Dont laugh guys, I have never installed one of these before and just want to make sure its right. Okay I have two lines coming from the TH400 into the passenger side of the radiator. I want to install a new tranny cooler, whats the proper way to do this?

Thanks

 

anyone? I need to know do I still use the tranny cooler on the side of the radiator with the new one. If so how do I run the lines. Is there a in and out as to which way the fluid flows?

 

I've heard all the pro's and cons of how to best set it up.

When I used the radiator and an external B&M tranny oil cooler. I ran it from the tranny out through the cooler and back through the radiator on it's way back to the tranny. The Pro's to this direction is assisted tranny warmup and more even tranny oil temp. The other way gives you the coldest oil possible being returned to the tranny.

How i figured it out is: I pulled the top line off the radiator and attached a couple of rubber hoses draining into containers. I fired the motor for the briefest instant. Just a couple of seconds was way over a quart.

 

I would agree with gkull, route to cooler then to rad. then to tranny. This keeps a constant temp. If the oil goes to the tranny cooler last on a cold day it would send a very cool fuild to the tran. and that isn't the ideal situation. IMHO




[Modified by Tominator, 9:11 PM 11/26/2003]

 

I have my tranny cooler installed the other way.
I installed it to B&M's instructions, which were to run from trans to radiator to cooler to trans.
I don't have my trans temp gauge installed yet, so I can't say whether or not the cooler gets "too cold".
While a car is sitting outside in sub-zero conditions, usually, they are able to be driven after only a couple of seconds after startup. The cold fluid doesn't seem to affect the tranny then. I will say that I would think a trans operating at 200 degrees might be "shocked" when 40 degree fluid is introduced suddenly. I don't know the viscosity levels of trans fluid at varying temperatures, nor the relationship it would have to clutch pack wear, converter slippage, and such.


Back to what I really wanted to say:
whichever way you install the cooler, be extra careful with leaks and DOUBLE CLAMP!!! I had my first car fire when I installed my trans cooler, thank God for extinguishers.
Good luck!

 

One more thing, most aftermarket trans coolers are installed with hoses or an fittings.
This makes it very easy to switch around the lines to change the fluid routing to either the cooler first, or radiatior first. So if you don't have yours installed the "right" way, it wont be too much trouble to redo it.

Maybe, once upon a time , I'll install my 2 trans temp senders, and replace my clock with my trans temp gauge ( like I've been planning for over 2 yrs) and then I'll switch around the fluid route to see the temp differances between the two setups.

This would actually be a pretty good test if anybody would perform it.
At my curent rate of work, I'll have it ready to be tested by 2014.

 

every car i've done is cooler,rad.,trans.. unless you want to cover/rap-up
cooler in cold temps. in/out start car drive a few mile's the coolest line is
going to trans ,(if real cold may be hard to do) but if that's the case Do you
need it till spring???

 

Depends on the cooler. Some are made to bypass the radiator all together and act as a stand alone cooler. Best advice is contact the manufacturer and go by the directions. That or get the directions from a similarly sized unit.

 

I did mine trans-rad-cooler-trans with the cooler in between rad and AC condensor.

Hot tranny fluid through a hot 190/200+ degree radiator and then briefly through the cooler, the slightly cooler fluid temp going back to the tranny will mix again with the hot fluid in the sump, so I wouldnt guess overcooling is a threat with the average size coolers we are installing.

I have a chart that shows tranny temp at 215 F is 25K miles life, 195 F is 50K life and 175 F is 100K life expectancy in your tranny.

If your putting your cooled fluid back into a hot radiator, your temp back to the tranny will by very close to rad temp I suppose, and that doesn't look too promising according to the chart.

The coldest Ive driven the vette with cooler in must be mid 40s and Ive yet to experienced any issues with tranny operation.

Brent...


[Modified by MN-Brent, 11:31 PM 11/26/2003]

 

I agree with alot of whats said. I am also in the planning for a good tranny cooler with my current rebuild on my th400. I am currently planning to go without the radiator at all. But if I did come to think about it I would go from the tranny, rad, cooler, tranny route. It seems that the heating affect of the rad would be much stronger than the cooling affect of the cooler. Therefore the cooler would be less effcient on the front flow of the rad.

