Why is the trans fluid in my 97 auto milky pink?

I'm building a hot rod 39 Dodge pickup. I'm using the 5.9 Magnum and its auto trans. Its been sitting for a couple of years inside a garage. I've installed it and the motor, have new cooling lines, that are connected to the trans cooler in a new aluminum radiator. Before I started it, I added 2 quarts of ATF 4+ and ran it a short time (vehicle only moves in and out of the garage at this point). When I checked it, I needed to add another quart, which I did.

When 1st started, it seems to work OK, but after shifting it forward and reverse a few times, it seems to be slipping before engaging in drive. Reverse works OK.

When I added the last quart, the fluid looked normal. I checked this morning, thinking maybe it still wasn't full, and now the fluid is a foamy white/very light pink. I am assuming there must have been moisture that collected in the trans while it sat, and now that it has run a little, the fluid is picking up the moisture. I do suppose the fluid could jut be that low yet, hence what looks like foam, but the color really bothers me. The vehicle has only moved under its own power maybe 200 yards total, 3 or 4 times of idle down the driveway, turn it around, and idle it back up the driveway. Its still under construction and is a few weeks (at least) away from a road cruise.

Most importantly, If I drop the pan and change the fluid and filter, then add fresh fluid, do you think the trans will be OK, or should I do something additional to clean it up? Gene

Are you still running the transmission cooling lines to the bottom tank in the radiator, along with an external cooler, also.
If lines are hooked up to the radiator, you have a crack in the bottom tank.

Chances are that's the cause, reason I always run a remote cooler for the auto, been down this road before, never turns out good...

Chances are the trans is toast DAMHIK, R&R the trans, run a remote cooler...

No external cooler, only connected to the radiator.

A crack in the rad cooler sucks, this is a brand new radiator.

If I add an outside cooler, and eliminate the rad cooler, will changing the fluid in the trans pan and blowing out the cooler lines be enough to remove the water in the trans?

Before the transmission gets condemned, you should get the vehicle to a shop that has a transmission fluid flushing machine to flush out the entire transmission, and torque converter.
Get all the contaminated fluid out of the entire system.
Then run it for a bit with that fresh fluid, and then do another complete flush.
It's gonna get expensive with all that fluid, but lots cheaper than pulling a trans and converter, and opening up a transmission.
Sorry for your bad luck, but unfortunately, Murphy came and bit you in the a$$.

No.
The entire fluid is completely contaminated.
Don't forget you gotta get it all removed out of the converter, and all of the internal guts of the transmission,too.

if it is a new rad, I would contact the manufacture see if they cover you on this.

Any chance you had straight water in the radiator?

The radiator has only had an antifreeze mix in it, a gallon of antifreeze was the 1st liquid poured into the new radiator. This motor has not been run long enough to reach operating temp yet, doesn't that kind of make the water contamination from the radiator pretty unusual?

I'm really thinking the water came from the trans sitting. Since the motor/trans has been in my possession, there has been a drive shaft yoke in the tail stock, the converter has been in place, and cooler lines with an old trans cooler (that has hung on my shop wall for nearly 10 years) hanging on the end of the lines, and a dipstick in the fill tube. When it was put into the truck, the motor/trans was covered with a tarp, but the truck spent the winter outdoors.
When the motor/trans came here, everything was open and the trans sat on the floor of an unheated garage for about a year with the torque converter out of it. As I think about it, most of the atf in the trans now was in it when I got the it. The fluid was clean and had good color.

I will be having the system flushed, but now my concern is about the source of the water, we are all in agreement the contamination is water, right? Gene

I would pressure test or vacuum test the cooler section of the rad. Block off one port and mighty vac the other and see if it holds. If you have a mighty vac coolant system tester then you can do pressure.
Unless you had a significant volume of condensation,can't imagine that would be the source of the milky fluid. I would bet the cooler.

Ive delt with cars that sat in open fields (hard winters) for 15-20 years and none ever "Collected" water in the trans from sitting.


What brand rad. did you buy?

What are the chances that one of the bottles of fluid you used maybe had water in it?

A long long time ago, when I first moved to Florida the trans in my '77 Diplomat failed (converter welded itself to the pump) and since I was bringing home a whopping $117.50/wk, I sought out a used one.

When I went to pick it up (small nearby jy) the trans/converter had been left basically right under the eaves of the office bldg. Pulled the stick, water/fluid.

I mentioned it to them, and was assured it would be fine, just change out the filter ... and since at the time it was the only one I could find in my $ range that's what I did.

I have no idea if it had a shift kit in it, or had been overhauled, I just installed it, and it turned out to be one of the best 904 trans I ever had. Shifted great, firm, and never a problem. Go figger.

YMMV

What if the cow jumped over the moon, come on, lets pic the probable stuff first which is the cracked coolant tank.

Im still wondering what brand rad, wondering if it was a modern cheap one or a really cheap modern one? Hard to get a good one these days.

same thing happend to me ,i just kept running new fluid thru it till it came out clean.youll go through alot of fluid but it beats a tear down.got many years and miles out of that trans.dont worry about filling it all the way if you do this,about half your capacity is enough for a repeated flush and saves some time and money.Ofcourse this is after a new rad.

If it is a brand new radiator, I'd say the braze joint between the tank and the radiator fittings is bad and//or the tranny fluid tube has a hole in it in the tank. I'd take this up with the radiator manufacturer. You could have trashed your tranny already.

