I just got back from a 4 hr trip ,one way with the coupe. Arriving home i had a trail of tranny fluid and nothing on the dip stick on my 350 Auto. Previously the Tranny man said that all i needed to cure fluid eruption was put on a deeper pan and run Premium synthetic fluid which i did. I don't think the cooler is good enough, a little wimpy.Also I think it started when I installed flow masters mufflers , increasing the heat.(I think). What do ya think / Could I fix this with a better cooler?
It's mounted on the passenger side frame rail, just under the door. It.s about 14" long and about2 1/2 " thick. no electric fan.
I always had my trans coolers out in the breeze as much as possible. On my OT '68 Stang I had a C4 in it with the stick radiator so I had to run a cooler. I mounted it in front of the radiator off to the side and even on the hottest days of beating on it, never a problem. Bob
I added a Haynes 12 x 18 " <size matters...> cooler on my '84 F250, diesel, and the trans temp gage <Yes, I added one!> never went over 175, and that was towing in the Sierras, with a 10' cabover to boot. Synthetic atf never hurts, either. To not void warranty, I plumbed the cooler downstream of the factory one. 4TTRUK
See if you can find a place up front to hang the cooler. Or somewhere underneath that is in relatively fresh air, and put a fan on it.
Don't overlook the heat-sink style cooler, they do work quite effectively. They also are not dependant on being right into the air flow to be effective either, they don't work that way. These kind look like a long piece of extruded finned aluminum, quite frankly because that's all they are LOL. If you try one, J.W. Performance who builds all of my transmissions and has for years recommends plumbing it so that the hot fluid flows just out of the trans and into the heat sink, and then into the radiator cooler or auxiliary cooler, then back into the trans. Ive had much sucess with thse units on some very radical street strip hot rods that ran auto tranny's with high stall converters and even trans brakes. Trans brakes might not be traditional, but winning sure the heck is , TR
This is what I mean by the Heat-Sink type cooler or heat exchanger. They come 2 ways, single pass and double pass. Pro's and Con's to each of them. I prefer the single pass, and get one as long as possible for the amount of room you have to work with. Don't forget room for the fittings and nice SMOOTH bends on the lines, no sharp turns. These suckers work, you will know by how hot they get, and I mean HOT. This is how they work and is considered normal, they disapate the heat and radiate it out through the fins. They don't have to be at all in the flow of air, but try and make sure air can circulate completely around the unit for best results. I have been a fan of synthetic oils as long as some of the members here have been alive. Years and years of dyno testing just doesn't lie. You can purchase a number of name brand synthetic tranny fluids even at most auto parts stores now a days. Mobil-1, Valvoline, and Castrol in Dexron VI to name a few. I like the Red-Line brand for the cars, but there are many others that work very well. The DEXRON VI or DEXRON 6 if you prefer is Backward Compatable with the older Dexron III if you are running a Turbo 350. Be careful, some brands are Synthetic "Blend", and some are Full Synthetic, either are a huge improvemnet over the old conventional. Deep sump tranny pans are nice, at least some of the better ones are, a cheap tranny pan is just that, a cheap tranny pan so don't skimp. Be careful- you might lose much needed ground clearance when running one! Here in Florida the roads are smooth and flat and we don't have much to worry about, not the same everywhere as you can imagine. TR
FWIW, the company DERALE is one that I HIGHLY recommend you check out. Best in the business from my perspective and very good customer service. They do have the heat sink coolers that I have mentioned, and some very nice tranny pans, all highly recommended. ALL THE BEST, TR
That's very informative. So that means I could still mount the heat sink on the frame rail through my existing cooler and back to the Tranny. It would be easy enough to space out below the rail for air. I was trying to keep my front grille open for the radiator and A/C condenser.I like that option. It's been an on going thing for some time. I also like to run longer trips in the coupe as opposed to short cruises. Thanks for your trouble.
I think this is not quite the same application as a race car. I can understand a heat sink working on a drag car, where it puts out a lot of heat for a short time. But on a street car with mild gearing and a little bit of stall, or an overdrive/lockup, the heat is building all the time when driving, and a heat sink will eventually get hot and won't cool any more. I still suggest you move the cooler to the front of the car where it will get cool air, or at least put a fan on it.
