Bad Trans Cooler Mounting

No, you don't want to do this..... mount a tubular finned trans fluid cooler tucked up under the car on the frame connectors, out of the airstream and a few inches from the exhaust. My son's car came this way and the trans temps registered 220-230 F on the interstate at 70 MPH in OD.....not good at all.

We pulled this cooler out, and put a simple Hayden Rapid-Cool type up in front of the rad and AC heat exchanger, plumbed after the radiator cooling loop, and now the ATF temps are around 175 F under the same conditions (as instrumented).

Note that the temp sensor was (and still is) after the cooler(s) so is not all that indicative of the internal trans fluid temps. But the actual trans fluid can't be cooler than after the cooler, which means the internal trans fluid temps previously measured were HIGHER than 220-230F. We'll eventually move the trans temp sensor to the pan to see the internal fluid temps for real with the new setup.

In the previous setup, was the trans just routed to the cooler or the radiator and the cooler?

First to the loop in the rad, and then to the fluid cooler.....er, fluid heater LOL

Now it goes first to the rad loop and then into the cooler in front.

Wow some peoples kids. Why even add a cooler and waste your money.

You're gonna want to do a complete fluid change on that truck if you haven't already.

^^^ It doesn't smell burned at all, or have any discoloration; only a few k miles on the whole car since I believe this was put in. But that's not a bad suggestion. 'twould be a good time to move the temp sensor too.

Header wraps may be in the offing too, to manage the underhood and undercar temps better for several reasons.

Like a radiator, transmission coolers (a radiator) need to be in the direct airflow to get the maximum benefit from them.