Trans cooler II

[95_stroker]

Since the Super Duty guys are hashing out coolers right now I want to give the OBS guys a chance to talk about them too.

Ive got the tru-cool 4590 on my truck and the question is this, should I be bypassing the lower radiator cooler or should I be in series with it? What are you guys doing with your setup and what kind of trans temps are you running?

Mike

 

[hheynow]

My Tru-Cool 4590 does not bypass the lower radiator cooler. I have no gages to monitor my temps with but I recently put Redline synthetic ATF in my tranny so I feel I have better high temperature protection. I remember someone (Was it you Dale?) saying that we should hook up the 4590 in series with the stock cooler, but I tossed that useless piece of trash out. I can't imagine where we'd find space to mount both of them. How can a cooler rated at 28,000 need a tiny one rated at 9,000 to be effective?

 

[95_stroker]

I agree Richard, I removed the stock cooler as well. I was just thinking the other day if the lower radiator cooler is helping any or if it is actually impedeing flow through the additional cooler.

 

[BJS]

Mine's going in as a replacement of the little toy infront of the radiator. The cooler built into the radiator has collapsed on some trucks and impedes the flow but to be sure you can pull the return line from the trans and check flow rates I can't say I remeber what they should be off the top of my head but can say that those who have checked haven't found a flow problem. With a tranny temp guage you will easily see the spike when/if the radiator integrated cooler fails.

 

[BigRed CC dually]

I agree Richard, I removed the stock cooler as well. I was just thinking the other day if the lower radiator cooler is helping any or if it is actually impedeing flow through the additional cooler.

The lower radiator cooler is a big help in conditions where there is no froward movement of the truck to cool the Air to liquid coolers. The coolant at the lower part of the radiator is much cooler than the ATF exiting the transmission and is almost essential in a case where you are backing a heavy trailer into a spot...the transmission builds a lot of heat as the torque converter is not locked in reverse, and there is a lot of slippage with no air flow across the air to liquid ATF cooler except what the fan may pull through it..."IF" the fan is engaged. Ford deleted the radiator ATF cooler on the Super Duties for a year or so but reinstalled it after burning up a lot of transmissions. I would say keep it. I have an in line ATF filter (FLA-1 spin on), the ATF cooler in the radiator, a B&M 28K GVW ATF cooler an 170F ATF thermostat, and the stock cooler. The thermoatat will bypass the stock cooler unless needed....my temps are running 150F in 80F weather. I have had zero problems and am not seeing any restriction.

 

[95_stroker]

BigRed,

Thanks for the informative feedback. Its just one of those silly ideas that goes wild through your mind while driving down the road so I thought I would bounce it off some of you guys to get opinions.

Mike