Bad to run an auto tranny too cold?

[ryoken]

I will postface my responses in here with this... if i lived in Fla, AZ, etc, I would consider just running an aftermarket... as long as the temps don't go below, maybe 40ish, I think you'd probably be fine not running it thru the rad... but running thru both is the safest, best bet imo...

 

[blazinzuk]

I only run an aux cooler on Horton. In the summer time it works well. In the winter it works well. But I rarely run in the winter time. If I am then I am usually working the truck pretty hard.

I run a stacked plate cooler. Not a tube and fin.

If in a warmer climate I don't think you would need to run the radiator to keep the trans at the correct temp.

 

[4xcrazy]

I have mine currently running from trans, into the radiator cooler, out to the aux cooler, then back to trans. With as cold as this truck is running, even with the complete grille area covered (not the radiator surface) it STILL only gets up to t-stat level for a minute or so until it opens, than it's back down to about 175 for a bit.

It is in the plans to reverse plumbing to go to the aux cooler first, then through the rad soon, just been too cold lately for me

Even considering just bypassing the aux cooler alltogether as i'm not in Arizona anymore.

 

[07coupegt]

My k5 only has the cooler in the rad, and in the winter it still only gets up to 110 degrees on the highway. My 07 has the cooler in the rad, as well as the factory auxillary cooler, and it only gets up to 100 degrees in the winter . In the summer, both of them run at about 160-180.

 

[longbedder]

FWIW, Bowtie Overdrives requires you to run through the radiator heat exchanger in order to have your warranty honored. They state that you can also run an additional external cooler as well and that's fine.

Running it thru the rad is best to keep it in a band between not-too-hot and not-too-cold.

 

[Fordum]

His problem is not temp related, its radiator related. Apparently Nisson has suffered a lot of coolant to transmission cooler failures, and he does not trust the transmission cooler in the radiator.
I don't blame him if thats the case.
If he had room, he might mount an aftermarket cooler behind the radiator, letting the hot air blow on it to both heat and cool it.

But, what he needs is some kind of heat exchanger that will fit a radiator hose with internal lines for the transmisson fluid.

We used to have one on a water cooled air compressor that would be perfect.

Anybody got anything like that laying around? Heck, you could build one out of some copper tubing and some fittings.

I saw a homemade one made out of a piece of galvanized water pipe with some copper tubing inside with the fittings coming out the sides of the water pipe.

 

[Metalhead47]

His problem is not temp related, its radiator related. Apparently Nisson has suffered a lot of coolant to transmission cooler failures, and he does not trust the transmission cooler in the radiator.
I don't blame him if thats the case.
If he had room, he might mount an aftermarket cooler behind the radiator, letting the hot air blow on it to both heat and cool it.

But, what he needs is some kind of heat exchanger that will fit a radiator hose with internal lines for the transmisson fluid.

We used to have one on a water cooled air compressor that would be perfect.

Anybody got anything like that laying around? Heck, you could build one out of some copper tubing and some fittings.

I saw a homemade one made out of a piece of galvanized water pipe with some copper tubing inside with the fittings coming out the sides of the water pipe.

Beat me to it, thanx. Yes, this is a documented problem with Nissan's radiators. There's TSBs out on it, but of course the truck's out of warranty, and even if they have a fix (I don't think they do), a new radiator's not in the budget right now. Scouring the clubfrintier.org forum today, seems most folks are just running the radiator bypass and the factory aux cooler, but most don't have temp gauges from what I could glean.

My setup right now is the factory aux cooler that's mounted in front of
the radiator, followed by an aluminum plate-style cooler I added when I did the bypass. Temp was great during the summer, it's just these long middle of the night drives of mine that got me thinking about it. I'm pretty sure the temp is accurate from where the sender is, but I will be moving it to the pan when I do the 60k service on the truck here shortly. I think this weekend I'll make up a quickie cover plate for the cooler I added and see if it makes a difference Sunday night. I think a cover plate on the other cooler instead might work too, maybe with the airflow blocked it'll pick up some heat from the radiator.

