Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Im picking up an auxillary auto trans cooler tomorrow to help relieve the radiator from having to cool the auto and the engine.

ive done a few searches and people who have fitted the aux coolers seem to do it two different ways.

they either disable the factory cooler, which runs the oil through a heat exchanger in the radiator tanks, and just plumb up the aux cooler, mount it out front of the radiator and forget about it, or

they run both the standard trans oil cooler and the aux trans cooler.

i dont have an after market oil temp guage and am a bit concerned now that relying upon the auxillary cooler alone may return higher temps than the standard set up.

anyone got experience with this ?

Just run it through your new cooler.

Kyle

fitted the cooler up, will plumb it up this week when i find the time

Working on the Datsun. You should be ashamed.

let me know the out come...im gunna do this too.. everyone i spoke to just said tap into the radiator line rather than run seperate.. radiator will cool when slow work and cooler will cool at speed...made sense to me..what do u think?

i think what im going to do is get a temp guage set up first, measure the temp of the auto as is, then run the aux cooler alone, measure the avg temp and if on avg its cooler, then ill just run the aux cooler and leave the radiator alone to simply cool the engine.

ill keep you posted

this is how i set mine up. It takes up the entire space in front of the radiator ( same side as yours) so its prolly 50% larger again. I have not bothered with the standard cooler, and just hooked up the new one. I saw a 20degree drop in auto temp, and the engine temp will only go above half when I am towing a car trailer with the 1100kg zook, and all my camping gear up cunninghams gap on my way to rover park. Otherwise its cool as a cucumber.

Well worth the $$$. Also worth looking at a coverter lockup. This will further reduce the auto temp. With the lockup switched on, and the cooler up front, I have NEVER seen my auto go about 70 deg. 90% of the time it is 50 deg. or under.

Hope this helps.
pete

Would starting and running in freezing temps not mean that the fluid would be too cool if you by pass the original thermal unit in rad.
Alex

Just a suggestion but I would not mount it thru rad. Make some brackets acreoss to side panels and centre support.
Seen those mounts youve got eat thru tubes on rad on a 4 bee.

Bazzle

I've just installed a cooler & guage in my vehicle two weeks ago (tb42,auto). Here is how I was told to do it by the supplier of the cooler. Hope it helps.

1. Mount the cooler through the fins of the ac condenser on the driver side of the radiator (like the photo above) with 5mm thick rubber spacers to hold away from the condenser (grill still fits without mod).

Cooler size is 220 x 180 x 19 thick.

2. Plum the aux cooler to be supplied in series by the existing cooler (in radiator) and then return to the transmission from the aux cooler.

I used the existing return hose from the existing cooler to supply the aux cooler, looping it under the front of the radiator. I then used a new piece of cut length hose to return from the aux cooler to the return pipe. My supply and return ports on the aux cooler are on the bottom.

3.The guage takes the temp from the exit port on the transmission.

I was told for my particular vehicle (tb42,auto) I should expect the transmission temp to run between 65-85 deg C. which it seems to do. I drove around in suburban peak hour traffic on a 38 deg C. day last week and it got to 90 deg C. I haven't towed with it yet so I can't tell you anything there.

It was also recommended that I use dexron 3 or Nissan transmission oil. If the fluid temp reaches 150 deg C your to pull over and let the car idle in park until the temp drops below 100 deg C. Do not switch off the car as this just locks in the heat.

MEX

Thanks mex,

So let me get this right, you installed your aux cooler in series with the og cooler right ?

I need to pick up a temp guage before I finish the job, what brand is yours ?

Is it a t-piece set up ?

Thanks again

THATS CORRECT.

OIL FLOW IS:
TRANSMISSION - EXISTING COOLER - AUX COOLER - TRANSMISSION.

TEMP GUAGE IS A VDO GUAGE. I BOUGHT MINE AS A KIT WHICH INCLUDED THE WIRING (4 WIRES: IGNITION, EARTH, DASH LIGHTS & TEMP SENDER) AND THE COOLER UNION (INCORPORATING TEMP SENDER).

THE COOLER UNION REPLACES THE ONE SCREWED INTO THE TRANSMISSION AND HAS A THREADED HOLE FOR THE TEMP SENDER.

MEX

THATS CORRECT.

OIL FLOW IS:
TRANSMISSION - EXISTING COOLER - AUX COOLER - TRANSMISSION.

