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Last year hit 252 climbing a mountain now may need to take the same route towing 8k. What are the latest options? Need something reliable don’t care about the cost. Should I install a thermostat? My truck does fine with the stock size cooler 99 percent of the time. Also if you upgrade the cooler is it worth bypassing the mini cooler in the radiator at that time.
Thanks
A 6.0 cooler will make a world of difference over the stock 7.3 cooler.
Get an OEM 6.0 cooler wether it be 26 row or 31.
or get a dieselsite 40 row cooler.
No, you do not want to bypass the radiator cooler
If you bypass the radiator cooler, plan for stops along the way to cool the trans. You'll overheat it for sure
I bypassed the radiator with the 6.0 cooler, before a new Radiator was installed.
I have towed over 8000 lbs, over 6,000 miles, over Loveland pass once, and through Albuquerque twice, and it did not overheat.
This trailer went over Loveland Pass to my home, and a few months later, to my son's home in Dawsonville, GA, and the TFT never exceeded the EOT. The Dump trailer was loaded with a load of pig iron from the farm up in Utah, it was Heavy....
Price, UT to I-70 thru Kansas to Tulsa, OK to my home, then a few months later to Dawsonville, GA
and this is the highest TFT that I have ever seen.
I never tow over 70 mph, that is for brave hearts with a big Wallet.
I bypassed the radiator with the 6.0 cooler, before a new Radiator was installed.
I have towed over 8000 lbs, over 6,000 miles, over Loveland pass once, and through Albuquerque twice, and it did not overheat.
This trailer went over Loveland Pass to my home, and a few months later, to my son's home in Dawsonville, GA, and the TFT never exceeded the EOT. The Dump trailer was loaded with a load of pig iron from the farm up in Utah, it was Heavy....
Price, UT to I-70 thru Kansas to Tulsa, OK to my home, then a few months later to Dawsonville, GA
and this is the highest TFT that I have ever seen.
I never tow over 70 mph, that is for brave hearts with a big Wallet.
If I remember correctly, you tow in direct or third gear, so you must have the big wallet! I'll tow in overdrive when conditions permit to save fuel. Just gotta use the noggin to determine when you need to downshift. Not picking on you, but I feel like you've wasted a lot of fuel if you truly tow every load in 3rd. I'll agree with you on not needing the radiator cooler. Never seen my trans temp as warm as you displayed in the pic. I truly think the only reason Ford reintroduced the trans radiator cooler was because of consumers mistakes while towing. As Caterpillar calls it, Operator Induced issue. How do I know this you might ask. Because I receive texts from the uplinks on each and every piece of Caterpillar equipment our company owns every day. Honestly, we must have at least 20-25 pieces of Cat equipment. As you've probably heard before, common sense ain't to common any more and it's certainly true! But, I will say that you err on the side of caution when towing which isn't dumb.
Having worked as a cooling engineer in automatic transmission cooling at Ford, I have some insight into this.
Ford eliminated the in tank cooler when the Superduty launched in the 1999 model year. Transmission cooling was a DISASTER. Many, many transmissions were burned up and replaced under warranty. It was so bad that Ford reintroduced the transmission cooler in the radiator in February, 2000.
You guys that tow on the freeway, and especially ones that replaced the not so good stock cooler with a 6.0L cooler, usually won't see a problem. Those that tow in stop and go and do a lot of backing really need the radiator cooler.
Having worked as a cooling engineer in automatic transmission cooling at Ford, I have some insight into this.
Ford eliminated the in tank cooler when the Superduty launched in the 1999 model year. Transmission cooling was a DISASTER. Many, many transmissions were burned up and replaced under warranty. It was so bad that Ford reintroduced the transmission cooler in the radiator in February, 2000.
You guys that tow on the freeway, and especially ones that replaced the not so good stock cooler with a 6.0L cooler, usually won't see a problem. Those that tow in stop and go and do a lot of backing really need the radiator cooler.
If I have to back up very far at all I have severely screwed up and that’s on me. Ford had to cover all the most idiotic circumstances that could possibly occur, thus they reintroduced the trans radiator cooler is my logic. Not bad logic on their part, but evidently necessary.
If you bypass the radiator cooler, plan for stops along the way to cool the trans. You'll overheat it for sure
I've got 3 trucks all with 6.0 coolers. One does not run through the radiator and temps pulling the same weight over the same pass are the same. IMHO and experience the routing through the radiator isn't necessary.
