Transmission temperatures

Yes, the cooler adds capacity to the system.
The amount of increase is not important except when buying fluid.
There is no need to prime the cooler, it is installed in the return line to the trans pan and is self purging if installed correctly.

As for how you described the fluid path. If you retain the radiator cooler as you mentioned, it will be radiator in as oem, radiator to cooler lower fitting or in my case either top fitting, cooler upper fitting, or possibly second upper fitting as mine is to oem return line.

If your truck has the towing package cooler, you will go radiator, then towing cooler top port into second cooler lower port or either top port.

As for having a fan setup, that adds complexity. My setup could get more moving airflow had I made a deflector to direct air since some of my coolers airflow is blocked by the bumper. Even so, it has never been a concern.

I did try and keep the added trans cooler kind of close to the ac condensor hoping the oem fan would draw air over the trans cooler when not moving. Seems to have worked.

 

I just pulled up the Mishimoto website and looked at those trans coolers. Most if not all are tube and fin style coolers. While these can add some cooling, they are not near as efficient as a tube and the temp drop is little if any.

The style cooler to buy is a stacked plate type. These are known as efficient and can cool much better on account of the amount of surface area the fluid sees and how the fluid passes through the cooler at the same flow rate but is slowed down because of the flow area.

Personally, I would avoid the Mishimoto universal trans coolers and that syle cooler.

Mishimoto does offer engine oil coolers in stacked plate design. Also, I noticed some of the specific application stuff from Mishimoto uses stacked plate coolers in those trans cooler applications.

I will say, the Mishimoto stuff must be really good seeing what they charge for it.

 

I pulled the records and found I installed a Tru-Cool M7B cooler in my Tacoma. This chart gives an idea of cooler requirements and efficency. The M7B is listed towards the bottom.

http://www.trucool.com/products/tru-cool-lpd

The Derale company or the Long company offer similar products.

http://derale.com/

Tru-Cool and Long brands are pretty much identical and I think are made by Dana.

 

I do not have the towing package.

I like the idea of the fan because I may decide to mount it lower behind the bumper so you can't see it behind my open grill.

I do not want to totally bypass the radiator because my winters do get very cold and the trans fluid going through the ide of the radiator helps heat up the trans fluid faster so it gets to operating temp sooner

 

They have a bit of a nice mark-up.

Also look at Earl's Performance (Holly) and Setrab ( if you want to go all Italian Exotic car related or racecar)

 

The transmission cooler is on the cold side of the radiator. It will actually prevent your transmission from warming up in the winter. If you want to warm your transmission up, you need a thermostat in the atf cooler lines to bypass the cooling loop and send atf back to the transmission until it needs cooling. When the ATF warms up sufficiently, the thermostat will open and allow the fluid to go through the coolers. The majority of the heat produced by a transmission comes from the torque converter. In the winter here in KY I can't usually get my transmission to go over 100°F.

 

Le sigh. That makes things more expensive. But it also eliminates the need to use the ATF chamber in the stock radiator. Which simplifies running the lines

 

Consider that if you do not run a tube and fin type cooler, the plate style coolers have a kind of built in temp control. On an older truck I would no longer make a pass through the radiator. The fluid flow is pretty quick, and the converter generates heat quickly.

 

I don't fully understand the differences in coolers...

This is what i am looking to run:

http://m.autoanything.com/drivetrain-differentials/mishimoto-transmission-oil-coolers

 

How much more does the aftermarket trans cooler stick out and does it go any lower than the factory cooler? Maybe a pic looking down...I'm concerned about room back there.

 

Took a look at Setrab coolers, and my gosh those are things of beauty. Mishimotos are looking so overpriced

 

How many race teams use Setrab? Compare to how many use Mishimoto.

Which one spends more on advertising......starts with an M.

 

Lol I catch the drift ......Race teams and high end OEMs using Setrabs. Any specific online retailers that you know of that distribute them in the US? Got a whole list of em from their website.

 

Tube and fin, not the way to go.

If you do a simple search of tube and fin vs plate and fin, it will school you about cooler.

Also some catalog pages explain how plate and fin types are more self temp regulating without add ons, unless you need a specific temp.

 

Never heard of Setrab, if you check the link I gave for Tru-Cool, these same coolers are made by Long and sold under that brand also. They are part of Dana Corp and build many coolers for oem and race teams. No doubt there are more heavy duty units but these work fine in my opinion.

If I was building a full on race truck, I would consider a fully welded cooler.

 

The coolers lower mount is the oem lower core support. Two drilled holes were added. The upper cooler mount I fabricated. May have drilled two holes for it.

The one clearance issue was the aluminum tube for the AC freon. I had to reposition it slightly, by bending by hand about 1/2" so it did not rub the cooler.

 

I don't actually. I have a friend who works at an exotic shop, and got it from him. They are not cheap coolers, by any means....

 

So tube ones flow too fast for the fluid to cool efficiently?

Thus its need for a fan.

 

FWIW, go plate and fin type, keep it simple and avoid the fan.

Tube and fin type, looks like a refrigerator...

 

Truth