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I really wish I took more pictures of when I stuffed a Derale cooler for my trans under the "storage box" on the drivers rear of my car.
Was a very tight fit.
But I was able to get it mounted.
I never had trans temps before, and I don't have them now. (although that's in the works)
Quite honestly the car only ever drives on the street or in a straight line (no twisties tracks within 100's of miles)
Was totally unnecessary, but was a fun project.
I trimmed the lower valance (black plastic) so the fan sticks out 1/8" to 1/4" and gets fresh air.
I was able to keep my reverse light, and the fender well.
Thanks for the pics Jessie. I also wish you had more pics and of the final product. Which Derale did you use (I can get the dimensions with the model number)?
Shoaf, Thanks for the pic too. Yeah, I'm kicking it around as well mounting there, but I may have other things I may want to mount in that space. It is a lot of space with the mufflers gone. That cooler looks huge in there. You still have a bunch of room above it for good airflow the way you have it mounted though. Everything I have read say's the input/output ports on the 6L80 are -6AN. Can you verify that? Also, what temps are you seeing?
Hell I just read Dude's question and realized you said "radiator". Pretty awesome!
I'm on the fence about this myself. I'm debating running a cooling duct to my trans cooler as you have here, but I don't know that I want to lose the fog lights to do it. What did they use for the mesh?
I put it on everything I own, and several customer cars too. It really helps with the bottom feeders like the C5 and base C6's. With my truck, I clean bugs out of it weekly at the car wash yet the radiator looks PERFECT after 88k miles of driving mainly out in the middle of no where. (bugs, rocks, debris, etc)
Radiator in the rear!? Now that's some crazy stuff. Wonder how that would work in the FL heat
Never seen over 210 at highway speeds. Sitting still actually cools better as my fan/shroud setup is much better than the front mounted version I had. I need some ducting to aid in airflow at higher speeds but Put a couple hundred miles on this setup last year between July-October in NC which gets hot/humid as well. Even ran a couple street car events with street cruises required. Worked great.
So Rhino at GPI did mine in the pass front fender. Used around a 1" hole saw in the fender liner with a nice clean line of holes along the arch in the fender well to let air in. He took the trim out of the cove/duct area and I have a Derale bar and plate with a thermostat controlled fan there. It exhales out the fender gill. Works really well.
Last edited by grocerygetter; 07-06-2016 at 10:48 PM.
I'm on the fence about this myself. I'm debating running a cooling duct to my trans cooler as you have here, but I don't know that I want to lose the fog lights to do it. What did they use for the mesh?
you can purchase an assortment of different sized mesh from Allstar that is available through "Jegs".I prefer the look of the blacked out mesh on mine over the driving lights especially if its keeping trany cool
I really wish I took more pictures of when I stuffed a Derale cooler for my trans under the "storage box" on the drivers rear of my car.
Was a very tight fit.
But I was able to get it mounted.
I never had trans temps before, and I don't have them now. (although that's in the works)
Quite honestly the car only ever drives on the street or in a straight line (no twisties tracks within 100's of miles)
Was totally unnecessary, but was a fun project.
I trimmed the lower valance (black plastic) so the fan sticks out 1/8" to 1/4" and gets fresh air.
I was able to keep my reverse light, and the fender well.
This is exactly what I was thinking of doing. In fact, it occurs to me that if you cut out the rear driver's side cubby (and reseal the hole with a flat plate), you would have a lot of space to put a big *** cooler and fan under there and plenty of space for it to flow air properly, perhaps with some ducting from the rear fenderwell.
That's where I'm headed. Ordered a Derale 13700 with -6AN connectors and some braided steel line. Plus that manifold that Mike posted above with some -6AN 90* hose ends. Will have an on/off switch in the cabin for the fan since I will not be going through the radiator to bring the low temp up.
I decided to listen to what rpm says to do and just mount the bastard in front behind the fog light, seems suitable enough, quite easy to do, I’ll just make my own bracket and be good with it, rpm 1800hp powerglide setup
Guess I could update this thread for those that prefer a rear mount. I went with a Derale 13700 (the fan can be wired for either push/pull). I wired it to pull as I removed the drivers side backup light (to pull through) and used a paper plate as a pattern to cut a hole in the bottom of the diffuser for the exhaust. I used stainless wire mesh (can buy on Amazon with plenty of choices for mesh size). I had the mesh powder coated satin black.
I did use the manifold in the pic above (Mikes post #49) as it's setup for the ports of the 6l80. There's an issue with it because it's actually made for the Camaro w/6l80. The issue with the vette is the radius of the 90's, straight fittings, and the thickness of the manifold pushes the line end of the 90's against the frame rail making it impossible to connect and tighten the connectors. Side Note: I had my tranny out (installed all the Sonnax kits and added extra clutch disc's to each pack) had I installed my cooler setup before reinstalling the tranny there may have not been any issues. I actually called the guy that machines the manifold (that's how I found out it was made for a Camaro) and he gave me the dimensions to drill the ports out the side and plug the original ones on the face. He also said he appreciated the feedback which he's never had and would use it to make manifolds to fit the vette. Before I went through modding the manifold I made one last effort and called Improved Racing. They looked thru all their catalogues and found one that eliminated the straight fitting, had the O ring on the manifold side and a short radius. It fit perfect.
I run the cooler on a manual switch versus a thermostat as I turn my cooler on when I start the car. It's easier to control the temp on the way up versus trying to cool it off on the way down (especially at the track). It's sits at 100 -110*. The highest I've seen it is 120* and that's too warm for me (I also run a stall). Here's some pic's of the install.
07-01-2016, 08:26 PM
