How would transmission fluid end up pooling on the intake? TH350

[AuroraGirl]

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I am still trying to figure this out, I have never seen it before. But I have ATF pooling on my intake, and my dipstick is damn near full to the top with red watery fluid so I assume literal water is in there(which I also have no idea where the water is coming from...) But the dipstick is far away and I dont see it jumping when thje dipstick was shut too.

Also is that mounting boss on the Qjet supposed to have something there. looks strange to me. but not related just thinking out loud.

 

[Vbb199]

Radiator busted internally, water is mixed with the atf fluid. (I assume the AT cooler lines are integrated in the rad like 99% of the other trucks)

It all needs a flush now, before the oil becomes diluted with atf too.

Stop driving it before you kill the Trans

 

[Vbb199]

As far as the pool on the intake, maybe it's got coolant (now atf/coolant) leak?

 

[bucket]

What car of yours is this on? One of them that's been sitting for a long time? Is the trans fluid bright and milky looking? That's what it will do when it's mixing with water. The fluid on the intake doesn't look milky at all.

 

[gmbellew]

could be puking out the breather tube depending on where it routes.

 

[Matt69olds]

If the trans is overfull, check the radiator. I bet you find it’s full of ATF. Unless you parked the truck underwater ( pretty sure you would remember that!) then the radiator is the only culprit. Either install a external trans cooler, cap off the fittings to the cooler fittings for the trans cooler lines, and drain and refill the trans immediately. You will probably have to drain and refill the trans several times to get all the water out.

Unfortunately, antifreeze attacks the glue that holds the friction material to the steel plates. Hopefully the water hasn’t been in the trans long.

 

[Vbb199]

If the trans is overfull, check the radiator. I bet you find it’s full of ATF. Unless you parked the truck underwater ( pretty sure you would remember that!) then the radiator is the only culprit. Either install a external trans cooler, cap off the fittings to the cooler fittings for the trans cooler lines, and drain and refill the trans immediately. You will probably have to drain and refill the trans several times to get all the water out.

Unfortunately, antifreeze attacks the glue that holds the friction material to the steel plates. Hopefully the water hasn’t been in the trans long.

Not just anti freeze, but moisture alone makes the friction material peel off their backing plate as im sure you know.

 

[AuroraGirl]

I should have mentioned its the electra.

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I actually was planning on parking the truck and borrowing the edelbrock to move the thing and get it so I can look at things and stuff, the last time it ran the carb is just so due for rebuild it was forever to get ti started. its been sitting a long time with a 3/4 full radiator and that is not changed. HOWEVER I know the IDIOT who I bought it from put ******* washer fluid in the overflow and presumably rad, and it froze enough to spring a leak somewhere above 3/4 the way up opposite side the cap(driver side). The cooler for radiator is prob on side with cap I would think, but thats the thing. This puddle of ATF on the intake isnt milky and the dipstick tube isnt milky and the fluid is the right color, it has a slight burn smell but that is from when it caught fire bringing it home because it ran really low on ATF and the ******* who "fixed" it enough to baby it home a few miles used a pen and like washer sprayer tubing for vacuum line and that he layed it across the EGR valve it was a mess. but thank good ness gas stations have fire extinguishers. ANYWAY,

oh and there is vacuum line in place of fuel line on the fuel pump to the fuel line(down low) because of course he did. the oil is no different, still 1988 old but not higher or lower or even moisture evident.

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i stick my finger in that puddle, its bright red ATF. the dark is from the grime under it. its just I dont know how it got there exactly. where is the Vent?

