Over the last few months I have been doing a ton of work on Betty. Today she finally got to do a little work. I picked up my new home, a 36 foot toy hauler that I will be living in while on the road for work. I built the flat bed, to haul the trailer but time caught me and I still have some toys that need installing. Today I learned a few things: 1. I need to install the Hydra Chip I got from PHP. 2. The new gauges I got from RiffRaff need to be installed soon because I have seen the wiring the previous owner used and I do not trust the trans temp gauge at all. 3. I want to upgrade to an aftermarket trans cooler system with a thermostat and fan. my question is when can i find the time to do these last few things? LOL And where is a good place to find a trans cooler set up that is both effective and affordable since I have spent a crap load of money lately and I need time to recoup some funds before my next expensive upgrade. I would have a great pic of the awesome flat bed and camper but I have no clue how to post one!

 

IMO just replace o/c with a 6.0 o/c. Will do you a great job and it is affordable.

 

I have a 6.0 transmission cooler and it will definitely keep your transmission fluid temps down.... maybe TOO far down. We have the great fortune to have a retired Ford transmission engineer (Mark Kovalsky) as a member here, and while he has not tested one, nor even held one in-hand, he has confirmed that the transmission was designed to run about 170°F. With a 6.0 cooler, you'll almost never see that.

That sounds good at first, but then when you consider that any moisture that works its way in to the tranny won't burn off. You'll also not have the tranny working at top efficiency because it will never fully warm up so that is a source of lost MPGs (potentially, though very likely). When I first installed my 6.0 cooler I noticed about a 1mpg drop. I was on a cross-country drive that I had done several times already in the truck so I knew what was normal. In my experience, the 6.0 cooler also cost me 1mpg consistently, though I will say that without it, I might have cooked my tranny on one particular trip.

The current "solution" is a transmission fluid thermostat. I installed one, but haven't had time/opportunity to go on a long drive to get fully up to temp, but others have, and have not had an issue.

I did have issue with the crap fittings that came as part of the kit. Here's my "overall" recommendation:

1. Source a good, used 6.0 transmission cooler
2. Get a Derale transmission fluid thermostat WITHOUT fittings (if possible)
3. Go to Ace or Home Depot, etc. and get (2) 3/8" NPT to 1/2" barb fittings, and (2) 3/8" NPT to 3/8" fittings
4. Acquire 6' of 1/2" transmission cooler hose
5. Acquire 4' of 3/8" transmission cooler hose
6. Get GOOD quality worm-gear or fuel-line clamps for all fittings
7. Get enough fluid to do a full transmission flush

Now, when you add a 6.0 cooler on to a 4R100, you have a line size mismatch. The 4R100 uses 3/8" hose to the cooler, the 6.0 (5R110) uses 1/2" hose. With the Derale thermostat, you can use it to adapt between the line sizes, which is what I've done on my truck.

It has a number of pages, and some info from Mark Kovalsky (Ford transmission engineer) but is well worth the read for more info on the Derale thermostat (LINK)

Feel free to PM me and I'll gladly give you a call to chat and give you my experiences, and maybe a little BS'in' thrown in for fun...

 

i have not had my 6.0 cooler long, but i see 155, i hope this is not killing my trans?
it gets hot here in the summer 100* do i still need the Derale?

 

Matt, I wouldn't think so..I run the 6.0 cooler and tow a quite of bit and have seen 200f only a couple of times.. Usally 170-190