I have a question that may have been addressed here before but I can not find anything on it. I'm building a 27 T coupe with a 350/350 combo and I was wondering about tranmission coolers. First of all if I add a tranny cooler under the car on the frame will it be enough to keep the tranny cool? Second I have been told that some guys have just added a finned tranny pan with no other cooling device and it was enough to keep the tranny cool, is that true? Thanks for the help
Lots of variables, if the engine is mild and the converter is stock, you can get away with little or no trans cooler, but you probably want to change the fluid more often (it gets dark and smells burned when it gets too hot). With a high stall torque converter you need a good cooler, you can put a big one with a fan on it under the car.
I would be leary of not running a cooler of some kind. But if you are pretty much stock a cooler underneath should do the trick. Just my opinion.
Are you planning to racing it at the strip? A finned pan usually (not always) is for a larger capacity of fluid which will help too, to a certain degree. I have also seen pan designs with tubes welded in the bottom of it that are open on the outside (for air to pass through). Yes, they work. Now the (extra?)cooler location is important for the obvious reasons but that will most definitely help in lower your temps. Before I would go to all that trouble I would gauge it to find out if you have an over heating problem at all. I also would also consider an inline filter for the clutch/metal/crap debris, cheap, for what it does.
The cooler the trans fluid, the longer the trans will last, and the better it will perform. Hardly traditional, when I had my radiator made by Gary Portell I had him put a trans cooler in the bottom. I put a deep aluminum pan and external finned cooler on the C4 trans as well. The bottom of my pan is the height as the front axle and engine oil pan............... You want to keep the trans fluid at or little higher than your engine coolant, although trans fluid does not burn at 212 degrees F, it will start to break down. As someone else said, without a trans/multiple coolers you will need to change the fluid on a very regular basis. IMHO
Mounting on the frame is fine ! I built a little scoop for mine and put it in front of a hole in the frame for air flow. Pumbed it with steel braided hose.
On my T-bucket I ran mid '70's Ford power steering coolers, very compact. I ran one on inlet and one on outlet of trans cooler lines along with the radiator cooler for warm up as the fluid can run too cold also and creat issues. IIRC ideal trans fluid temp mirrors coolant temp for best operation.
I run one of those B&M aluminum coolers in front of my radiator so when I'm in traffic, there is air being pulled across the cooler. Engine runs steady temp and the trans works perfect even in cold weather. good luck
I have run no cooler and up to a 12 quart system with a huge cooler. If the car is street driven with no stall squirrel is right as usual. One of my O/T cars I race has a Ford power steering cooler for the trans. I have checked trans temps with all systems and unless something was wrong internally the temp ran about the same as the engine water and oil.
I have run a 15 inch frame-rail cooler on a TH 350 with stock converter and shift kit for 50,000 miles with no problems. 3,000 lbs vehicle.
For a street driven hot rod one of the double pass ones everyone sells are fine. I had one on my 23, mounted under the crank pulley, and my Son has one on his T bucket, mounted along the frame rail under the body. In 4 years of use there has never been an issue, and my Son is running a 3000 stall convertor. After a long drive you can put your hand on the cooler and the transmission and they are just warm to the touch. Don
I ran a medium cooler tucked up under a Model A coupe above an AC condensor for 16 years with no problem. Must not take as much air flow as people think.
I don't know of a transmission vendor who would warranty a failed tranny if it didn't have a tranny cooling system. It's better to be safe than sorry. I not only run a tranny cooler on all my vehicles but also a trans temp gauge. Check this chart out.
I run coolers on all 3 of my vehicles, and none of them are hooked to the radiator. One of them was isolated when the trans was rebuilt in 1982, and is behind my 427, with 2300 stall converter. It's still in great shape and not been rebuilt in 30 years. I prefer having the coolers separate from the radiator myself, as I don't get any excess heat from the engine that way.
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