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tranny cooler thermostat

78Suburban

78Suburban

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I did alot of searching and reading on tranny coolers. I know that I want to install one infront of my radiator. Am considering buying and installing this one : http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=3228&prmenbr=361
the one for 24,000 GVW. But I also read alot about overcooling killing trannies by not boiling out moisture. I don't really think that I want to mount the cooler before the stock cooler, because engine temp seems a little warm for trannies....... so I think that a tranny cooler thermostat would be the way to go. So whats a good tranny cooler thermostat to get, is it hard to install, and where can I get one?
also
Is an transmission guage worth the $$? Do they make one /w a weld in bung for my transmission pan???
 
If you go with a stacked plate cooler, it is supposed to be sort of self regulating. When the fluid is cold and thick, it doesn't flow into the stacked plates easily, and instead it heads directly to the exit port. As the fluid gets hot and thins out a bit, then it flows into the stacked plates for cooling. At least that's the way that B&M explains it.

They may have more details on their website at www.bmracing.com
 
On my 86 I turned my ac condenser into a cooler, I dont think that you can have your tranny run too cold. You live in Georgia so it doesnt get cold enought to need a thermostat on the cooler. Get the biggest cooler you can find.
 
The non barbed t-stat here is the one you want. The barbed ones always seem to leak.

Friend of mine recently bought a 700 from BowtieOD's. As I recall from what he said of their instruction manual they never want the pan fluid temp to exceed 160*f.

B&M doesn't make those coolers. The re-badge them. Try the circle track or off road racing vendors. Here's one from Coleman. As it happens this is the one I use on my Sub.
 
The B&M SuperCoolers are made by Long, out of Canada. The logo is stamped right into 'em. But it's easiest to find them in a B&M box.
 
not past 160f? that seems kinda cool. I have my temp gauge running at the test port and operating tempurature is like 170*f. I dont know if there is an overly drastic diffrence in temperature between the pan and the test port, but according to the guy that did my tranny safe rance is between 160 and 220. anything below 160 and your fluid is too cool and it wont shift right? :confused:
 
40,000 GVW Cooler

If you go on Ebay and type 40,000 GVW cooler in the search box you'll find the cooler I'm running on my '56. The cooler comes with the thermostat, lines, fittings, etc and is sold by a company called Oregon Performance Transmission. It's made by Long and seems to be of good quality. I'm running my temp guage on the outlet line of the transmission and it never gets above 175 with this cooler. There were a lot of smaller/cheaper coolers out there but I went with this one since I wasn't running the fluid through my radiator.
 
Everyone says different things. so what should I do??? run a tstat or not? I am thinking about just getting that B&M cooler and running it before the radiator, so that the fluid runs through the stock one right before it hits the tranny.... :thinking:
 
Found this on a Trans cooler web site. don't know if it helps but......

FluidChart.jpg
 
TCI's site has the chart...

i was all set to change mine back from just a remote filter and cooler, not running thru the rad, back to going thru the rad too. it was taking awhile to heat up in the winter.. but i love it in the summer, runs 170, 175 all the time...

think i'll leave it and deal with the winter warmup issue.. maybe i'll cardboard the rad.. it would get to 160, 165 but it would take awhile... and i never felt any wierd shifting when it was down in the 110, 120, etc range...

plus it'll save me some coin in a couple weeks when i go aluminum rad... ;)
 
78Suburban said:
Smitty, is this the cooler you used :
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...ategory=33727&item=7988077668&sspagename=WDVW

looks awsome..... How hard was it to plumb (I don't have any experience with these kinds of lines)... what kind of mounting brackets did you make?

is it hard to get the grille off to install it?
Click to expand...


That was the one. Simple installation on my '56. I just compared it with the one on my '82 K5 and I think the K5 would actually give a little more room for the installation. Mine came with some metal universal brackets for installation. Some of the coolers come with the plastic retainers that punch through the raidiator core. These can wear through the radiator after a while so I stay away from them. The kit comes with rubber line to splice into your existing transmission lines. I'm currently running rubber transmission line through an external filter, the thermal bypass, and the transmission cooler. It's holding up well, but I'm going to change to steel line with braided stainless at the flex points. Like I said, the rubber is doing the job, but I just don't feel comfortable with it.
 
4xcrazy said:
160!!! :doah: MAN !,,,mines that hot just sittin in the driveway! :D
Click to expand...

Well, since he's in Old Town PHX it should be interesting to see what his pan temps are. I thot that was a bit low myself, but you don't need to go clear to boiling to get the condensation out. Right now I doubt that's a worry in PHX anyway. 30* above ambient wouldn't be much cause to worry. :wink1:

From what I've seen the B&M coolers are all the thin versions, about 5/8" - 3/4" thick. The cooler I linked is 1-1/2" thick.

FWIW, this is the cooler I used on my Sub. I originally built it to go to Baja for the 1000 with Locos Mocos, but I wanted to be able to go anywhere with it. I plumbed it with the Aux cooler first, then the radiator cooler second. My thinking is this:
If the trans is working hard in hot weather the aux. cooler will dump most of the heat and the coolant is likely about the same temp as the aux cooler's discharge. Even if the coolant is hotter than the return ATF, it won't be by much or I'd be shutting the engine down anyway.
Running in cold weather means that the aux cooler could be over cooling the ATF, but the coolant will bring it back up to temp.
This means that I'm working the ATF pretty hard from all of the temp cycles. I see ATF as a consumable and subject to replacement as needed. I don't see my TH400 that way.
 
Unless your radiator is bad, plugged, or too small it does not hurt a bit to run the lines thru the trans cooler then thru the stock cooler in the radiator.
The stock cooler in in the COOL side of the radiator. So the tranny fluid cant get too hot by running thru it. Running your fluid thru the stock cooler helps keep the trans in its operating range on cold days.
personally I would not want to run a thermostat. Its just one more thing to Fu** Up and complicate things. KISS!
 
thats the one thing im worried about, is winter time we go to like -35*c here in winnipeg, and I didnt plomb my cooler through my stock cooler in the rad because chunks of 700r past there way through. Should be intresting to see if that needle even comes up off the cold pin on the ol temp gauge. I talked to the local tranny guy and he said not to worry about it, but we shall see... :crazy:
 
In cold country it is possible that the aux cooler will cool the ATF significantly below the temp of the cool side of the radiator. Then the rad's 'cooler' will actually be heating the ATF back up. I did it this way intentionally, acts like having a t-stat w/o the added parts or complexity of plumbing in a t-stat and it makes sure that the ATF has enough temp to get the moisture out.
 
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