But like others have said I am know thermo-fluid-dynamics engineer. I wonder what the reality in temp difference we are talking if its only +/- 5 degrees whats the big difference. If your car is has a 180 thermostat then your rad is probably running what? Under this condition without the cooler whats your tranny running? Just the cooler? cooler to rad and back? rad to cooler and back?

Maybe I should send this out to like B&M or TCI and see what data they have?

 

IF you purchase a stacked plate cooler, most of them have internal bypasses for low oil temperature.

So when the oil is cold the oil bypasses the external cooler.

On my Jimmy, I have it to the rad cooler then to the external stacked plate cooler then to the transmission. SO far this fall it has acted no different than last year when I only had the rad cooler. The transmission lockup still functions within around 2 minutes after startup from leaving work. This is an approximation of tranny temp as lockup will not occur until the tranny has reached a preset temperature.

With auto transmissions cooler is always better, IMO!

 

even a bigger newbie question.....yea....do every trannies have a cooler? cause i didnt see a tranny line when i disconnected my radiator......maybe i did tho and just dont remember...heh....but....its a t350....so...does it have one or need one? yea...tryin to learn about vettes while tryin to build one...very hard but fun

 

Ebbs, Your vettes TH350 should have hard metal lines that run into the radiator for cooling.

Its easiest to tap into these lines at the lower radiator output line and attach the rubber hoses that you run to the tranny cooler and then back to your return hard metal line.

On my 82, there was about a 5 inch rubber hose that connected the radiator line back to the tranny return line, so there was no cutting of any hard metal line involved and made the installation of the rubber hoses a piece of cake.

That hard part is mounting the cooler itself. I mounted mine in front of the radiator between the radiator and the AC condensor (looks like smaller radiator). This keeps the cooler out of interference from the hood opening.

Cut the shinola out of my hands though in doing this though.

Brent...

 

ok...yea i had one of these...it was a small looking radiator....i thought it was for the a/c though?

so i gues with the new radiator i need to also get a new tranny cooler?

thanks

 

I installed my B&M cooler on the front of the rad & ran the fluid into the cooler, then into the rad, before returning to the tranny, as per B&Ms instructions. This is with a TH200-4r which I'd fitted a temp gauge in & the results were surprising. According to Bowtie Overdrives the ideal operating temp for the tranny fluid, as measured in the pan, is 150*. Before fitting the cooler it was running at 150* when in OD with the converter locked. Running around town in lower gears caused the fluid temp to rise very quickly. Fitting the cooler has resulted in temps of about 110* when in OD with the converter locked (ambient anywhere between 90* - 100*) so, even though the fluid is returning through the rad where it's getting heated up, it's being over-cooled. Apparently this isn't a problem, but I've fitted a small cooler so if you're fitting a large efficient cooler and routing the fluid through the rad then the cooler you could well be cooling it more than you want.
One other advantage of routing the fluid through the cooler & then the rad (apart from ensuring fast fluid warm up) is that the engine coolant temp has decreased :) I have a 180* stat fitted and, like most people here, was seeing coolant temps well over 200*. Now I've fitted the tranny cooler the coolant temp stays pegged at 180* & only after really trying on a very hot day did I get the temp up to 190*. Tranny coolers rock :thumbs:
:cheers:

 

I think that some people overlook the fact that the tranny cooler side of the radiator is where the return water is. So it's the coldest.


I went the next step up this summer and replaced my small factor lines with all 1/2 inch internal diameter steel braided lines with AN fittings.

The GM tranny outlets are adapters that reduce the lines to those small hard lines we have. So I pull the brass adapter right out of the side of the 700R4 tranny a screwed in quick disconnect fittings to some lines I had premade by a shop. The largest B&M cooler sold in Summit Racing is the same 1/2 internal dia. fittings.

So I took the radiator out of my loop because it's smaller inputs would become a restriction