1999 Ford Ranger decided it was time to make a milkshake

Well, I am going to add a step to adding new tranny fluid. I will first dump 1-2 or more gallons of anhydrous isopropyl alcohol(Getting it from ACE) first and "flush it" after dropping the pan until it shows clear. Then pour in some used ATF from a prior job until I see red.
 
^^Cycling through the gear ranges, etc.? This could prove interesting.
Get pictures, please.
I'm not sure about cycling through the gears on straight iso.

But in park, I'm going to keep filling until it gets clear. The valve body is something I bought and might return, and I don't want a milky return.

After all, I got a little dousing of "THE MIX" and it is some slippery stuff that needed some Dawn Professional to get off. Tranny fluid and the water don't mix, but the Iso should, and it's also part of Seafoam's Hydra Tune thing for transmissions.
 
The factory radiators have lots of plastic. The plastic cracks at high mileage, causing leaks and catastrophic fluid loss. On my Ranger I replaced the factory radiator at 150,000 miles for an aftermarket all-aluminum radiator last year to avoid that problem, just as I replaced the plastic factory thermostat housing for an aftermarket cast-aluminum one.

Newer Nissans are notorious for the same radiator design problem that puts coolant in the ATF. That failure occurs much earlier, before 100,000 miles in many cases.
Having observed this Ford rad, the plastic section is irrelevant. The two flare unions hold a separate "mini-radiator" in the plastic edge which the transmission fluid flows through. This rad is bathed in coolant with no separation at all. This mini rad moves around freely in the plastic section if you remove the flare unions.

My guess, corrosion weakened this mini rad, the tranny pressure blew it. And then the pump of the tranny sucked in the coolant.
 
At least for this Ford, fluid comes out of both ends when the engine turns. That is, the "pressure line out" pumps out tranny fluid. But somehow, the "return" also pumps out fluid.

I chickened out on using alcohol first, but I have lamentations that all the fluid from the "amsoil change" on a different car is all used up and the liquid is still not clear. Looks like a 20qt trip to Walmart, that is about 100 dollars since cheap tranny fluid has gone the way of the dodo.
 
Man, this is brutal.

I think I've gone through 27 quarts of tranny fluid and the fluid is still opaque. It's finally more red than pink though.

7ish quarts of "old Toyota with some fresh Amsoil". Then I bought 5 gallon Fram Dex/Merc from Advance Auto with their 15% off code because that's the cheapest Dex/Merc or any tranny fluid for cars on the market.
 
What happens is when the engine is running you have pressure in the trans cooler so oil leaks from the trans fluid side to the engine coolant side. And when you shut the (hot) engine off, the engine coolant side usually has some pressure (above atmospheric) so the leakage goes the other direction. The adhesive used to attach the friction material to the plates or bands is sensitive to glycol in the antifreeze.
 
What happens is when the engine is running you have pressure in the trans cooler so oil leaks from the trans fluid side to the engine coolant side. And when you shut the (hot) engine off, the engine coolant side usually has some pressure (above atmospheric) so the leakage goes the other direction. The adhesive used to attach the friction material to the plates or bands is sensitive to glycol in the antifreeze.
Actually, I read on a Ford Explorer forum that this is by design. Because it's coming when the engine is bone cold. Very handy in this case, because the aux oil cooler hoses were stiffer than a rock and needed a purge too.

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Anyway, the valve body reman is being returned because I can't get reverse and neutral moves me forward even after correcting the bolt lengths. I'm going to use the truck's original valve body and a bonded gasket from Ebay I bought way earlier.

I mean, it had reverse. The \original gasket must have catastrophically died and fluid was blowing out of the transmission. The fluid blowout was cured with the "reman" but the reman introduced no-reverse and neutral moving forward.
 
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