The temp range up here in the Northwest is right on that annoying border zone. It doesn't really get COLD here (like Minnesota cold), low 30s mostly, and the few rare days down in the teens. Doesn't really get hot either, but we work the truck just hard enough (and auto trannies scare the bejezuz out of me) that it needs that second cooler in the summer.

And again thanks for all the input guys. 3 pages here now and no one's replied yet over there

 

[4xcrazy]

You mentioned cover plate...

I know i'm not living in the arctic, or far far north, but with my current cooling setup, this has helped alittle, as mentioned i am also running a trans cooler, pretty decent sized unit in front of everything on the radiator, there is also a factory oil cooler on the other side.

I don't know the temps, no temp gauge yet.

As mentioned in other threads, i was having issues with generating suffucient engine heat and maintaining it now, swapped out the old 195 stat for a new one, this helped alittle, but still not what i like.

I installed this a few weeks ago, and it will still run up to the t-stat level, but still cools off alittle too much when it opens, for my liking not staying up at the t-stat for very long.

I do notice it does warm up alittle quicker with this on, but i still have work to do...

I covered the grille only, so that if the engine DID need cooling, the fan could still pull air through the radiator when it got hot enough for the fan clutch to engauge. Unfortunately, with a heavy duty clutch, it's pretty much engauged all the time.

 

[wasted wages]

there was talk awhile back about running a thermostatically controlled bypass... which to me sounds like a horrible idea... talk about fail points and a nuked, literally, trans waiting to happen..

nah.....I could do it with a pair of solenoid valves,,small reservoir tank and a single pole thermostat...

return fluid off the bottom of the tank back to the trans....fluid from the trans (hot) directed to the two solenoids...below the temp. setting fluid routes to the tank thru solenoid one ....when the fluid temp rises the t-stat calls and closes the first soleniod and opens the second ...and fluid routes through the coolers back to the reservoir....

simple....

 

[Metalhead47]

Sitting in traffic today thinking on this (I come up with all my best ideas stuck in traffic ), I believe I've come up with a simpler and more fail-safe solution. Someone mentioned making up a heater exchanger with copper fittings, so I took that idea one step further: two independent loops made up of copper tubing, one for coolant, the other for ATF, then melt up some lead & cast a block of it around the two. Why lead? Good heat conductor, easy to work with, and the fumes make colors smell like happy Also completely seals the loops so even if there is a failure somewhere, cross contamination is pretty much impossible. Then plumb the cooling line inline just behind the heater valve (if I can find it). That way it's only on in the winter when warming the ATF is necessary, and the air coolers won't be fighting it in the summer.

Whether I'm willing to ghettorig something like that on my wife's truck is entirely a different matter however

nah.....I could do it with a pair of solenoid valves,,small reservoir tank and a single pole thermostat...

return fluid off the bottom of the tank back to the trans....fluid from the trans (hot) directed to the two solenoids...below the temp. setting fluid routes to the tank thru solenoid one ....when the fluid temp rises the t-stat calls and closes the first soleniod and opens the second ...and fluid routes through the coolers back to the reservoir....

simple....

 

[dhcomp]

Sitting in traffic today thinking on this (I come up with all my best ideas stuck in traffic ), I believe I've come up with a simpler and more fail-safe solution. Someone mentioned making up a heater exchanger with copper fittings, so I took that idea one step further: two independent loops made up of copper tubing, one for coolant, the other for ATF, then melt up some lead & cast a block of it around the two. Why lead? Good heat conductor, easy to work with, and the fumes make colors smell like happy Also completely seals the loops so even if there is a failure somewhere, cross contamination is pretty much impossible. Then plumb the cooling line inline just behind the heater valve (if I can find it). That way it's only on in the winter when warming the ATF is necessary, and the air coolers won't be fighting it in the summer.

Whether I'm willing to ghettorig something like that on my wife's truck is entirely a different matter however

Makes decent enough sense, but really, this is kinda what the in-rad coolers do. Do they really fail that often on GM products that we need to reinvent the wheel?

 

[Duntz00]

Makes decent enough sense, but really, this is kinda what the in-rad coolers do. Do they really fail that often on GM products that we need to reinvent the wheel?

