A recap: I was going to put pix up, but sans filter and stat, somebody has been down this road. In fact I’d forgotten about adding pix of this conversion when it was done first time round five odd years back.
https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=53614
We’re assuming here, all are aware these cars have a transmission warmer/cooler built into the coolant rad. This mod - Volvo Transmission cooler part number is 8618347 - is external and in addition to that. Not in place of. As I said, found mine yonks back - it was a used part then. On a turbo car - if there - it’ll be found sandwiched between the intercooler, and air-con rads. On a ‘less-grunter‘ it’s planted in front of everything.
The warmer/cooler built into the coolant rad does just that, warms ATF up to temperature, and is supposed to keep it there. Whilst it warms well enough, on all but cold short trips, it doesn’t keep ATF as cool as it should.
Ideal temp is a about 85-90 °C. The factory set-up allows ATF to sit right on the edge of burning 120-130 °C.. This is normal, and fine for warranty mileage, but by about 90K the ATF is black. Albeit tacitly, [ see rev. Volvo extract] Volvo admit they run these hot.
Without a cooler, your 60K car will see brown fluid.
Sorry too bang on, but an external cooler will keep it red. Whenever I’ve done a full flush, 35K later would see ATF brown again. On my miles you soon get fed-up changing ATF, hence the cooler.
Running a business which will put me in the West country at the start of the week and up with the Jockinese at the end, my usuage-pattern is a good test-bed for the rest of you. I don’t treat my cars well. My cars soon take on the look, feel (and smell) of a late night minicab. For me, this works. It’s not pretty, and kills pricier cars and their resale value. Thus i start with a car with a nil resale, and grind it into the ground.
Unless you go for new, the radiator/cooler itself will be the cheap bit. Maybe for a minter, but I certainly wouldn’t use a ‘factory new’ example of 8618347 on anything I drive. Even without the stat, the hoses and fittings will be where the money goes. I robbed the hoses from salvage cars.
More later…