The truck with flatbed scales almost 10K. Trailer, Tractor and Cutter are 20K. 6.0 cooler keep the transmission 173 degrees in 90 degree weather this weekend.
I've got 3 trucks all with 6.0 coolers. One does not run through the radiator and temps pulling the same weight over the same pass are the same. IMHO and experience the routing through the radiator isn't necessary.
Much of Texas is relatively flat land.
The OP reported experiencing elevated transmission temperatures (252°F) in the mountains, and ONLY in the mountains. Apart from the mountains, the OP otherwise reported that "my truck does fine with the stock size cooler 99 percent of the time."
Experience in states not known for significant mountains may not mirror the experience of the OP's driving environment.
Popular cottage industry purveyors in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and other southern states come up with various deletions that seem to work just fine in those states. Yet Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Canada, and California (apologies for even mentioning California in the company of those other fine states... ahem... there's a third joke hidden in there somewhere) present more challenging operational environments.
That the 6.0L oil to air cooler is as effective as it is, can be attributed to the team at Ford that Mark Kovalsky was a part of for the 5R110W. And despite being on the team that validated a fantastically effective oil to air cooler, even Mark emphasizes the importance of the oil to water transmission cooler in the radiator. (Mark did not work on the 4R100, nor with the 4R100 cooling "genius" responsible for making the tenuous case to remove the OTW cooler in 1998, only to restore it again in 2000, due to rampant transmission failures without it.)
Keeping the Oil to Water transmission cooler in the radiator in tact is STRONGLY advised. I changed radiators in order to have that OTW cooler. I only run a V10 oil to air cooler, as the smaller V10 cooler isn't as tall as the 6.0L coolers, and as such, does not block the front face of, nor reject it's heat into, the charge air cooler. The oil to water cooler in the radiator enables me to run the smaller V10 oil to air cooler, which is still larger than the original 7.3L oil to air transmission cooler.
The OP reported experiencing elevated transmission temperatures (252°F) in the mountains, and ONLY in the mountains. Apart from the mountains, the OP otherwise reported that "my truck does fine with the stock size cooler 99 percent of the time."
Experience in states not known for significant mountains may not mirror the experience of the OP's driving environment.
Popular cottage industry purveyors in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and other southern states come up with various deletions that seem to work just fine in those states. Yet Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Canada, and California (apologies for even mentioning California in the company of those other fine states... ahem... there's a third joke hidden in there somewhere) present more challenging operational environments.
That the 6.0L oil to air cooler is as effective as it is, can be attributed to the team at Ford that Mark Kovalsky was a part of for the 5R110W. And despite being on the team that validated a fantastically effective oil to air cooler, even Mark emphasizes the importance of the oil to water transmission cooler in the radiator. (Mark did not work on the 4R100, nor with the 4R100 cooling "genius" responsible for making the tenuous case to remove the OTW cooler in 1998, only to restore it again in 2000, due to rampant transmission failures without it.)
Keeping the Oil to Water transmission cooler in the radiator in tact is STRONGLY advised. I changed radiators in order to have that OTW cooler. I only run a V10 oil to air cooler, as the smaller V10 cooler isn't as tall as the 6.0L coolers, and as such, does not block the front face of, nor reject it's heat into, the charge air cooler. The oil to water cooler in the radiator enables me to run the smaller V10 oil to air cooler, which is still larger than the original 7.3L oil to air transmission cooler.
I should have mentioned my observations come from towing all over the USA not just here in flat land Texas. We've pulled through CA, Colorado, New Mexico etc where the grades a long and steep and some times you cant even get a run at it due to switch backs. A good portion of these trips I've had 2 f350s in tow pull 10K RV fifth wheels. Both trucks are set up exactly same with the only exception being the trans cooler NOT plumbed through the radiator on one truck. I can promise the temps on both trucks were the same. We have ham radios and can communicate back and forth. In stop and go hot Texas heat, temps aren't an issue either.
The 6.0 cooler is remarkably well designed and does what its supposed to no matter how it is plumbed in the truck. By no means am I advocating deleting the oil to water transmission cooler, but I certainly wouldn't be going out of my way to add it if I had a a truck that came from the factory with out it.
that just correlates to my experience towing with the 6.0 cooler in my Excursion w/o the radiator cooler hooked up.
I have never seen the TFT get even with the EOT.
3 trips to Utah and back, and one trip to Georgia and back, make that twice, once empty and once towing the big Dump Trailer loaded with pig iron.
