What were your temps before the cooler in the same environment?

 

I'm in Houston, Tx.

Again, I would've thought the mechanic would want to protect his transmissions (I have an 18 month warranty that if anything were to occur it'd be on his dime) with this but he said no, no need for it. I can understand preventative maintenance especially when towing.

 

Texas, I would wonder about any mechanic that "hot rods" an engine, adding fuel, changing timing etc, and then doesn't monitor the engines systems. And as for your trans and a stock cooler. Its not BIG enough, period. If it was, we all wouldn"t be changing them. Towing up a winding mountain road or hot rodding, you will see temps get well above whats acceptable. But thats just my opinion and probably most members here. Take it or leave it. Not being mean spirited here, just saying. Guys here try to help each other protect their investments. It doesn't sound like good advice not to put in at least a pyro guage.

 

This guy is no joke. He's very well known on here, many members have taken their trucks to him, have spoken to him and had their trucks repaired by him. Not one single complaint to date and his trucks are featured in hot rod magazines.

He's probably one of if not the best diesel specialist known to these forums.

That's the entire issue, why it came to be that on the forums and only on the forums and not by a tried and true diesel performance specialist (as well as a few regular mechanics who've I've spoken to) have such a disagreeing insight as to what to do.

I'm not saying, and neither did he say, that preventative maintenance is not a good thing but rather if there is a problem then fix it, don't band aid the situation. That I really like.

 

I guess what I should be asking is at what temperature should I be concerned about the transmission? At what temperature can damage begin to be done?

 

Btw, this guy protocol tests Garret turbos for them on his trucks. He is no chump.

 

Not trying to rain on anybody's parade. (Remember, I am just learning about this stuff and doing that at a snail's pace to boot.) Before a big trip this last July, I was also considering the 6.0 cooler mod.

So, I called John Wood who in so many words expressed that he is no longer so enamored with the 6.0 cooler mod. Since I plan on installing one of his transmissions when [knock on wood (:>)] mine goes out, I found his current perspective on the venerable 6.0 cooler mod interesting.

Which is consistent with the comments by TexasChainRing.

[BTW, the 5:00 hour on Friday of the MichaelBerrySho.com is one of the funniest things that a grown-*** man or a lesbian woman can do for his or herself on the Friday drive home.]

 

Me too, Tim! The end result for us all is we want what's best for our trucks.

 

I under stand, but a larger cooler isn't a band aid, it is fixing a problem. Why did ford increase the size of the cooler by 60% in the 6.0, or in the last years run the trans fluid through the radiator? J.W, and BTS, who have also been in magazines, recomend better trans cooling. Cooler is better (to a point,) look at Pete F 250' post on the affect of temps on oils and fluids. I believe the man works in the industry. Again, just sayin. And I have a JW and a 6.0 cooler.

 

Now this makes the kind of sense I can wrap my head around. Thanks!

 

I'm going to say that these are two entirely different transmissions for two entirely different motors. I believe that the 6.0 has both more HP and torque than the 7.3, correct? For that reason alone the 4r00 was not used in the 6.0, correct? They needed a stronger and more capable tranny to accomodate the more power produced and thus used a completely different transmission requiring more fluid.

the 6.0's transmission is not the 7.3's so no, you are not fixing any problem as there wasn't any to begin with. I believe you are trying to make an apple into an orange.

I did read that post ( a little late but I read it) and while I can understand the information I'm going to have to assume most are wanting a transmission that'll never fail. Good luck with that.

 

Did you read the post by Tim?

 

I am way out of my league here, so I am going to bow out, but John Wood did say to me that, at least in one instance, he found that adding the 6.0 cooler mod. actually increased the temperature of the transmission oil.

Just saying that even though if it is good to keep oil temps down, adding an additional cooler, in a system not designed for it, may not accomplish that goal.

I don't trust hearsay, even my own hearsay. Bec. sometimes I don't hear things right and sometimes I don't remember right. But, I have no dog in this fight, and I know that I was biased for the 6.0 mod when I called John Wood. So, I am pretty sure that I am restating what he said correctly. (But likely there is way more to this subject that John didn't feel he needed to go into probably because of my application, usage, etc.)

One thing John Wood did tell me to do was to ditch the 2wd E350 shallow tranny pan and to put on the 4x4 F350 deep tranny pan and to make sure I also used the 4x4 deep filter. And I thank him for that.

Maybe someone who actually knows John Wood or Brian at BTS could PM them and ask them to share their current thoughts on the 6.0 cooler mod.?

Peace out.

 

It's a balance of getting the fluid up to a reasonable operating temperature (to remove moisture for one reason) and below the point of breakdown of components, both the fluid and the sealing materials in the pistons. The factory 7.3 cooler is just too small based on simple generally accepted vehicle weight to cooler surface area conventions. I don't have any formulas to back this up, but enough experience to know by looking at it it's too small.

The factory cooler has proven to not be able to keep transmission fluid temps down, and the 6.0 cooler clearly makes a difference to that end based on actual before and after temperature comparisons.

With the number of 4r100 failures, and transmission failures in general, along with the correlation of improved cooling to increased transmission life, I would need to see some hard evidence before I believed it was a bad idea.

One consideration against it may be cooler flow. The 6.0 cooler uses 1/2 inch fittings while the lines and ports on the 4r100 are 3/8 inch. However, too much flow or too much cooling can always be remedied with restrictors or thermostats. If you don't have enough cooling, all you can do is stop.

 

It's the same in the field of thermodynamics in the a/c field. Some condensing units now come from the factory with a liquid line filter drier in the unit. Most installers add one externally to the unit so then there's two. The result is a much higher head pressure/temperature.

Even when their filters clog up installer/techs, or rather those whom don't know any better, only replace the external one.

Those manufacturers who install the driers in their condensers are now successfully shooting themselves in the foot as compressors are failing left and right, under warranty. In theory there's twice as much protection, in reality there's twice as much damage being done.