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RE: 96 Chevy C 1500 vin R 5.L v-8 RWD with a 4L60E
I love my truck.
Last November had the transmission pulled and bench rebuild, as that was all I could afford to do. The wonderful gentleman who helped me (yes I worked on this too) decided it was more expedient to replace the radiator than flush the system with holidays approaching. Ok no problem.
I think we should have replaced the flex plate, but we didn’t and I have been “still having issues”. Flex plate type issues. (Just noise, mostly.) I was workin on the logistics of tryin to get that fixed, but then last Friday the O’Reilly’s Murray brand radiator failed on me with less than 1k miles since the repair – failed while I was on a significant (to me) road trip running errands.
In order of what happened:
Check engine light came on after about 30 miles of highway driving as I was pulling into a store parking lot.
Got back out on the highway, heading to a gas station and I had some slippage in 3 and 4, like it was going in to neutral. Ok so I got to that gas station and checked the fluid and OMFG the dip stick was DRY. I am a lil OCD about my fluids and always checking them and under the vehicle for leaks so I was yeah – stunned.
I had one quart of ATF in the back and one really old quart of bar’s leaks that I had forgotten to return, so I added and oye vey… seemed like I overfilled it.
So I’m like, ok one more stop and I will go home and deal with this. Well pull up to that place and pull in, and then all of a sudden no forward, no reverse, it just sits there. And then. All of a sudden it was magickally FINE and working and shifting.
FML. There is no auto parts store ANYWHERE in my vicinity. I just want to get home. RPMs seem a lil high. Ok well it has an ATF leak SOMEWHERE, I guess, I will have to figure out where, because it is not under the truck.
15 miles from home and it starts to smell hot. Just hot plastic. I’m watching the gauges and they are ok, but then the check gauges light comes on and then the temp starts rapidly climbing. I immediately pulled into a church parking lot (in the middle of not a thing, mind you. This is rural.) and shut it down. That fast. But it almost didn’t make that turn.
She was steaming, of course, but there was OMFG… pink milkshake on the ground under the truck. Yeah I know that means ATF met water. First called roadside assistance to get a tow gave it some time to cool down a lil bit, and then started lookin at stuff.
TURNS OUT the hose blasted off the heater core. The new hose, mind you. Great. So I know I lost my coolant. How many gallons that takes? I don’t even remember. I only keep one spare gallon of 50/50 in the back of the truck. oh but I also have a spare hose clamp that fits that heater hose lol. How much of a girl scout am I? lol.
And the pink milkshake stuff is in the coolant reservoir. Ok so I am guessing the O’Reilly’s special split a seam?
On the plus side, wow the engine sure looks clean now.
Now to my actual question. I STILL HAVE the OEM radiator that was replaced, he didn’t take the core…
should be ok to put it back in the truck, right? It wasn’t replaced because it failed.
And I am having trouble getting O’Reilly’s to honor the warranty on the new one because I didn’t make the actual purchase. And well… just never mind that I don’t think I want another Murray’s radiator if they fail that fast.
I have home delivery coming today of Dex and ATF, and stuff I need to do flushes and refill… anything else I should check for, or is it safe to guess that ONLY this plastic radiator failed?
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Don’t really understand why radiator was replaced in 1st place on training rebuild but if it is good, then it is good. Flush it out and reinstall. On returning other one, if you have receipt, you should be good. If not and dont have purchase # or anything, you are probably out of luck.
Lastly Check to see if training fluid is burnt and replace if need be.Did you find any sign of milkshake in the transmission? I’ve seen trans coolers inside radiators leak. ATF in the cooling system isn’t a big deal, but any coolant in the transmission your transmission is done. The coolant gets into the bands and clutches, as well as the TCC and such, it’s over. You might be able to flush it out but it’s not likely.
Thanks, I’m not sure, but it doesn’t look like it. I compared the color on a clean white towel to the color that comes out of a bottle.
What I am struggling with at the moment is these stupid stacked brass adapters that were used to attach the transmission lines to the new radiator. I don’t recall why they were necessary, but I can’t get them off. One should turn one way and the other the other way, but it is wanting to twist the line itself, so this really sux.
Also guys, I have been reading your replies, but for some reason I couldn’t log in. It kept taking me back to the registration page. Bu tthanks! I appreciate the suggestions, reminders and support.
IIRC he said it was more expedient and prudent to replace the radiator than to flush it out at the time. I don’t fault him for trying to do the right thing. I am just really not happy with this brand and what happened. Thanks for confirming that I can still flush the old one and use it.
I struggled a lot to keep reflections from affecting the appearance of these fluids. I am posting this for folks who might have not seen this before.
There is a pic of what was on the ground after the heater hose blew off. I think that between what was on the ground, in the radiator and all over the engine compartment accounts for about 1qt of ATF.
Jars… left to right. 1) Clean new ATF. 2) What came out of the transmission. 3) What came out of the radiator.
On the paper is what came out of the radiator (by the tip of the funnel) and far right a single larger glom of clean new ATF.
Unless that is a reflection in the glass on the middle jar, I think that might just be some unburnt fluid rising to the top. I was looking for anything milkshaky (didn’t see it) or the type of separation like what came out of the radiator, in order to determine if or how much water made it into the transmission.
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