Astrobuf

unhook the trans lines at the radiator and run a hose between them,then start the engine and see if anything comes out of the fittings on the radiator ,or seal one of the fittings and blow some low pressure air into the other side and see if it bubbles up in the radiator
radiator repair 37 years!!

Pull the pan. If there is anti freeze in the radiator and the cooler is leaking, you'll see anti freeze in the bottom of the pan. IF there is anti freeze in the pan the clutches will be toast. No anti freeze in the pan you may have just had condensation. It doesn't take much water to milk up the oil.

The radiator is a new Champion, and I paid just over $200 for it delivered, from Champion.

I will drop the pan and look for antifreeze. I will also vacuum test the trans cooler part of the radiator. That is going to be a pita on his truck.

I was talking with my son (whom I got the motor/trans from) and there is a possibility that the torque converter may have gotten some rain water in it. It was out of the trans, sitting on the floor, with just a paper towel covering the opening. He had the roof replaced on the garage. In the process of replacing the garage roof, we had some pretty heavy rain for a couple of days. He thinks maybe the converter was exposed to rain when the garage roof was open. We are not sure of the timing of weather or not the trans was in the garage at the time the roof was replaced.

When I got the trans, the fluid in the converter looked normal, but if there was water in it, the oil would have floated to the top. Wouldn't have taken much water in the converter to give me this problem, and it would have taken a while for it to mix with the other fluid to give me what I now have.

If I find no evidence of antifreeze in the pan, and I drain the cooler lines and test the rad, and its OK (a guy can dream, right?) I'll add an outside cooler, replace the pan, add fluid, and run it a few minutes, the repeat, will that be enough to flush the system, or should I just take the truck someplace and have it flushed?

I'd say take it to a shop. I had a ton of creek water get in my transmission (46RE) from, well, it's a long, sad story. I tried to flush my transmission several times and in the end took to a transmission shop. I know him so he probably cut me a break on price, but I still think I would have been money ahead to let someone do it in the first place. IF you do the job yourself, I'd probably disconnect and flush the cooler separately (denatured alcohol, then air perhaps), then drop the valve body and clean it really good, reassemble and fill. Run, check fluid, repeat until it's good. My tranny lasted 1 year after the incident, but it had 125,000 miles, so I can't say for certain water caused it. GOOD LUCK (sincerely)!

So, I pulled the trans cooler lines off the rad this morning. I hosed the cooler out with brake clean, then followed up with blowing it out with compressed air. I capped off one end of the cooler, and put a nipple on the other end. I connected a vacuum pump and drew down to 30 lbs of vacuum. \

Then I pulled the radiator cap, confirmed the rad was full of coolant, then put a pressure tester on the cooling system and pumped up 14 lbs of pressure, while the vacuum was on the trans cooler. I let it sit for more then an hour, both gauges never changed. Would that have been long enough to show a problem? I would have thought that with pressure on the cooling system and vacuum on the cooler, if something was bad, it should have shown up in an hour, right? How long is long enough?

I'm going to move forward under the assumption that the water got into the trans during its improper storage before it got installed in my truck.I'm going to have the system flushed at a local shop. I'm paranoid enough now that I'm adding an outside trans cooler and will plug off the trans cooler in the radiator. When the truck makes it to the road, I will check to see if there is antifreeze in the trans cooler, then proceed with a radiator claim if needed then. The Rad has a "lifetime guarantee". By then, I should also know how the trans has survived the ordeal. Gene

put press on the rad and leave the cooler lines open and see if water comes out.

Sounds like you tested the cooler/radiator correctly and found no leaks.

I’d move on.

Drop the pan, break the valve body loose which will help drain half the converter.
Pull the accumulator out to drain behind it, with the valve body still loose stroke the front and rear servos to purge them of fluid.

Blow the lines. Hook everything up and add the cheapest trans fluid you can buy and run it on the stand - wheels off the ground through all the gears. Don’t drive it.

After running it for a bit wing the engine a few times to help mix the fluid in the converter.
Shut the engine down.
Remove the rear cooler line from the trans.
Place in a large bucket and have someone start the engine and place in drive. Run it until the fluid flow starts to diminish, do not run it longer than that - then shut it down.

Drop the pan and break the valve body loose again as above then reassemble.
Add your fluid and you should be good. If you are still worried perform the drain procedure one more time.

The biggest risk from coolant in the trans is it eats up the bonding agent for the clutch discs and bands.

Transman has a good idea. I think you've already verified that the radiator isn't leaking into the built-in trans cooler

I dropped the truck off at the shop tonight that will flush the trans. I've known the guys at that shop since we were both in school. They will treat me right and do a good job. I do welding for them, and they do the mechanical stuff I can't or don't want to do. Its a good trade off.

My shop is an active welding shop. Its not the place to have a trans apart, even for a day. I also have no way of containing that much trans fluid. Doing it myself is a disaster waiting to happen, a guy has to know his limitations.

I want to thank everyone for their help. I will do an update when the truck rolls down the road, hopefully in a couple of months. Gene

Because you have water in it.

$342 later, I now have the proper color of ATF. They had to flush it 2x to get it cleaned up (and they used the ATF +4 both times). The few block drive home was not long enough to tell how the trans fared.

Moving on. I have lights, interior, bumpers, tires, and glass to install before I can give it a proper road test. I will update when I can really drive it. Gene

That's what i figured was going to have to be done in one of my earlier replies to this posting.
Been there, done that.
Used those flushing machines, when i was a full time, wrenching mechanic, for a living.