Which transmission cooler?

I also have the 24,000 GVW stacked plate cooler with the fittings, works great. I also got it cause it was self regulating as opposed to the old tube 'n fin style....

Chythar said:

"Cool thing", huh? Bad pun. Heh, I'm not using the OEM setup anymore; I went aftermarket cooler 'cause I fubar'd up the stock tranny cooler lines when swapping my tranny.

My concern would be bumper-to-bumper traffic. I nearly overheated the engine on a hot day recently - I was in stop-n-go traffic for about a half-hour. (I already know I need a new radiator). The tranny cooler was warmer than usual, but still not too hot to touch. Will the tranny coolers ever get as hot at a stock radiator?

Thanks for your opinion, I always respect and listen to yours. Honestly.

Click to expand...

Eddie summed it up nicely. It's like our radiators - you can have a stocker or the hugest one in the world. Until that t-stat allows fluid to circulate, the size matters not. The big boy just cools things down more quickly once up to temp.

And given what you said about your extended idling (which is when my trans temps creep up), that's another reason to go big. FWIW, even when my trans temps are creeping up, I can still touch my cooler and lines. If you can view PIDs, there's one for TOT as I recall (someone correct me if I'm wrong. I know that's true for 4th Gen camaros but I think I'm right on our stangs as well). You could also infer temps with a DMM on the TOT wire, or using an IR thermometer (the IR is how I check my inlet vs outlet temps).

Speaking only from personal experience, with a stand-alone cooler your trans fluid should not get hotter than the coolant (we know you wanna keep trans fluid at or under ~170*F). With only a stock heat exchanger and no aftermarket cooler, trans fluid can get hotter than the coolant. Variables like radiator size, driving style, fan thresholds, etc play into this as well.

WHile we're on this subject (I like it when the auto guys like Eddie, you and the other guys get a thread going), you might want to add a remote filter if you're going to be screwing with this stuff. I didnt when I did my cooler but should have; I still need to.

All of this said, if you already have a cooler, just try and check temps and see if it's sufficient. If so, you save some cash. If not, you can swap the coolers and then put this smaller one in another car (with a Magnefine filter on the outlet side of the cooler).

Sorry for the ramblings.

Good luck.