UPDATE Sunday Jan 17, 2021This is a follow up on this post from last year. As reported in the previous pages I was fighting high transmission temperatures when pulling my trailer through the mountains and deserts around San Diego.
After many months of deliberation on the different methods to cool things down I decided that I really didn’t trust the new radiator that the used car lot had installed when I bought the Suburban. So early December 2020 I ordered a factory GM radiator from an online dealership for $250.
I have just finished my second desert trip and the transmission temp is much better. This trip was in the high 80’s pulling some huge hills with my foot on the floor. These grades are steep, I would guess around 6 percent and like I said my foot was on the floor for about a mile uphill. I was really trying to put stress and heat up the transmission as much as I could. Below are two pictures from today.
This first is the transmission temp with the new radiator when I’m just cruising while towing.
Normal cruising
This second picture is after driving for 45 minutes uphill out of the desert. I took it near the top of a long steep hill on the S2 in San Diego. I was trying hard to heat the transmission up. And happily I could never get it much past 200 degrees.
Middle of uphill on S2
All in all I’m satisfied that I made the right choice on the radiator. In hindsight I wish I had thought to cut open the replaced radiator to see if there was even a cooler in it. But after my first tow with the new radiator I was so disgusted with the old one that I just threw it in the trash.
Moderator edit to fix picture URL's.
