I bought a replacement 3 row radiator a few yrs ago. It had another in/out port on the bottom which I assume is for the auto trans oil. I have stick.
I have this idea of using the bottom ports for heat exchange for how shower...all I need is a water pump, hoses, hot/cold mix. What do you all think?

It will sort of work, there are not enough coils in there to get the water hot enough. Had a friend try it with mixed results!!!!

sounds like a good idea but man that would be some hot water
wouldn't the water that comes threw the tranny cooler have the same amount of heat as the engine coolent

I have an on-board shower on my rig that I bought, it is mounted in line with the heater hoses and you regulate the heat from the shower with the heater controls and the RPM's of the engine.

Hmmmm, I confused now...will the water be too hot or not hot enough?...the water will go through the radiator. it doesn't mix with it. It doesn't go through the transmission cooler at all...the only place the water path comes in contact is the radiator. Maybe it has to do with the water flow rate.

I've never heard a definitive answer to the water temps, I've heard both too hot and not hot enough. Never seen a shower using that for a heat source personally. I suppose one option is to plumb it up and see how it works. The A/T cooler is just a loop or two of hard line inside the lower radiator tank connected to the two external fittings. I tend to agree with Oops that there is not enough surface area to heat the water up enough in one pass. The R&M exchanger I have (same as Ooops has) uses three small copper tubes coiled up inside the bigger tube that coolant flows through. Never opened mine up but there is probably 10 ft. of tubing inside which gives a lot of surface area for maximum heat transfer. If the temp rise is not enough in one pass, I suppose you could rig up a bucket and cycle the bucket water through the rad. until it is hot then switch over to pump it through the shower head.

Ditto

I have used a thermocouple on my multimeter and tested the temp drop of my ATF going through the radiator cooler and found only a 5 deg drop from the line in to the line out. Not a great heat exchanger. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" />