I have a question on which trans cooler with a remote fan would you recommend? I bought a 90 f350 with a rebuilt trans and it seems to over heat just driving around empty. It has the trans fluid going threw the radiator then the PO put 2 extra smaller trans radiators inline to help the trans I guess. There is a trans temp gauge in the pan not the test port and that is how I know it is getting hot. I was looking around jegs and came across the Derale Electra cooler kit with a remote fan and was wondering if any of you guys run a cooler like that to keep the temp in a safe zone?

 

oldiron174,

What temperature is your trans fluid getting to? I have never monitered the trans temp before, but with the normal setup of using the cooler in the radiator I would expect to see close to the temp that the engine is running maybe a little warmer. You didnt say anything about the engine overheating so I am assuming that the fan clutch is working correctly.

A couple of thoughts come to mind,

1. Did the PO plumb the external coolers in correctly? What I mean by this is they should be plumbed in to the exit line (lower) from the radiator cooler. This allows for the engine cooling system to do most of the work and the external coolers to just do more cooling prior to returning to the transmission.
2. Did the PO mount the external coolers to the radiator with those zip tye things? If so, then they are not as efficient removing heat as mounting them on their own brackets away from the radiator.

As far as your question regarding the
Derale Electra cooler kit with a remote fan
I have no experience with it.

Good luck with your issue and keep cool.

 

What temperature are you getting?

 

Need to find the problem before adding anything!God BlessJohn

 

I haven't had personal experience with it, but I have heard and read here on FTE that it is NOT a good idea to use 2 (two) coolers, it is better to use 1 (one) large cooler.. 2 in line are known to restrict flow of the fluid and do less actual cooling..

YMMV

 

Wow alot of responses, the trans fluid after about a hour of driving empty will get above 220 and get up to 235 and that is when i shut her down because I am getting close to smoking the trans fluid. The cooler is plumed after the stock cooler that runs in the radiator, and they are zip tried to the condenser (my truck has AC). So should I do some tests like run the stock setup, then plumb in just the aftermarket coolers by them self's?

Shawn

 

Shawn,

Try using the factory cooler by itself first. Two aux coolers in series is no doubt causing too much restriction, not allowing enough fluid to flow through the coolers.

On the IHC forum I belong to, this is referred to as PO virus. Previous Owners inflict all kinds of problematic repairs to these F-Series trucks, then sell them off to get rid of the headache.

The fact that the aux coolers are zip-tied on means they aren't getting enough airflow to do much, compounding the problem. There should be some space between the coolers and the AC condenser.

Ray

 

Great ideas, I am going back to square one and going to try the stock cooling system and take it from there. I don't drive this truck for hours on end like daily drivers on this site but I defiantly cant afford to replace a trans right now. Thanks for your thoughts on this.

Shawn

 

Are you sure your gauge is reading correctly?

 

You are not going to smoke the trans fluid until it gets over 400°F.

If you are shutting the engine off when the trans is that hot you might be smoking the fluid. You need to idle in park or neutral to cool the trans, not shut it down.

 

Sure your gauge is correct?

As for trans coolers. The PSD 6.0 and 7.3l coolers are popular. Long tru-cool is also popular with the Lightning guys. Id recommend getting in contact with Paul ThePunisher and get you a custom Punisher valvebody for that E4OD. Best thing you can do for it.

 

Shawn,
Make sure that the flow through the stock (in radiator) cooler is in the right direction. It has to go first from the top to the bottom before any external cooler. In theory this flow goes in hot to the top and comes out cool at the bottom just like the engine coolant flow through the radiator. Just like the antifreeze, as the trans fluid gets cooler the density of the fluid will increase making it fall to the bottom of the cooler. The pressure differential will push it through the external cooler. The inlet to the cooler should be the through the upper connection and the outlet should be through the lower connection.

While I have not ever used a dual external cooler setup as you describe, I would plumb in a "T" fitting before each cooler so that the supply flow is divided to each cooler. And then a "T" fitting is plumbed in after each cooler for the return to the transmission. This removes the "in series" cooler setup to the "in paralell" setup that may be an issue in your vehicle.

I am sorry that I cannot provide a schematic for this setup, but not having a 25 input on this board does not allow me to post any photos. Maybe someone who can post photos can show the plumbing schematic that I have described.

Again, hope you resolve the high temp issue.

Sincerely,
Ed

 

86F150302,
Who is Paul the punisher and what good is the Punisher valve body that you refer to?
Ed

 

Good info again. I just came back from a test drive after I plumbed the trans lines back to their stock configuration. I was able to drive for over a hour and a half b4 my temps rose to 210. That"s better then before when they were up in the 225 range in 45 minutes. So now what I am noticing is the engine coolant is rising in temp because when I was sitting at a red light at about the hour and 20 min mark I saw the coolant temp gauge in the dash raise a little bit above the normal spot (which is right before the N on the gauge). I came home in a level spot on my drive way and checked trans fluid, I checked the over flow for the radiator and it was bone dry (a little residual at the bottom). So after dinner tonight I'm going to top off the rad and over flow and do another test drive to see if the added antifreeze will provide more surface area to disperse the trans fluid heat to the antifreeze. I hope this will give a better base line to go from now that the systems are back to stock config. I guess if the coolant and trans fluid want to still run a little hot I should be looking at the fan clutch and thermostat as culprits?

Thanks Shawn

 

Shawn,
Do not over engineer this issue. What you just told me is that with the stock setup your vehicle runs as designed. Plumb in the external coolers as I described and you are good to go if pulling some big loads.