This has been sitting with a slightly low ATF level for a long time like a long time, last checked a couple months ago and it was kosher. the radiator level is.. just not different enough to be that. plus its not full which is really making head scratch. and the ATF is just not like water but its physically thinner you can feel it. but its so strange....
I did a little googling, and I read that when the diaphram in the modulator fails like FAILS your engine can vacuum ATF to the intake because of course the vac source is up there I assume. The last time I physically moved the car I putted around a little bit, never smoked out the tail pipe but the car DID take a lot of cranking to run and I thought the brake fluid must have been low for the front brakes or a line had leaked because the car didnt really brake for ****. Like I was freaking out when going in reverse down hill and nothing happened. but it wasnt so much no pedal but no assist, kinda. I just drove carefully but the car seemingly took a lot of encouraging to move it forward, backward like instead of creeping away when off brake you need to give gas which is the only time It had done that. i assumed the fluid was slightly low which I knew it had a bad leak, so I thought, on getting it, and made that future mes problem.

I am wondering if that last time, that diaphram didnt fail and I sucked atf up the intake or at least opened the path, and then simple pressure or maybe some physics pulls some atf up over time? but its so weird as its recent that puddle at least. but i have no idea how long its been "worsening" either. If the coolant was corrosive i could see the loop failing, maybe the coolant/washer fluid that remained kinda co-mingled with ATFand the car is technically downhill a fair amount and this or that... could it be? basically the diaphram on the modulator being the thing to fail, which it was sitting unused since 1988 before 2018 or whatever so I assume it was brittle and not in best shape as a general idea. then dumb **** son of guy who died whos car I bought who shouldnt touch cars puts pen shells and fish tank hoses everywhere, add in the fact i DID have a fire on the back of engine/between firewall there , the ABC powder is visible on other valve cover still.

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[AuroraGirl]

If the trans is overfull, check the radiator. I bet you find it’s full of ATF. Unless you parked the truck underwater ( pretty sure you would remember that!) then the radiator is the only culprit. Either install a external trans cooler, cap off the fittings to the cooler fittings for the trans cooler lines, and drain and refill the trans immediately. You will probably have to drain and refill the trans several times to get all the water out.

Unfortunately, antifreeze attacks the glue that holds the friction material to the steel plates. Hopefully the water hasn’t been in the trans long.

I already kinda figured the TH350 in this car would need major work no matter how I cut it, its 82k or so miles, hasnt been used since 88 as a car, and the once-believed to be leaking terribly a lot of ATF which maybe wasnt that.. either way, the radiator is junk and the nice thing is the car has the built in provision to put a larger one or just a various different sizes because old school GM. I have a lot of rads on my shelf that wouldnt even need restore, as long as they arent plugged up or leaky, I may run one of those if I end up with a atf and coolant everywhere situation so I can assess the situation in a future way. I figured I wont use the car for anything that necessitates a fully functional cooling system anyway plus I wont obviously connect the cooling lines to another rad. I guesss maybe I should open the drain on rad and turn the car around for a while? LOL

 

[AuroraGirl]

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this was immediately taken after pulling the dipstick. which i did after putting my thumb in the ATF puddle

 

[AuroraGirl]

Basically Im not gonna be sad if it means trans is prob toaster strudels because I figured I would replace it anyway or at least repaired rebuilt.

The 79 cutlass has a low mileage th350 BOP of course, but now been sitting since 92 and probably sitting on dirt from sinking. If I need to rebuild I would probably spend the effort to extract that simply because it should get pulled before the rust and earth consumes the only good parts of that car that exist lol.

Then the 75 grand am has a th400 100k so rebuild ville like the others. is a th400. but i have a buick 350 which is definitely not pushing any ponies. probably would be wise to keep driveshaft and current setup for a th350. unless a 700r4 isnt hard to swap I see them locally listed not too bad.. but they dont come in BOP do they?Or I guess I am not sure.

I have too many th350s as is but I guess luckily I shouldnt need any expensive hard parts that I cant source from my relics (other than replaceables)

otherwise a th250 or whatever the designation exists, likely, in the 1980 cutlass but I am not going to do that for a lot of reasons. I wish this were FWD almost my 1990 olds has a 440-t4 that is still good chilling bolted to its 3800 even LOL but that is a project Ive read people have done and RIP them lolll.

