Thread: Auxillary transmission cooler?

what does this do besides keep me cool? worth 90$? worth anything?

You will find a lot of varying opinions on this. I am and have been of the belief they should be required on all automatics. I have the GMPP axillary cooler and it, even as small as it is, dropped my tranny fluid temps about 15 - 20*. You want to keep your tranny fluid temps in the 170 - 180* range as much as possible as it extends the life of the fluid and your transmission. Anything over 200* and the fluid begins to break down fairly rapidly and is not good for the transmission as a whole.

Originally Posted by keenan00gtp

what does this do besides keep me cool? worth 90$? worth anything?

its worth its weight in gold when dealing with a GM transverse transmission

best investment you could ever make for it

especially if you sit in traffic or drive around town aimless

I LOVE my B&M <24000GVW Transmission Cooler.

Good investment, to protect your investment. As long as its installed correctly, and you use good quality parts, you should never have a leak, or be stranded on the side of the road when a hose blows off like what seems to happen to many, and as to why many say its "not worth the risk, and to just change your fluid more often".

I still change mine once a year, at the start of every year to just to keep an eye on things inside you normally would not see. Like the build up on the magnet...nice to keep an eye on this over the life of your transmission IMO.

I have had mine installed on my car since 2001, and have not had a leak, or one single issue from it. For my hoses to and from it, I'm using stainless steel braided FUEL line from Summit. Nothing special, and works just fine with no break down of the rubber inside, as its well over rated for this use I am using it for.

~F~

I should have moved this one earlier to the tranny section, but it slipped past me.

I am running the GM cooler. Pieced together cost me about $60. Works great, like scotty said.

Originally Posted by GR8racingfool

For my hoses to and from it, I'm using stainless steel braided FUEL line from Summit.

Can you show what you did to attach the stainless line to the transmission?

The only thing holding me back from something like this is that the tranny needs a certain temp before it will engage TCC lockup. On a cold morning with no heat from sharing the radiator with your coolant, I wonder how long it would take to warm up to its preferred operating temp, or if it would stay there?

I never really see tranny temps over my coolant temp anyway. So I don't feel I need it yet.

Ah, those again. Same type thing used for fuel lines?

There is definitely temp related values. The temp sensor isn't in there for ****s and giggles. I remember the quote you're referring to from Trannyman about the big diesel.

If I remember right, the TCC won't engage lockup unless above like 80* or so. I remember experiencing this first hand a couple winters ago when I would let my car idle to warm up temp before driving. The trans would not engage lockup until several miles down the road since it was still cold, and I believe Trannyman said that was a feature.

Shouldn't be a problem for me at all, but I have to wonder about some who live up north. I also thought I saw that setting in my Powrtuner somewhere.

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

There is definitely temp related values. The temp sensor isn't in there for ****s and giggles. I remember the quote you're referring to from Trannyman about the big diesel.

If I remember right, the TCC won't engage lockup unless above like 80* or so. I remember experiencing this first hand a couple winters ago when I would let my car idle to warm up temp before driving. The trans would not engage lockup until several miles down the road since it was still cold, and I believe Trannyman said that was a feature.

Shouldn't be a problem for me at all, but I have to wonder about some who live up north. I also thought I saw that setting in my Powrtuner somewhere.

Yes, temperature matters in the transmission. But it is my guess that there is a larger temp area that the transmission will be fine to run in. I would imagine the desired trans temp would be 80°F - 200°F.

My trans TC locks up once the trans temp gets above 77°F, everytime.

Again, just my thoughts, so take it for what its worth. But I think yes, you can get your tranny temp too cold. But as long as your temps are above 80°F and below 200°F, you should be fine.

And I have not found the setting for the trans temp TC lockup in the PT.

Originally Posted by Zef_66

My trans TC locks up once the trans temp gets above 77°F, everytime.

I knew it was around 80*, thanks.

Originally Posted by Zef_66

Again, just my thoughts, so take it for what its worth. But I think yes, you can get your tranny temp too cold. But as long as your temps are above 80°F and below 200°F, you should be fine.

True, but like I said I have to wonder about anyone living far north. How warm do you think the tranny can get in sub zero temps with its own cooler?

Originally Posted by Zef_66

And I have not found the setting for the trans temp TC lockup in the PT.

I was confused. It wasn't a PT setting I remembered, but something in the GM SI manual about the transmission's operation.

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

True, but like I said I have to wonder about anyone living far north. How warm do you think the tranny can get in sub zero temps with its own cooler?

Not sure. But I will make it a point to check this winter. I drive an hour to work each way, so I get lots of good scanning time. Recently, I haven't been scanning much. But if I remember correctly from last winter, a 0°F morning, my trans temp stayed around 120°-130°F while cruising on the highway.

But again, I will make it a point to scan and check it on the colder days. It will be much easier when I get my tranny temp gauge installed.

Where are you installing it? Unless its in the tranny pan where the stock temp sensor is it won't be totally accurate to everyone else's readings.

You don't have a way to get the value from the stock sensor?

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

Where are you installing it? Unless its in the tranny pan where the stock temp sensor is it won't be totally accurate to everyone else's readings.

You don't have a way to get the value from the stock sensor?

Not sure yet what I am going to do. I would like to tap into the stock sensor, but not sure if I can do that or not. Haven't looked into it enough.

I have a thought about that. While I dont know of any way to tap into the stock sensor, but since the stock sensor is right inside the side cover on the bottom side of the valvebody, could you not drill and tap the side cover and stick a sensor there and get pretty close to the same reading as the OEM sensor?

Now, if we knew something about the stock sensor and its resistance values, one might be able to match up a gauge to it and then just tap the wiring that comes from the transmission wiring harness connector. I cant imagine that GM used anything special there other than a typical temp sensor.

According to the GM SI manual's description of the 4T65E, the stock sensor is in a spot that lets it read fluid as its being fed from the sump. It's not just chilling in the side cover.