Hey i was wondering if someone could tell me what this part on my 96' dodge 12v is? its a cylinder fastened by flat clamps under the exhaust manifold with steel pipes running to it. i am guessing its an oil cooler. the lines as well as the mystery part are pretty scabby looking and the cylinder is actually cracked from corrosion. whatever it is it looks like a timebomb! if u could tell me how expensive the lines and the cylinder are roughly parts wise that would be helpful too. i just got this truck and im still learnin about er'

thanks for your help!

 

follow the lines, but I think that is a trans cooler

 

its a water cooler for the transmission

 

^ X2

 

x3

 

cool thanks for your help! i should have asked in my original post but i forgot, all the steel lines on the side of the engine are pretty bad. where the fittings mate to the block, are they pipe thread, or are they oddball hydraulic fittings? if they were pipe thread i could put barbed fittings and convert them to rubber hose or use copper pipe with compression fittings. any thoughts on that? if they are relitively inexpensive i'll just replace them with the proper part, but something tells me they are not

 

It would be most correctly termed a heat exchanger for the transmission. It either heats or cools the transmission depending on relative temps of the trans fluid and coolant.

 

X4

 

When you go to change it out, bring the old hoses to a hydraulic-line shop, tell'em it's for hot transmission fluid, and they can duplicate'em a lot cheaper than the Dodge parts guy. I did mine at one of those shops about 10 years ago, when I still lived in Nevada. Cute Las Vegas black girl worked that morning.

She fixed my hose for $20 and I didn't even need to buy jewelry for my wife afterwards.

 

You can buy bulk trans cooler hose at a parts store for a couple bucks a foot as well... It will be a heck of a lot cheaper