Repurpose radiator bottom tank

I’m about to update the radiator for my 99 5VZ with the Champion made for the 4 cylinder. (Trying to clear the bottom crossmember for ground clearance). I’ve got a manual trans. Unfortunately, most after market rads will have the bottom tank for ATF. Since I don’t need this part of the radiator, I’m trying to figure a way to make use of it. I’m thinking about 2 options.

1. Plumb some lines from the oil cooler location and delete the hockey puck.

2. Try to plumb lines from the 5 speed trans with some sort of external pump.

Has anyone heard of this or other alternative uses for the trans cooler tank of a radiator?

I go wheeling a few weekends a month so I’m trying to work out some creative ways to keep my temps down.

 

Cool ideas, but probably not worth it. Manual transmissions do not have a problem with overheating because they're not using the oil to transfer rotational power from the engine the way an auto transmission does. Oil cooler might be somewhat useful, but this would add hassle and cost to oil changes.

 

Coffee warmer feeding a tap on the dash?

 

Haha! I knew someone was going to say something like that. Trust me, I thought about it for a minute.

 

Also wondering how much cooling power the oil can really have on overall engine temp. From what I understand, the oil coolers work mostly as an oil temp regulator. In colder climates it help to bring up the oil temp faster and keeping it at a reg temp once hot.

 

I'm not sure. I read that air-cooled engines rely on oil coolers to cool the engine down, so it must be significant, but the small size of the core probably won't make a big enough difference. You're also adding an additional failure point by running engine oil up to the front like that.

 

Power steering cooler?