I decided to go with the Spectra aluminum radiator. Got it for $250 with a life time warranty. I didn't think about taking pics until I already had it installed but it seems to be well built and came with all of the fittings already installed. It dropped right in and everything lined right up. Flushed all the old coolant out and filled it up with 4 gallons of Fleetcharge and 4 gallons of distilled water. My dad drove it around for a while today and all seems good so far. I got it through the parts house where my mom is the office manager so if anything goes wrong with it, I'm sure I won't have any problems with the warranty. Don't it look purty in there! LOL.

 

wow thats allot of aluminum!

 

I know! For some reason I was thinking the tanks were gonna be plastic but they are all aluminum.

 

that looks awesome man! keep us updated on how it does for ya!

 

Got the same one, mine was just over 300$ tho

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Well I drove it on 60 mile round trip today. No towing or hard driving. The trans temp according to the optishift got up to 230! I never noticed the trans temp gettin that high in this truck before but I haven't driven it much at all since I put the optishift in and didn't have a trans temp gauge before that. The water temp never got above the N in normal today but I'm pretty sure 230 is too hot for the e4od. Any ideas what I should be checking out?

 

Make sure your up to level, if you didnt add when you canged the rad you maybe low.

 

wow.yeah,that's no good.
oops edit,yeah it's pretty warm.look how often you'd need to flush @ 235 degrees to keep good fluid in her:

plus it's winter.imagine the temps come spring.not good.

where is the trans temp sending unit located?
what was the outside temp when you saw 230?
do you also have an aux cooler?
what was the engine coolant temp?
what is model # on the radiator?

 

I'm not sure how the optishift reads trans temp. It doesn't have a sensor that screws into the trans like a normal trans temp gauge. It just has the plugs for the MLPS and the solenoids like the factory harness so I don't know exactly how it reads the temp. On the '94 that I had the optishift was right on with the trans temp gauge that I had in that truck though. The outside temp was about 50 degrees and I do not have an aux cooler. The model number on the radiator is CU1165. I'm not sure of the exact water temp cause I don't have a gauge other than the one in the cluster but it never got above N in the normal. I didn't check or top off the trans fluid after in installed the new radiator so I will do that in the morning. I just recently changed the the trans fluid and filter in this truck as well, like three weeks ago.

 

Took it for a little drive today. Got on some long gravel roads through the mountains cause I figured the slow hilly driving would make it heat up if it was going to. It never got above 183 today. I checked the trans fluid when I got home and it is actually over full. It was quite a bit above the cross hatch area on the dip stick. Would it being over filled cause it to run to hot? I don't know how it got over filled. When I changed the fluid and filter a few weeks ago, I drained the converter as well. I used 16 quarts when I filled it back up. I started out putting 12 quarts in and let it run for a while and shifted thru the gears while doing this to let the converter fill back up. After that I added the 4 more quarts and it was at the full line after that. Now it's over full???

 

It uses the TOT sensor located in the solenoid pack.