I mean this is assuming that this means guarantee trans is toast, if trans is not toast or there is something at play here I dont understand thats cool too. I actually have to add that vandalism is... possible.. because my keys were in the "run" spot and I never leave a key in run especially if I have not had a battery in it since june or something. someone turned the keys(and I know that they did because the only thing I do do with keys is turn them past off and leave them in acc accidently and burn the battery slower on cars but never on that is strange. And then there was my cutlass window was smashed in, a flashlight was in my lawn, and two punk kids live next door and their daddy is a law man so I feel they are probably more brazen than he is. Mfer threaten to shoot my dog because he cant figure out how to raise chickens or protect from fishers. or racoons. or the coyotes that live literally betweeen our houses almost midway that are active every night. free roams them in the woods and doesnt watch them or have any guard animals what does he expect. My cute small dog didnt kill any chickens nor could she catch one shes fat

 

[bucket]

Imho, just overhaul the carb, replace the modulator, replace the radiator and see if you can drive it around again. I wouldn't assume the trans is bad until you've tested it to know for sure.

Looks like the engine may have been replaced sometime before it was taken off the road? There's yellow paint pen behind the PS brackets.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Imho, just overhaul the carb, replace the modulator, replace the radiator and see if you can drive it around again. I wouldn't assume the trans is bad until you've tested it to know for sure.

Looks like the engine may have been replaced sometime before it was taken off the road? There's yellow paint pen behind the PS brackets.

OH. What does that mean? E? Assembly paint? I have never seen or heard of that before. That may indicate I need to do a lot more in person testing and verify against FSM maybe on things.

I mean, do you think the over fill on the trans is from the rad? I just dont get that working out in this instance unless im misunderstanding. basically if there isnt coolant in the trans i am not worried ab out it being toast but I think i will pop off a cooler line to drain because.. yeah. The carb will get rebuilt, I am going to borrow my trucks edelbrock because easy to put on, in the process im going to clean up all the extra noise on the car on the engine, I have a square to spread adapter I bought forgetting that I bought an edelbrock intake when I did my plow truck. basically im gonna park the truck in a nice spot with shingles in the front half under the truck so no weeds build up if it takes a while to put back on(thinking ahead) and I wil cap things off. Until I fix the list of stuff for the truck It will be okay to rest for a while. It beautifully started yesterday for first time in over a month and even when 40-50 degrees with a simple crank for a second, two pumps, and crank again. I didnt try just pumping but it may have worked if I did. The qjet will come inside for visual inspection admiration and eventually rebuild but for a while admiration. lol

I am not even totally sure its a th350 then either because of the E thing I dont know what that means but the engine IS A buick small block at least well I guess buick v8 but If its not original engine i dont know the displacement technically.

 

[bucket]

If the paint marker is from a junkyard, it could mean just about anything. And there may be more letters under the brackets.

When I worked at the local junkyard, it was usually just an old man and myself there. Somehow, old man Chuck often wound up labeling engines and stuff when I brought the newly removed ones into the building. He pronounced most car names wrong and was absolutely terrible at spelling. The label often made zero sense to anyone else, lol.

But if I had to guess, that "E" is probably accompanied by another letter or two and probably just means "Electra".

 

[AuroraGirl]

If the paint marker is from a junkyard, it could mean just about anything. And there may be more letters under the brackets.

When I worked at the local junkyard, it was usually just an old man and myself there. Somehow, old man Chuck often wound up labeling engines and stuff when I brought the newly removed ones into the building. He pronounced most car names wrong and was absolutely terrible at spelling. The label often made zero sense to anyone else, lol.

But if I had to guess, that "E" is probably accompanied by another letter or two and probably just means "Electra".

I accept this logic as I couldnt find anything other than sometimes an indicator work was done or maybe even an assembly thing or could be a campaign or a junkyard etc basically cant know probbably. I messaged a buick V8 expert to ask if he knows lol