TRD/ Magnuson 4.0 Supercharger Tips, Tricks, and Mods

I don't have an ultraguage.. is the 'lock up' parameter something that even changes? Maybe it is 0 or 1 depending on if it is locked up or not? It should only lock in low-ish loads in 4th and 5th gear, but can unlock in those gears too, and it won't ever lock up in 4low to my knowledge. When locked, the TC and pan temps should be near identical, since the TC is not absorbing any of the energy from the engine and is acting like a fully engaged (not slipping) clutch.

 

I'm rarely ever over 190 and that's with ac on during a hot tx day. Normally I'm between 181-185.

 

Yes, I understand that and when I see the temps are correlated or even the same exact temperature, the TC locked value is inconsistent. Sometimes I know for sure that I'm locked but the value could read either 0 or 1...
I'm just saying that whatever configuration is on the internet/TW for the torque converter lockup value may not be correct and/or the value is not a good insight into whether the torque converter is actually locked.

 

If you want to know for sure, HPTuners VCM Scanner will report/display the actual status of the TCC. You can log without tuning the truck.

 

Ah, thanks. I'll have to pull the laptop out of the closet as I haven't used it in a while since I'm not tuning yet (as self-punishment to change the snout oil before doing so)

 

Just spitballing here, does anybody have bumpers that are air flow efficient? I think a lot of the plated bumpers cut down on the airflow. I remember this one time. I was going up to Lake Arrowhead for a trip and I was chugging along behind some slow work trucks and my coolant temp shot up way high and I'm thinking that although my e fan temp is set to turn on at 180 I wasn't getting enough air flow and it was affecting the engine temp and I assume that it would probably roll over to the trans temp too. This is right after I got the car running with the s/c so I didn't have been any gauges up at the time. I was hoping winter time would save me. Alas I pulled over to cool off. I removed my two side plates on my front bumper skid during my Dyno session and everything has been fine since, no major temp spikes on the road. Trans cooling runs along the side one end tank or bottom of the radiator doesn't it?

 

Good point. I'm curious if a fine-mesh satoshi styled grille causes less air volume or velocity compared to a more porous design.

 

I use a grillecraft open style mesh grille. It's never seemed to cause me any cooling issues.

 

That seems rather warm. Typically my truck runs around 185-187 according to my ultragauge, with the AC on it runs around 190. On hot summer days it will go to 194-200.

It seems warm to me in comparison to how the truck normally runs, but I don’t know what is the max acceptable limit of this motor.
I am on the stock thermostat, csf fj rad, and the big boy spal efan setup from DEO. I do have the hood seal removed but I should probably ditch my splash guards since I do have skid plates so there isn’t a lot of room for air to go. As far as if I am reading convert or pan temp, by the way it acts it makes me believe I am reading pan temp. My ultra gauge isn’t programmed right to where I can see converter temp.
I will have to research and see if someone has posted proper settings to input so I can see both.

Yeah when my truck is hot I didn’t shut it off I would just let it idle and turn the efan up until it sounded like it was going to fly away. I don’t know what the deal was but my trans temp takes for ever to come down so I got impatient since we were so close to making it the whole way up, I let the engine cool then went up and once we got there I left the truck idling for 10 minutes to help cool everything off.

I understand why they say not to do it, I may just replace the factory cooler and leave it setup into the radiator and see how it works in the summer.

 

I think you are on to something here that we haven't touched on. blocking airflow to the radiator area with a plate bumper, winch, etc. The basic fault with disturbing the laminar air flow and velocity pressure that naturally occurs with a stock truck. I really don't think it is related to what kind of grill you have. If you think the grill is a restriction, take it off all together for a drive in the same scenario and report back. Some may be more restrictive to airflow than others, but that is in the weeds IMO. The upper part of the radiator could have some air supplied by the grill itself. But even more of the air in my opinion, needs to come from below the area that the grill opening has. It has to come through the bumper, or under the bumper and up, etc. A plate bumper, coupled with a high clearance custom non vented skid plate, could be blocking a very large percentage of the available air to the lower half the radiator cavity. All the other items, like winch, lights, etc further the problem.

I personally have a 2011 honeycomb grill on my truck, I like its looks and it has a lot of open space.

I think it would be wise to take a hard look at how the air will get to all portions of the radiator cavity top to bottom on your truck. It may be wise and worthwhile to cut some additional vents on the bumper or skid plates, sacrificing some strength perhaps at the benefit of airflow.

Maybe we can compile a list of front bumpers and the trucks' tendancy to run hot? I'd bet that with the sample size we have there would be some correlation. Perhaps we could even just look at internet pictures and get some idea of the airflow vs. protection that the manufacturers are designing in. I guarantee that zero of them have done airflow testing with respect to cooling efficiency...

 

replace not a ton of room and already a ton of stuff up there. not sure both is needed. I may even go direct if i keep seeing issues.

 

I am swapping my plate bumper as well to a hybrid to help with that. weight and airflow were my thinking. The other thing is I do not have issue while driving at speed. Airflow is nice. Its more on the slower climbs or sitting still in host weather when it all soaks in. I did not have any issue with it prior to S/C and CSF etc with the plate bumper. Will check back in after I drain fill the trans with the new trans cooler.

 

You can always bypass the radiator as an experiment, and see what happens. As long as you monitor it (like you are doing) I'm sure you will be fine.

Just let us know the results.

 

Another company that makes good exhausts is AWE. The AFE stuff isn’t great quality on some exhaust stuff

 

Just finished up a drain and fill. Quote a bit came out which was surprising almost 5 quarts. I added some extra to account for the new trans cooler and let is drains. Overall fluid looks pretty good. Some darkness but still very red (was changed last year but had some high heat issues).

Monitoring on the ultra gauge which is the one that I should pay attention to? I think Trans 1 is the TC and Trans 2 is the Pan but either way the lower of the 2 is the important one.

 

I've always paid attention to the pan temp.

 

Not hot out but did a few pulls and hit some hills around town and TC topped around 202 but I could not get the Pan over 180ish in current conditions. I’d say so far trans cooler is helping big time. I’m hoping that the combine mix of it all was a fight that couldn’t cool. Once the trans would heat up it would warm the radiator and keep everything hot.

wasn’t able to trigger the fan (185) so that’s a good thing but we’ll see ok a hot day.

siting at idle after I got back it sat at around 149-150.



also if anyone wants I got my ultra gauge setup for Pan and TC. I was comparing on ODBB fusion but also tie constant is nice.

settings if you have a later 2nd gen.

 

never thought of looking up the lock-up value. The previous note on setting I found in the UG 1.4 guide from the company for the Pan. rather than guessing they seem to have those dialed now which I saw you had. I had not seen that one before. So super high was the TC for sure but even then the Pan was still high.

 

Lower right I think if your facing forward. I cant recall the TW name but another guy picked up some sleeves to help shield heat on those lines coming off the trans and he noted that he saw a mild dro just from that. ill look up the part but going to add that to the mix a well.

 

Yeah, that was @m00seNUckLEz on his IG page for RC Fabrication. His IG post convinced me to do the same to those trans lines near the exhaust.