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!

[GeoBoy]

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.

[CKNSLS]

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.

[MrVan]

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.

[cummins2014]

Mark Kovalsky wrote:

Andymon wrote:

Mark Kovalsky wrote:
That cooler won't make much difference. It's not much bigger than what you already have.

According to powerstroke.org and a couple other Ford diesel sites, this add on along with the original cooler make a big difference. What do you suggest?

I recommend replacing the cooler you have with a cooler from a 6.0L truck. If you REALLY want to do it right, replace the radiator with one that has a trans cooler, too.

As Mark said, 6.0 cooler, I did to my early 99 7.3. I Did the small cooler you are going to do, wasted money, did help some, but not enough. 6.0 took care of the slow speeds, going thru towns as well as the long grades.The 6.0 cooler is the only way to go. I installed the 6.0 several years ago, and it still has the stock tranny in it. Nearly 16 years

[Mark_Kovalsky]

Andymon wrote:

Mark Kovalsky wrote:
That cooler won't make much difference. It's not much bigger than what you already have.

According to powerstroke.org and a couple other Ford diesel sites, this add on along with the original cooler make a big difference. What do you suggest?

I recommend replacing the cooler you have with a cooler from a 6.0L truck. If you REALLY want to do it right, replace the radiator with one that has a trans cooler, too.

[1hodag]

regarding adding tranny cooler. i did that on 99 ford 7.3 and it helped. one thing when you mention heating up on grades, make sure the fan cluch is working. replaced that in utah with the same problem you talk about. not too spendy and pretty easy job and took care of over heating problems.

[Dave_H_M]

Andy, if your torque converter stays unlocked when you are out of overdrive, I think that may be a big player in the heat issue.

My TC always locked back up after the trans shifted down out of OD.

[jspence1]

Personally I would go with a 6.0 cooler you can get an aftermarket version from rockauto for about $200. The 6.0 cooler is probably 4x the size I was completely shocked when I got the 6.0 cooler at how big it was. I still have it in the box I'm waiting for some good weather to install it. I'll post some pictures after I get the kids off to school.

[RedJeep]

Mine is a 2001 f350 dually with the 7.3. I had a under body mounted auxiliary trans cooler with a fan. it did almost nothing to help cool the trans with my big trailer. I added a 6.0 cooler and wow what a difference. only once has it hit 220 and that was on an extrememy steep hill winding up a very winedy slow mountain road hauling 16k pounds and then discovered that I also had three flat tires; two flat tires on the triple axle trailer and one of the dually tires. that ended up being an expensive trip to the tire store.

[GeoBoy]

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.

[Andymon]

Mark Kovalsky wrote:
That cooler won't make much difference. It's not much bigger than what you already have.

According to powerstroke.org and a couple other Ford diesel sites, this add on along with the original cooler make a big difference. What do you suggest?

[Mark_Kovalsky]

That cooler won't make much difference. It's not much bigger than what you already have.

[Andymon]

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

[Charlie_D_]

When was the radiator/cooling system checked for road debris, bugs and other stuff?

[LarryJM]

carringb wrote:

ScottG wrote:
220 in of itself is not too high

I would consider that too high for the 4R100 considering the outside air temp.

Mine typically maxes out about 120F higher than outside temp, and only after LONG hard climbs (like 15% grades for several miles). Even pulling moderate grades like Cabbage Hill or Siskiyou summit, mine might hit 200F on a hot day.

The 4R100 behind the 7.3L certainly can benefit from better transmission cooling, but temps like on a cool day would be a red-flag to me that the transmission (probably torque converter) is already slipping generating excessive heat.

I see the same temps in mine with the 7.3L PSD and another thing that can cause excessive temps is a sticking bypass tube on the side of the tranny which if not fixed will destroy your tranny. I had one go bad in less than 50K miles and 9 years.

Larry