Yea but the Nissan in-rad coolers do fail quite often as stated by Metalhead.

 

[jaguarMKIX]

Yea but the Nissan in-rad coolers do fail quite often as stated by Metalhead.

Buy a transmission fluid cooler off of an automatic Dodge Cummins. They use coolant on the way to the cab heater. There are at least two styles/shapes that I know of.

 

[Metalhead47]

Yea but the Nissan in-rad coolers do fail quite often as stated by Metalhead.

w0rd.

I'm not willing to risk a $4000 transmission on the one rig we have that's actually drivable most of the time . One the Great List of Things NOT to do to an Automatic Transmission, "Running it too cold" comes in way below "Strawberry Milkshake Fluid."

 

[ryoken]

nah.....I could do it with a pair of solenoid valves,,small reservoir tank and a single pole thermostat...

return fluid off the bottom of the tank back to the trans....fluid from the trans (hot) directed to the two solenoids...below the temp. setting fluid routes to the tank thru solenoid one ....when the fluid temp rises the t-stat calls and closes the first soleniod and opens the second ...and fluid routes through the coolers back to the reservoir....

simple....

sounds like a thermostatically controlled bypass to me.. i just mentioned the idea in general cuz someone else had mentioned it... i was playing with DC fired solenoid valve systems 20+ yrs ago... it's still a disaster waiting to happen, simple or not...

 

[Fordum]

I realize that this is only marginally on topic, but I was checking out heat exchangers and came across this.
Not only is it cool, but their slogan is neat. I may use it for something myself.

"burnt but not buggered"

http://www.twine4wdshowers.com.au/default.htm


Also, here is something I am used to dealing with when it comes to heat exchangers. You would have to insulate it, but it would never cross leak.

Its got stainless steel tubing inside the block of aluminum. Each circuit is separate from the others.
Probably run coolant through 3 of the circuits and atf through the fourth.

http://soda-dispensers.com/S/product/10x15-4.html

Normally you run product, like Coke syrup and carbonated water through the circuits and pour ice on the plate.

As long as you keep ice on it, you will get 32 degree liquid out. But there is no reason the circuits would not cross warm each other.

 

[Metalhead47]

Yeah, something similar to that soda whozit is what I had in mind. But at a fraction of the price, oy!

I realize that this is only marginally on topic, but I was checking out heat exchangers and came across this.
Not only is it cool, but their slogan is neat. I may use it for something myself.

"burnt but not buggered"

http://www.twine4wdshowers.com.au/default.htm


Also, here is something I am used to dealing with when it comes to heat exchangers. You would have to insulate it, but it would never cross leak.

Its got stainless steel tubing inside the block of aluminum. Each circuit is separate from the others.
Probably run coolant through 3 of the circuits and atf through the fourth.

http://soda-dispensers.com/S/product/10x15-4.html

Normally you run product, like Coke syrup and carbonated water through the circuits and pour ice on the plate.

As long as you keep ice on it, you will get 32 degree liquid out. But there is no reason the circuits would not cross warm each other.

 

[cybrfire]

Directional valve and a control cable could give you hands on control of the direction of fluid flow from in the cab. Warmer weather divert the flow or majority of it to the auxiliary cooler. In the colder weather go back to the heat exchanger.

Or put in a manual.

 

[ryoken]

for an inline heat exchanger you guys need to be looking at marine stuff..

available in just about any config you can imagine..... Sendure is the main brand... it could definitely be run in a rad hose to warm the oil... MH, if ya give me hose sizes, etc i can find ya a part # easy enough... think they come as small as a 6" bundle (the cooling tube length), maybe smaller...

 

[Metalhead47]

for an inline heat exchanger you guys need to be looking at marine stuff..

available in just about any config you can imagine..... Sendure is the main brand... it could definitely be run in a rad hose to warm the oil... MH, if ya give me hose sizes, etc i can find ya a part # easy enough... think they come as small as a 6" bundle (the cooling tube length), maybe smaller...

Got sidetracked this weekend & didn't get a chance to try the blockoff plate

Just pulling numbers at random here, how bout 1" heater hose & 3/8ths ATF lines? Where are you finding these exchangers?