Guys, if I repeat something that's been said, I apologize, but there is some misinformation here.
1. Fuel hose in place of oil cooler hose won't last very long. Don't believe me? Try it. Fuel hose isn't meant for the heat given off by the fluid. After a short amount of time it'll get harder, as well as leak. Trans oil cooler line will not. (Source: personal experience, as well as years of working on transmissions).
2. Check valve in cooler lines: Personally, the only place that they may need to be used is Chrysler products that flow in Neutral, and not park. Anything else that flows fluid in Park doesn't need a check valve, as the 10-15 seconds you hang out idling after starting the engine, fluid is refilled everywhere where it may have drained from. No, it does not drain the torque converter. (if it did, a drain and fill would net 15qts of fluid, not only 4 or so)
Jeep/Dodge/Chryslers do NOT flow fluid through the cooler in Park, and therefore need a check valve (most are plastic from the factory, ***?) but I have removed many of them and told the customer to start the vehicle in Park, put it in Neutral for 15 seconds first start in the morning, and then don't worry about it during the day. On the absolutely hairbrained space cadet customers, I simply install a metal check valve that cannot melt and stop up the cooler lines.
BTW: an excellent source for large 3/8" relatively flat, long tranny coolers is from 2005(?) Dodge Grand Caravans. Make sure the donor you get it from has relatively clean trans fluid to protect from potential contamination. Also, backflush it about 6 times before installation. Last thing: Any and every single rebuilt transmission gets the factory radiator cooler bypassed or a new radiator installed to prevent the crap that's in the factory cooler from being reintroduced into a fresh rebuild.
Not ******' on anyone's shoes or calling people idiots, but just some slight misinformation up in this biznatch. I may also have been drinking, so there may be slight dyslexic tendencies in my post.
