Tranny cooler question

[Andymon]

I talked to my mechanic a while back about adding a tranny cooler. He looked at my truck and said I already had a heavy duty cooler installed. On one trip with a long up hill pull, I saw the tranny temp get to about 220 degrees. The weather outside was in the mid 60's. I'm wondering if I should add an additional cooler or does this sound about normal!

Thanks!

[wintersun]

220 degrees is not a problem for the ATF. The fluid has a flash point of 379 degrees. I expect the ATF temperature to be 100 degrees above the ambient temperature where I am driving with my truck. If it is 100 F degrees outside the cooler is less effective and the ATF will run hotter.

If you have tow/haul with your vehicle be sure to use it with a heavy load as it is designed to minimize wear on the transmission and keep it operating cooler.

What would conceivably help with long grades is adding an extra fan or a cowl to most more air past the transmission cooler's fins. When going up a steep grade the transmission is getting hotter and more heat is going into the fluid but there is a lot less air passing through the cooler to carry off the heat.

[cummins2014]

Traveler 60 wrote:
what about mounting (2) 7" 500 CFM electric fans on the external oil cooler along with a Derale remote cooler on the return line from the external cooler mounted on the frame rails.

Why not just go with the 6.0 cooler, and be done. The 6.0 cooler is a proven remedy for the 4R100.

[Traveler_60]

what about mounting (2) 7" 500 CFM electric fans on the external oil cooler along with a Derale remote cooler on the return line from the external cooler mounted on the frame rails.

[Traveler_60]

what about mounting (2) 7" 500 CFM electric fans on the external oil cooler along with a Derale remote cooler on the return line from the external cooler mounted on the frame rails.

[GeoBoy]

up2nogood wrote:

GeoBoy wrote:

jspence1 wrote:


As you can see the 6.0 cooler is very big.

Wow! That is one BIG tranny cooler. Andy you may want to check that out.

Really, finally getting it here, are you not reading, trying to keep the guy from listening to you guys about these tru-cool coolers, they don't get it done with the 99, been thru this, help the guy out a little. That picture is the 31 row I have been trying to tell you guys about.

Yes, that's why I said "Andy you may want to check that out". Lighten up!

[cummins2014]

GeoBoy wrote:

jspence1 wrote:


As you can see the 6.0 cooler is very big.

Wow! That is one BIG tranny cooler. Andy you may want to check that out.

Really, finally getting it here, are you not reading, trying to keep the guy from listening to you guys about these tru-cool coolers, they don't get it done with the 99, been thru this, help the guy out a little. That picture is the 31 row I have been trying to tell you guys about.

[jspence1]

GeoBoy wrote:

Wow! That is one BIG tranny cooler. Andy you may want to check that out.

When I picked it up I thought it was a radiator not the transmission cooler the box is huge.

[GeoBoy]

jspence1 wrote:


As you can see the 6.0 cooler is very big.

Wow! That is one BIG tranny cooler. Andy you may want to check that out.

[MrVan]

CKNSLS wrote:

MrVan wrote:

Andymon wrote:

Charlie D. wrote:
When was the radiator/cooling system checked for road debris, bugs and other stuff?

Checked before we left and all was clean. I'm going to install an auxiliary cooler just to be safe.

Cooler

I purchased one from your sticky site. Do not buy from them. The unit I received had all the fins bent over because it had not been protected properly in the shipping container. I called them immediately, the only way they would send me a new one was if I returned the damaged unit first. I said they could charge me for both and then give me a credit when I returned the first damaged unit. They would not cooperate. I spent several hours straightening out the fins and had to install it because I was leaving on a 1600 mile trip the next day. It did help cooling the transmission more but when I got through the trip I tried to get them to send me a new one promising I would return the damaged one. Thy absolutely wouldn't cooperate. They do not understand how to take responsibility for a problem they have caused. I hope they have improved their shipping and packing procedures by now. They are not friendly people to work with.

They may not have packed it correctly - but for you to use it on a very long trip and expect them to take it back afterwards (no matter what the circumstances) is not realistic IMHO.

It's not their fault you waited until the last minute to install it.

Are you saying that they have no responsibility for poor packaging? Are you saying that they do not have responsibility for a defective product because it got damaged in shipment? Are you saying that they do not have any warranty responsibility because I used it for 4 days? I was wiling to pay for the second unit, have it shipped to me so I could install it in place of the original unit and then ship the original damaged unit back in less than a week for a refund. I think I was willing to go the extra mile trying to rectify a problem that I didn't cause. But now I am the problem in your eyes because I bought their product just a few days before a trip. The only mistake I made was buying the product from this company to begin with.

[jspence1]

As you can see the 6.0 cooler is very big.

[LarryJM]

I sure wouldn't assume to speak for Mark since he's the expert here, but I would guess that one reason he is recommending the 6.0 is that if you don't have the in radiator oil to oil cooler only the air to oil one then the 6.0 has sufficient capacity to hopefully do the job of both or at least better than other aftermarket air to oil coolers out there. If you have an existing oil to oil cooler then the lesser coolers like the Tru-Cool 40K etc. would be O.K., but w/o that oil to oil they are not the best choice for a single cooling system addition. IMO you also have to be a little careful about stacking these oil to air coolers in line or even in parallel since there is a fine balance between flow rates, back pressures and inherent cooling capacity. Even the experts got it wrong at first with the initial cooling system design for the 7.3L/4R100 combo in the first iteration of the Ford SD trucks.

Larry

[carringb]

BTW - I went with the Tru-Cool Max 40k.

My temps were never a problem stock until I stuck an array of floodlights in front of the grill. I've since switched to an LED bar, and now the Tru-Cool cools so well I keep the grill covered most of the year!

Skip their "thermostat" though. I never got mine to work right. It caused it to run real hot, so I pulled it out.

[Andymon]

GeoBoy wrote:

GeoBoy wrote:
Andy, that is the same cooler I put on my Silverado and it really helps. Since your truck doesn't have a cooler built into the radiator, I would run it in conjunction with the original trans cooler. I would also drop the pan change the tranny filter and then refill with synthetic fluid.
Good luck.

Andy, you can also purchase the Tru-Kool 40K at Oregon Performance Transmission, nice people to deal with.

Thanks GeoBoy!!

[cummins2014]

GeoBoy wrote:

GeoBoy wrote:
Andy, that is the same cooler I put on my Silverado and it really helps. Since your truck doesn't have a cooler built into the radiator, I would run it in conjunction with the original trans cooler. I would also drop the pan change the tranny filter and then refill with synthetic fluid.
Good luck.

Andy, you can also purchase the Tru-Kool 40K at Oregon Performance Transmission, nice people to deal with.

Been there done that, what you don't seem to realize is that the stock cooler is not enough with the tru-cool , running in conjunction , granted if he had the cooler built into the radiator he could get away with it, but he does not, lot of guys tried your way I was one of them ,just does not get the job done . He needs to pull the stock cooler, drop in a 31 row 6.0 cooler, and be done with it. Unless you have towed heavy with a 99 Superduty 7.3 with the 4R100 automatic transmission then you have no idea the advice you are giving him, please read up on it ,and get informed. He is going to waste his money on an add on cooler with the 99