I usually buy the biggest trans cooler I can. On my 88 run a 160 thermostat, think the Performer has a 180, it will stay in. I think a 180 is a good compromise and some leeway if problems occur. With no fans and the small grill openings my 88 hits 195 and beyond. With the larger grill and no A/C condensor in the way, his Olds 350 should do fine.
If you bypass the internal ATF cooler, you must run a larger external ATF cooler. Liquid to liquid heat transfer is much mord efficient than liquid to air heat transfer. That is why most external ATF cooler manufacturers recommend using an external cooler inline with the factory internal cooler.
If you are swapping from a V6 to a V8 motor, you need a rad that is sized for V8s. You also want a 195 degree tstat to extend engine life. No need to run engines so cold.
As I said before, liquid to liquid heat transfer is much more efficient while liquid to air heat transfer is highly inefficient. It is why you feel colder in water than out in the air even if both are the same temp. The water or liquid pulls heat away at a faster rate than air or gas can. Because of this, liquid to air coolers have to be much larger than liquid to liquid coolers, its comparing Apples to Oranges. Also, the internal cooler helps to warm up the ATF faster for less cold temp wear. The drivetrain wears the most when its cold, once things reach normal operating temps, they wear very little. The main purpose of coolers is to prevent heat spikes, not to run components colder than they were designed for. Remember conduction, convection, and radiation.
Same here, and I make sure to install either a plate and fin design or a stacked plate design rather than a tube and fin one. The plate styles are much more durable, are more efficient at cooling the fluid, plus they allow easier air flow through their core (which makes life better for the radiator behind it).
When I did my V8/4L80E swap, I installed a new radiator for the engine. I did not use its internal trans fluid cooler. Instead, I installed the largest external cooler I could find, measuring 12" x 12". I made sure to mount it out front where it could get plenty of air flow, and also made sure it was situated so that the radiator fans would pull air through it at low speeds. Thanks to my EZ-TCU trans controller, I can monitor the trans fluid temp at all times. To date, I have never seen the fluid temp go higher than 165^, even in summer heat above 100^ ambient. I feel pretty good about that.
(This is an old photo; I have since removed the black brace to expose the full cooler core.)
Yes, I have almost always bought the stacked plate style for the same reasons and usually the 12×12 as well. I actually run one even on my 4x4, supposedly it bypasses most of the remote cooler at extreme temps, so I run it through the rad, since I run it in -40. Of course being an old Dodge it has to be left in neutral to get any flow through the trans.
i hate to hijack this thread, but i was at the yard today i notice a lot of truck /car with tran cooler. is it worth taking a cooler from a salvage car to fit a g body if so what model / year car /truck should i look for
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