a search and people have brought up this idea before, but no one said they actually tried this or commented whether or not this idea worked . Thank you in advance for your reply...

FuryZ28

I'd be curious if this works or not as well. If all else, go out & buy some brake lines and/or some hoses and route it through your power steering unit. If you suceed, you can tell us all about it and help the board's members in doing the same with their cars...

hot white z

I would be worried that the power steering system pressure might balloon the radiator. I'm sure it can be done, just not thinking it would be very smart to do it.

Shimaze

Ah, i would put the cooler on the low pressure side. The trans cooler should be able to handle that. When I get this porject completed, I'll let everyone know. Another question I have: Does the LS1 power steering cooler use radiator fluid to cool the power steering fluid?

NOVA5

I would suspect the actual PS Fluid is routed through the PS Cooler.

OBE1 95Z28

I'm also interested in doing this; anybody tried it?

Ken S

There are tons of write ups on using a trans cooler to cool down PS fluid, on the low pressure side.

I believe the stock ps cooler gm gave the f-bod's use radiator fluid to cool it down..

Here's a write up on a 98+ LS1 cooler
http://para.noid.org/pscooler/
I would assume the same concept could be applied to a LT1 power steering pump setup..

BTW, at least for the LS1 guys (they have tons of pumps for alot of apps), you want to check out the TurnOne ps pumps.. Thats on my list to get, once I my ps pump starts acting funny.

MyShibbyZ28

Yes you can use a transmission cooler/oil cooler for power steering. Just make sure it is on the low pressure side.

If it is a cooler, you can run just about any liquid through it as long as the pressure is not too great.

Besides, there are only 4 types of main oils in the car anyways. Transmission fluid, oil, coolant, and power steering. All those can be run through a cooler, if done correctly.

Ken S

yea, the biggest debate after which cooler to use, is where to put the cooler for airflow.. Some put it right on top of the radiator. some mount it somewhere on the framrails and hope abient airflow does the trick.. Or some mount/duct coolers in a way where its in a known airflow path..


For the LS1 application at least, there's an argument that the root cause is the LS1 pump spins to fast to to begin with.. This adds in unnecessary heat, and causes caviation (is that word right?) and the fluid bubbles and froths up... and getting the TurnOne pump actually eliminates the problem itself..

OBE1 95Z28

Just to be clear, I'm asking about using the stock 4th Gen A4 radiator to cool my P/S fluid; my M6 doesn't use the tranny cooler portion of the radiator. My concern would be the extra heat of the power steering fluid causing my coolant temperature to rise. I realize the radiator was designed to handle the extra heat of the transmission.

Bud M

Sure, why not? Run a line from the ps return to the cooler and one from the cooler to the reservoir. I wouldn't worry about raising coolant temp, I can't berleive the power steering generates as much heat as an automatic transmission.

Mtrhds94Z

How hot does Power Steering fluid actually run?
You wouldn't want it to turn out to be a power steering fluid heater..
[ My thought would be that most of the time in normal use the fluid is cooler than engine coolant.. maybe road racers etc would benefit]
Anyone have a reliable figure for power steering fluid temps?

MyShibbyZ28

The power steering fluid doesn't get hot enough to boil, but it does get hot enough to froth out of the reservior. I would not suggest running it through the radiator wether you are autocross or not. The engine coolant is going to be hotter than the power steering fluid almost all of the time. I would plug off the radiator transmission lines, and buy a small cooler to put inline with the power steering lines instead. If you would like to know how hot power steering gets, open the cap and stick your finger in the fluid after driving a while. Let me know how it goes .

The transmission lines going into the radiator never really cooled the transmission that much; it was more of a limit keeper, so the transmission would not get over whelmingly hot.

Janny

You can run the PS through the rad cooler, or you can go straight out and get the Turn One pump. After I ran mine through the rad, I had to buy the new pump. Something about a persistent whine seemed to indicate oil starvation. Restoring the oil flow through normal channels didn't fix the problem.

YMMV