TEMP GUAGE IS A VDO GUAGE. I BOUGHT MINE AS A KIT WHICH INCLUDED THE WIRING (4 WIRES: IGNITION, EARTH, DASH LIGHTS & TEMP SENDER) AND THE COOLER UNION (INCORPORATING TEMP SENDER).

THE COOLER UNION REPLACES THE ONE SCREWED INTO THE TRANSMISSION AND HAS A THREADED HOLE FOR THE TEMP SENDER.

MEX

awesome, looks like ill be giving VDO a call.

SORRY, SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE CLEAR.

I BOUGHT MY TEMP GUAGE KIT FROM WHOLESALE AUTOMATICS.

www.automatictransmission.com.au

quick update,

i called wholesale autos in vic and instead of buying 'the kit' i ordered a replacement union/bolt for the trans oil outlet on the auto.

(they drill and tap an original piece to accept a particular VDO sender.)

all i need now is the VDO sender and gauge, and the time to do it, and it will be done.

i put a body lift in the other week also, and will need to lower the rad back down to get some objective results.

i'll take readings of the auto oil temp with the standard cooler

the auto oil temp with the supplementary auxillary cooler

and the auxillary cooler alone.

and whether all this hassle helps keep the engine cooling in check.

Finally did some towing on the weekend.

Camper weighs roughly 1200 kg loaded and the trans oil temp was consistently around 90 deg. C when cruising at 85-90 km/h on the flat (Bruce hwy). Oil temp would rise to as much as 120 deg C when climbing a grade (depending on the length and steepness if you didn't let the speed wash off as you climbed. This would then decrease to 90 deg C again by the bottom of the grade once you had gone over the peak. If on the other hand you let the speed wash off as you climbed then there was very little increase in oil temp.

The engine coolant temp was conciderably cooler. My standard dash guage used to run at about 10 degrees above horizontal minimum when towing, now it is horizontal when cruising on the flat and rising to about 10 degrees above horizontal on the above mentioned climbs.

Generally I'm happy with how efficient the cooler runs but I would be more comfortable if I could reduce the top temps when climbing. I thought a way of doing this would be to increase the oil capacity of the system by putting a larger diameter pipe or small tank on the exit side of the transmission before the cooler incorporated in the radiator. If there is more fluid capacity it should take longer for the fluid returning to the transmission to get to a dangerous temperature.

What do you think

MEX

get a coverter lockup from rodney at wholesale autos. Its great for towing. I have auto LWB with aftermarket cooler and lockup switch, and it NEVER goes over 90 degrees. Thats when I am towing 2ton of car trailer, suzuki, and camping gear for 4! up cunninghams gap

Around town it runs between 50 and 70, and on a cool night it doesn't even register on the gauge. ( gauge starts at 50)

Pete

Gutless wrote:get a coverter lockup from rodney at wholesale autos. Its great for towing. I have auto LWB with aftermarket cooler and lockup switch, and it NEVER goes over 90 degrees. Thats when I am towing 2ton of car trailer, suzuki, and camping gear for 4! up cunninghams gap

Around town it runs between 50 and 70, and on a cool night it doesn't even register on the gauge. ( gauge starts at 50)

Pete

i reckon the lock up kit is the way to go for the heavy stuff, but if the temp is below 50, is that such a good thing ?

i read that the oil temp in the trans gad to be about 60 degrees for the auto to shift into overdrive. this was in the gregorys gq/mav maitenance book.

i still havent got around to pluming up my aux cooler or temp guage yet, been flat out, but want it in for a run up the coast at easter,

good to hear the engine temp is down on average Mex, there is hope !

im organising to get my radiator lowered back down after the body lift so i can re-fit the lower part of the cowel and ensure the fan is pulling through the right part of the rad etc, and just to eliminate other reasons why she may be running hot.

mine shifts into O/D about 30 seconds after I start it... Never had a problem with it not going into O/D when auto running cold....

Except the old auto. But it never actually went into O/D

quick update, my bus is in the shop today (pro 4x4 in brookvale) getting a new viscous hub and fan (my hub worked ok, but the fan was badly cracked and looked like it would self distruct)

chris is also plumbing up the auto cooler to work independantly from the rad trans cooler(he reckons its plenty big to cool my auto, he runs a TH700, rockwell axles and 49in swampers and his cooler is about the same size !

hes fitting up the gauge also so ill be able to keep an eye on it.

heading up to tuff truck this weekend, will let you know how she goes.