My trans tends to stay on the warm side (200 after a pass) and I have been thinking about building a tank with a trans cooler in the bottom of it to be filled with ice and water. This is a street car (lol kind of), It stays cool while driving but once you beat on it a few passes it gets hot. Just looking for some input.

 

Only thing I could see for this in a street set up is the water will heat soak quickly. For the track its not really an issue, but driving around town will heat that water in no time. Are you planning to keep a traditional style trans cooler for the street, in addition to the water tank?

 

Yes I plan on keeping the current one that already has a fan on it.

 

Get a radiator with the built in trans cooler and add that in series before the air to air cooler. That is what all "heavy duty" OEM setups do. It is the least complicated. I did it on my car and it added a significant amount of cooling. I run a 180 thermostat and the water on the cold side is around 140. It also warms the trans up faster.

 

Meziere manufactures a Powerglide transmission pan with built-in water cooling passages in the bottom of the pan that you can plumb with 6AN fittings. We've used this pan in numerous applications for additional cooling and it works extremely well.

The oil/water cooler set-up works well in a racing application, but will heat soak on the street and not operate as efficiently, although it may still offer enough extra cooling to get your temperature down in a range you're more comfortable with.

 

The problem with this is that the trans cooler I have mounted is under the trunk with its own fan assembly. If I wanted to add the radiator into the mix I would have to replumb most of the system. If I added the water box with the trans cooler in it in the truck I would just have to make a few short lines. I liked that pan that Pete is talking about but its over $500 for just the pan!!!

Hey Pete

What kind of temps are good and whats bad?? I just switched to JD Hyguard fluid, will that help? I was going to take it to the track again before I made any changes to see if there was a difference.

 

160 - 180 is ideal for transmission fluid temperature. Even as low as 140 - 150 is fine but there aren't many applications out there that will run that cool for any significant length of time. You shouldn't really hurt anything at 190 - 200 but fluid maintenance is going to be a bit higher at this temperature range. Operating a transmission for a long period of time at anything over 200 - 210 is going to shorten fluid life and will eventually lead to glazed friction materials and shorten the life of the seals. 230 - 250 is going to burn a unit up relatively quickly. It's normal for many combinations to have the fluid temp flash up higher momentarily when you're coming up on the converter but the temp should come back down to a reasonable range quickly if the cooling system is doing it's job.

HyGuard fluid may help a bit with temperature. The main advantages that you'll have with HyGuard is that the fluid is more resistant to thermal breakdown so you can run it at higher temperatures without as much potential for the fluid breaking down and leading to premature failure of the friction materials in the transmission. HyGuard is also more resistant to fluid shear so converter efficiency will normally improve with most combinations with the use of this fluid. The only problem that we've ever experienced with HyGuard is in medium-to-heavy door car applications consistently making 1,700 - 1,800+ flywheel horsepower. We've observed some evidence of light galling and metal transfer between the gear teeth of the planetaries in these types of applications. Our customers that had these issues switched back to Type F and had no further planetary issues. The best fluids out there based on our fluid testing, wear analysis, and racing experience are Lucas Sure Shift, Castrol Type F, Kendall Type F, and Pennzoil Type F. The Lucas can be a little misleading because it has a strong odor almost like it's burned as soon as you put any heat to it, but there's actually nothing wrong with it... it's just an odd characteristic of that fluid. When it gets overheated it will darken immediately just like most other normal ATF.

 

Don't forget that the pump is going to have to work a little bit harder with more coolers.

 

Auto transmissions don't work like that. Only a portion of the pump's output is diverted to the torque converter, and the outflow from the converter goes to the cooler circuit.

 

Really? Thats not the way it was explained to me. I was told you open up the holes in the trans and chamfer all edges to allow for easier cooler flow. I guess I better go back and read some more.

 

Oh sure making the flow easier for the cooler circuit will help cooling, but it doesn't affect the flow/pressure available to the rest of the components. Plus there's almost always a bypass in the cooler circuit, so that if there's a restriction or the fluid's cold and thick, it'll bleed off anything above the set pressure. But line pressure is a separate deal, and the pump moves more fluid than is needed and the rest is dumped.

 

I guess i kinda explained it wrong. I was refering to cooler flow, multiple coolers cause a restriction. When there is excessive restriction to the cooler, doesn't it cause back up inside the converter?

 

It won't affect the converter if the transmission has a relief valve in the cooler circuit, and even if not it would have to be a pretty horrible cooler if it created that much restriction - in which case the fluid temps would be higher than before the second cooler was added, and there's not much point in adding a second cooler unless you're already monitoring fluid temps.

Unless something is drastically wrong with one of the coolers in the circuit, my guess is that even though the total flow might decrease slightly, the increased cooling capacity would still lower the fluid temps.

 

Do powerglides have a relief valve in the cooler circuit?? I'm using a B&M plate cooler, I'm not sure how restrictive they are.

 

Does anyone know how efficient a B&M trans cooler is? How are they rated?

 

Does it have a deep pan on it already ?

I also run through my radiator cooler , then to a cooler with a fan . I'll bet there is over 20' of line .

The more fluid the better .

When I switched to a 9.5" PTC converter , I saw a 10 to 20 degree increase in temps over the 10" PTC .


It would be nice to know what the temps are in the line leaving the trans . 220 leaving the trans is normal driving on mine . Coolers knock it down to 180 .

On the brake and during a pass the temps are 300º on that line , but because there is alot of fluid in the pan , and that 300º fluid will mix with the cooler fluid in the pan and never get that hot in there .

Where is you temp sensor mounted , high or low in the pan ? It should be at the bottom .

 

Yeah it has a deep pan on it already and there's about 20' or better of line between the cooler and the trans. The sending unit is in the pan about 5/8 up from the bottom.

I'm thinking about fabbing up a water box with a oil cooler inside mounted in the trunk. I'll put it inline after the air/oil cooler, that I can just fill with ice and water before I go to the track.

Just driving it on the street the trans stays at about 150, but smash it one good time and it gets hot quickly.