Quote:
Originally Posted by svxfiles
A properly sized ATF cooler is dictated by the climate conditions of the area that the car is driven in, the age and condition of the transmission and fluid, and the manor in which it is driven.
How hot and cold does it get in Corning NY?
As to the mounting Hayden/Imperial ATF coolers come with a "zip cord" mounting system.
I remove the factory radiator, trim some protruding bolts pointing towards the radiator, and attach it to the AC condencer, carefully routing the ATF transmission lines along the drivers side frame rail.
More later.
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It can get pretty cold here. It isn't typical but -20F mornings do happen. The typical January morning is in the 0-10F range. I have been doing a lot of reading online about this subject and the various opinions are dizzying. But I have given it some thought and have come to a couple of theories. First, parallel plumbing makes the most sense with the older trannies/radiators. And, if one were to plumb it parallel one really should plumb in a high capacity high quality cooler. The reason is that a cheap or small cooler in parallel will cause the flow to increase too much and cause the pressure to drop. That lower pressure will push little fluid through the radiator cooler. The majority of what does flow will flow through the added cooler. If it is a low capacity cooler, one might not be any better off than with the radiator cooler and might even be worse off. If both coolers are high capacity, they will roughly split the fluid flow. Since the flow won't increase by much more than 2X, the pressure shouldn't drop too much. Also, if both coolers (old and new) are working together, the old cooler will at least do some heating of the ATF in cold temperatures. Placement might not matter as much in that case.
If one were to put an external cooler in series then I think it may actually be a good idea to put a high quality but low capacity (small) cooler in the system. The reason is that the new cooler will increase the resistance to flow and might cause it to drop too low. Also, a larger cooler will cause air flow through the condenser/radiator/external cooler combination to be more restricted than a smaller cooler. That reduces cooling efficiency. This would seem to be a better option for a newer tranny/radiator that has less of a problem with overheating and clogging to start with. There is little to no concern about clogging like in the older models. The trannies don't run as hot as the older models. A small cooler makes sense and putting it in series makes sense. Where to put it then becomes the question. If it is plumbed prior to the existing radiator then it could be placed in either location. If it is plumbed after the existing radiator then putting it between the condenser and radiator probably is the way to go.
Does anyone know where the ATF cooling lines are on the OEM radiator? I would think that one would want to avoid that area if one puts in a small external cooler. Doesn't make sense to remove heat from the ATF and then use that heated air to try and cool the ATF flowing through the radiator cooler.
With the zip cord mounting system, do the external coolers attach to the either the condenser or the radiator and, if so, which is eaasier?