Anyone with larger coolers think about using one of these? Seems like the larger coolers keep things too cool in the colder months.

http://97.74.103.94/files/thermos$.p...on+and+Pricing

 

Geez Joe. I thought I had spent enough on my transmission. How cool is "too cool?"

 

I dunno -- was thinking that maybe 100-110F was a little cool. Getting it up to 180ish seems like it might be a good thing....

 

It's 100 degrees warmer than when them crazy guys up at the North Pole start up and drive, and it's 100 degrees cooler than when I start to watch it on my temp gauge for the ZF6. I'd say it's right in the sweet spot there.

Maybe Mark K. has something to say about it.

 

Reason is moisture content. With it getting a little warmer in temps, any moisture in there should evap out of there convincingly.

But you're right -- kind of hoping Mark might weigh in here...

 

Subscribing here too, great question.

 

If the trans never warms up moisture can accumulate. That's not good for the trans. In theory one of these thermostats seems like a good idea. In practice I don't know how well they work, I've never seen one of them in person.

 

Thanks Mark. My buddy has an F150 with a 4R70W with a V10 PSD cooler on it and his is running even cooler than mine now that it's winter. He's the one that found these, and I was thinking that if it works out okay, I may try one as well.

Thanks again for in input Mark!

 

I was around oil temperature regulators for years while I was flying. They were used in the engine oil cooing system. Air cooled aircraft engines use the engine oil for a suprisingly large amount of their total cooling.

The "Vernitherm" valve is a thermostat just like the one in your cooling system, except a little more precise. Most are adjustible (but you need a pretty complex setup to test them) and can bypass all of the oil past the cooler.

Many of the valves allow some oil to go through the cooler all the time, in order to keep it from getting TOO cold. Some oil coolers were designed to circulate oil through part of the cooler to keep it warm. They were calles "non-congealing" coolers, since the oil would otherwise get so cold it would act like diesel does at too low a temperature.

I clearly remember flying through a canyon in Canada at -35*F and looking down at the oil pressure gauge and seeing it dropping. It finally settled at the minimum operating pressure and I flew for another hour and a half to get to the nearest airport. The "non-congealing" oil cooler did not live up to it's name that day!

 

Tru-Cool makes self regulating coolers to prevent too much cooling, but I don't know if they are beefy enough for SD applications

 

I'm not looking to switch out of my 6.0L cooler, just bump the temps up a bit in the winter. It's fine in the summer.

 

When living in Southwest Oklahoma my PI torque converter "ate itself" one day and sent a bunch of trash down range through the lines to the lower part of the radiator. During the repairs the lower radiator portion that the tranny fluid runs through was bypassed due to the obstruction. Didn't notice a problem in that climate.

During my first winter in South Dakota I would rarey see the trans temp gauge move and on occasion during real cold sub zero temps I would feel something that just didn't seem 100% right. Sent in a fluid sample to the lab and came back with elevated iron and high copper wear. After reading some of Mark K's posts and talking with BTS and J&M transmission we had the lower portion of the radiator cleaned and hooked back up.

In the past I was always in the hunt for lower tranny temps - not necessarily the best coarse of action in my situation now.

Thank you Mark K, BTS and J&M Transmission................

 

I wouldn't mind having my trans temps a little higher when it's cold ,but I wouldn't want hem starting at 180* either

 

Since the coolers are up front, why not block off the air going into the coolers??

Should be cheaper approach and even adjustable to a degree.

 

That's what I used to do when I lived in the cold white north.