Morning Jim, actually I believe as long as the fluids are continually passing through the heat sink, that it will disappate the heat as long as there is room for the expansion of heat around them unit. One could say the same about the cooler in the bottom of the radiator which is primarily transferring all of the heat of the engine throughout the fins and plates/tubes. Picture that radiator cooler trying to do its job cooling the trans while sitting in traffic and the engine is getting real real hot. Jim, you might relate to this, I think of the heat sink used in the electrical system of the old Brittish motorcycles for the Zenor Diode. The diode is constantly getting hot and exchanging heat as the charging system is running through its cycles, it doesn't get hot and then not exchange heat any longer allowing the diode to burn up. For that matter I know you know about the little GM alternators and the piece of aluminum the diode-trio sets in, again it still allows those 3 little diodes to give off and exchange their heat long after the aluminum has gotton warm. We drive our hot rods, never trailered with the heat sink coolers in line with the radiator cooler, 95 degrees and 90 percent huhidity in south Florida, no problems I'm all for the plate and fin cooler with a fan if with a temperature check proves its needed, and most importantly there is room for one, TR
Sorry if by saying a street-strip hot rod you folks thought I meant we don't drive long distances, quite the contrary on any of our cars as long as there is a legal license plate/tag on the back they get driven . Trailers are for the race cars, TR
I believe alot here depends on not exceeding the capacity of what ever style cooler someone choses to run. Whether you chose a heat-sink, plate and fin, or a stacked plate cooler, if you exceed the capacity to transfer the heat it doesn't matter which style or location you have chose to run the cooler. Like running a Scirroco style radiator from the race car on a street driven hot rod with A/C, it's not going to keep it cool. It might cool 1400 H.P. for 7 seconds but not cool a 290 H.P. SBC on a cruise night, or even a 85 H.P. flathead. TR I'm a long time and big fan of Moroso and their products. If you look at their heat sink " street " cooler, they recommend using it in COMBO with the radiator cooler not by itself. This is how I suggest using them on any street driven hot rod, in conjunction with the rad cooler as an auxilliarly cooler but never alone. Moroso does sell a " race version " heat sink, but they are specific in telling users not to use this one on the street. TR
Any coolers efficiency is determined by the square inches of the tubes (in radiator type) or the square inches of the outside of the heat sink... how much fluid is exposed to air is what determines how much heat it can give off. Next most important is the amount of air blowing through or across the cooler. The fins per inch is also a consideration as the more fins per inch the more area to dissipate heat but the easier they are to plug up... and of course the more they cost. Sounds like the guys problem is mainly his cooler position.. sounds like it has very little air flow where he has it mounted.
Ok, I guess the "heat sink" terminology is just confusing to someone who has a little understanding of what a "heat sink" really is....something that absorbs heat. As opposed to a heat exchanger, which moves heat from one medium (in this case the transmission fluid) to another medium (in this case, the ambient air). As long as there is sufficient way for heat to transfer to air, the trans fluid can be cooled. One way is using the engine's radiator and first transferring the heat to the engine coolant, then to the air. Or you can use a trans cooler that is in the path of moving air all the time (for example in front of the engine radiator and fan), or under the car with a fan blowing air across it. No matter how you do it, you need airflow.
In # 11, the O/P mentioned he wanted to keep the front end open for the rad and A/C condenser. The heat sink cooler even works well running parallel along side a frame rail provided there is some room around it for heat to expand, not necassarily for cool air to flow over or around it.
"heat to expand"....is that another way of saying, radiating heat to the ambient air? Sometimes the marketing guys can really screw up an explanation
Just my $.02 but these heat sinks are showing up on new production cars. Nissans mostly, but I saw one on a passat the other day. No cooler either. Just the heat sink super close to the trans. Something to ponder.
Traditions racing! I see Derale has 26 inch ones that would fit both in single and Double pass. The Double would require less hose to the tyranny. I know you like single pass . Could you list some pro's and Cons of each.
The Jalopy Journal
