3rd gen deep transmission pan

to a certain degree you still want SOME heat, so you are correct. If you live up north then it might not be a good idea unless you are towing or only during summer months.

 

We are not talking about lower temps during idling in traffic or normal driving, we are talking about towing. Sure pinning will lower temps in those situations, once again not the topic at hand. OP wants more cooling, for towing - pinning won't help much on a hill when the torque converter is absorbing 30+ hp of waste heat, for that you need more cooling capacity.

If you want numbers for pinning - it provides roughly 30 seconds of thermal buffer, then right back to the same temp as non-pinned. That is assuming a 160F initial temp you reported, 250 lbs of transmission with 40 wt% aluminum and 60 wt% steel, and waste heat at 30 hp (15% of 200 hp).

Edit: It's probably half that time now that I consider such a short duration won't have the entire thermal mass of the metal to use due to the lag of the energy getting from the torque converter to the internals and case.

 

I have not actually towed anything with the truck yet. I just got it a couple weeks ago. In the spring I plan to purchase a smaller enclosed trailer to haul our sport bikes around (not my wife lol @Bishop84 ). I scrolled threw the insturment panel and did not see a temp gauge for the trans, do these have a facotry temp gauge that I am missing? That was another thing I planned on installing was a trans temp gauge. The larger cooler I will definitely be adding but maybe I will hold off on the pan and just see how it does. I am also considering installing a larger aluminum radiator. I know heat kills (so does running to cold) so I want to take as many precautions as I can. I would rather make changes before getting anything to hot, rather than wait to see what gets hot and then make changes.

 

IMO you're over thinking this just hookup and go. Plenty of people do and have no problems. Just change the trans oil and filter often

 

But the heat prior to the t-stat opening isn't bad.

I'd say pin on a cross country haul, but daily driving, fucking never.

 

It has both a pan and torque converter temp sensor. Unfortunately neither is accessible directly, scanning tools like scangauge or ultragauge are stand alone options. The other is a generic bluetooth OBD tool than can relay to an app on your phone like torque or obd fusion.

 

My biggest concern is getting the trans hot towing uphill. We live in MI but plan to tow the bikes to TN now and then and other places like FL for bike week and such. So going threw the moutains towing a trailer does concern me on over heating the trans. I know like others have said to me outside the forum " why didnt you just by a Tundra". Granted I do like the Tundra, my dad owns one and so does my uncle and my boss, they are great trucks but I dont the the styling of them as much as the Tacoma and other than pulling a small trailer with 2 bikes that weigh about 1k together I won't be towing anything larger to need such a large truck and if I do I just borrow one of theres lol.

 

it’s not for everyone. I’ve had mine pinned since 30k miles, but I also live in a warmer climate so I’m not concerned with it. Just hit 100k the other day. Haven’t had any problems. Never once checked the fluid, coupe be low who knows, but will be doing a couple drain/fills soon.

 

We have 2 different Snap on scan tools at the shop, but not sure the boss would be ok with be taking one while on a trip lol. But I like the idea of the blue tooth OBD tool.

 

Tacoma is well suited for towing something light like a couple motorcycles in a trailer. If you search around you will find posts for upgrading the cooler - this one for example: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-transmission-cooler-upgrade.482280/ That one also has the scanguage for temperature.

This post as the obd tool: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ure-pids-for-torque-pro-and-now-apple.513531/ and another upgraded cooler as well.

 

Awesome, thanks guys for all your help. I problem am over thinking it and being a worry wort. But the last thing I want to do is fry the transmission, I would rather put a little money in adding some cooling then take the chance of over heating it.