Anyone know of a good brand? I want something like the PML brand pan, but steel, not aluminum.

 

For what tranny? Why are you wanting a deeper than stock pan.

 

Aluminum dissipates heat better. That's why they are made of aluminum.

 

steel takes a beating better- i prefer steel in mud trucks. The pans off a 4x4 are deeper than 2wd- Other than that check ebay. They have the cheep chromies in the deep pan style on there all the time.

 

The point of a deeper pan is for more fluid capacity, which also helps with heating issues as well. You could just make a skid plate for the trans, trick to aluminum is it tends to cost more.

 

Cast aluminum pan seals better too. Make sure you grind the chrome off the gasket surface of a chrome pan. The chrome makes the surface way to slick, and the gasket will refuse to stay put.

 

Get a trans temp gauge and then you will know when you need to change your driving
style, Putting a band aid on it(more fluid) Won't make up for the wrong driving style
A digital gauge has fast response time You should see the numbers climb just sitting in the drive thru, I would run two coolers too.

 

I tow heavy loads on pretty rugged roads in the mountains. i dont drive like a teenager, i just have a lot to carry. the deep pan will reduce my operating temp maximums by about 2-5% (based on reports from people who have used deep pans - so, anecdotal and quite possibly wrong) and thats worth it.

i agree, the aluminum pan dissipates heat faster *on a per-thickness basis*, aluminum conducts heat about 5 times faster than steel. however, the aluminum pan has to be thicker to provide the same durability - steel has about twice the yeild strength and 1.5 times the tensile strength of aluminum....interestingly PML brand aluminum pans feature walls that are 5 times thicker than the stock steel pans. so *zero* heat dissipation gain.

the idea of a steel skid plate is intriguing. i will have to run some calcs to see if the plate would reduce my heat dissipation efficiency significantly. this will depend on how far away from the aluminum my skid plate is sitting. the further it is, the less clearance i have.

a major problem with aluminum parts for this kind of application is that the thermal expansion coefficient for aluminum is about twice that of steel. therefore, as the trans heats up, the aluminum pan will expand quite a bit more than the steel it is attached to. since aluminum also has a really crappy repetitive strain response (it breaks easy if you keep wiggling it) you get tearing at the bolts under the conditions typical of driving (the tranny heats and cools over and over)

another problem with aluminum is that when steel and aluminum are in contact, corrosion of both increases.

thanks for the thoughts guys!

 

An oil cooler is usually added to control tranny temps. Towing much over 3000 lbs on hilly terrain does leave much room for driving style changes

 

ummm, last time I looked, the c6 casing is aluminium. Therefore, by your reasoning, an aluminium pan and casing would make a better thermal expansion match than a steel pan.

 

ozstang65: good point! i didnt even think about that
so i will go with the PML pan then.

i already have a cooler and i am installing 2 temp senders (one just up stream of the trans and one just downstream) and a gauge to read them.