I sometimes entertain myself by going to Pic-a-Part on a mission. This time it was to find a good supplemental tranny cooler to put into my Firebird, rather than settling on the typical cheezy looking aftermarket things that you ziptie directly to your radiator.

I discovered Ford trucks from the 90's are really nice units with brackets in the right places, if you can find a rust-free one, and I did in a 1993 Econoline van. About 11" x 7" x 2" thick, nice heavy aluminum cross-flow plate construction (like the B & M Supercoolers), without the flimsy aluminum fins of the cheapos, and real nice integrated brackets that lined up nicely with my F-bird's center support and radiator support after some gentle bending.

$15 to get out the door, another 15 minutes at home to drill 2 holes and install, and then just had to run the plumbing. Also snagged proper high pressure trans cooler lines out of a mid-00's Chevy pickup while I was there (the worm clamps in my pics are temporary for testing...they will now be replaced with good strong crimp clamps) and those Chevy lines included nice hard aluminum portions which I had to bend to fit the car. Plumbing took a couple hours to fit.

I like the end result. Just thought I'd share my hack of the day by snapping a pic or two before reinstalling my upper baffles and hiding it from view.

Very nice and thoughtful...love these projects.