transmission cooler

[ZEUS]

I have been doing a lot of towing lately so I hope anyone who figures out a good mod will post up! The lower gears in my VX help tremendously but the tranny could definitely use a cooler. I just towed 2000 lbs of stuff after all! And BTW, running a quality synthetic ATF should help keep things cool as well - just my opinion, I have no proof. Speaking of tranny mods though... Tone offers that in-line filter for the tranny. Would it be possible to run a cooler off of that somehow?

[dkmiller68]

I installed a tranny cooler a couple of years back. There are several sizes (capacities). What is going on is that you are adding a small radiator that mounts (typically, and in my case) onto the front of the radiator (in my case the lower drivers side). The kit was about $60. The tranny fluid lines that goes to the existing cooler in the base of the radiator are tapped into and the new cooling unit is connected "in series". There is a preferred flow of the oil into either the new cooler first or second...the instructions will guide you.

My unit is about 5 X 8 inches. I do not have a tranny oil temp gauge but do get a good feel (pun intended) for whats going on just by touching the shift lever. You can tell warm from hot.

[Chopper]

they are sometimes mounted under the vehicle by tapping into the fluid lines in an out of the way spot. You won't get as much airflow, but this is an enhancement to the existing setup. It's not handling the heavy work, just stripping off a few calories before the charge enters the main radiator. Easy job...hour or two tops.

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

I installed a tranny cooler a couple of years back. There are several sizes (capacities). What is going on is that you are adding a small radiator that mounts (typically, and in my case) onto the front of the radiator (in my case the lower drivers side). The kit was about $60. The tranny fluid lines that goes to the existing cooler in the base of the radiator are tapped into and the new cooling unit is connected "in series". There is a preferred flow of the oil into either the new cooler first or second...the instructions will guide you.

My unit is about 5 X 8 inches. I do not have a tranny oil temp gauge but do get a good feel (pun intended) for whats going on just by touching the shift lever. You can tell warm from hot.

Many years ago I owned an '82 Pontiac Trans Am that was the first year for the "knight rider" style of car. The first year had inadequate air flow through the front nose plus the darn trannie lines going to the radiator core and the return line back to the trannie were routed almost touching the Y-pipe exhaust. The fluid would get too hot just on a joy-ride.

After experiencing a transmission failure...I decided to install a cooler. The above quote is right-on with what I remember. The instructions in my kit had 2 options for installation.

option 1: connect cooler to front of radiator (simple install) and plumb both transmission lines directly to cooler thus eliminating radiator from the equation. The transmission is now cooled entirely by the cooler you installed.

option 2: connect cooler to front of radiator (simple install) and plumb it in series with the stock radiator.

option 2 was the method I used as you are still using your stock set-up but, now the cooler is providing auxilary cooling. My set-up was as follows: The hot transmission fluid was sent into and out of the stock radiator and then into and out of the transmission cooler and back to the transmission.

My Trans Am went from having fluid too hot to touch on the dipstick to just luke-warm. Hope this helps.