Trans cooler upgrade

[AKfun4wheelin]

I am going to upgrade my stock cooler. what do you think is the best brand B&M, flexilite, permacool, others?

 

[Stephen S]

I've heard B&M is one of the best because of their well built plate style coolers. There aren't any thin fins to get all bent up when a bug hits it. I've seen a couple of them and they appear to be very well made. As far as cooling capability...I've never seen the numbers for any of them, so I won't be able to help you there.

 

[espnfreak]

I got a B&M, it was a pain to install but it sure is pretty sweet. got it for $50 from summitt

 

[AKfun4wheelin]

what made it a pain to install?

 

[espnfreak]

Ya, the lines that are supposed to hook up to the existing lines on the truck dont have the proper fittings and therefore they leak. So i bought a new connector to fit, but that one was still short. So the cooler was slowly leaking and I thought it was a driveshaft seal that was leaking. So Ford charged me $74 bucks after I took it in to fix it. I would say its worth it though, and since you have a early model explorer the line connections might be different.
Jason

 

[AKfun4wheelin]

I have the factory cooler in front of the radiator so I think it should be an easy change.

 

[aldive]

I am curious - why do you need/want to upgrade the factory unit?

Thanks......

 

[AKfun4wheelin]

I drove down to Tennessee from Alaska three summers ago. I was towing a trailer and slightly burnt the trans fluid. Now we are moving down to the lower 48 possibly to Texas or Arizona. I will be towing the trailer again and I don't want to burn trans fluid this time. Plus I figure if we are moving to one of those states a bigger cooler can't hurt!

 

[FrankRizzo]

I reccommend Fluidyne....

 

[jimbo74]

wow...nice radiators...!!!! i want one of those to acompany me in my truck

 

[Stephen S]

Where are the coolers??

Butt there aren't any coolers in that display.....

 

[jimbo74]

Re: Where are the coolers??

Originally posted by Stephen S
Butt there aren't any coolers in that display.....

yes there are...... they are next to the center of the pic on the wall

 

[aldive]

Originally posted by AKfun4wheelin
I drove down to Tennessee from Alaska three summers ago. I was towing a trailer and slightly burnt the trans fluid. Now we are moving down to the lower 48 possibly to Texas or Arizona. I will be towing the trailer again and I don't want to burn trans fluid this time. Plus I figure if we are moving to one of those states a bigger cooler can't hurt!

I am curious - (1) did you run synthetic ATF? and (2) did you monitor the actual tranny fluid temp?

Thanks

 

[AKfun4wheelin]

It was regular trans fluid. I had it flushed before I left so I know it was fresh. I wasn't able to monitor it other than checking the fluid at stops. There is not a stock gage and I don't have an after market one yet!

 

[aldive]

I wonder if synthetic ATF might be your answer rather than another cooler?

I would switch to synthetic even if you change coolers.

An external ATF filter would be another good option. See the write up by Hank at Dead Link Removed

Good luck

 

[AKfun4wheelin]

thanks for the info on filters! Wish it was last night when I placed my order to summit! Oh well looks like another call hope the wife understands!

 

[aldive]

Another bonus of the filter is that it adds an additional quart of ATF to the system.

Keep us posted on your project.....

 

[AKfun4wheelin]

Good news! because of the time difference summit had not shipped my order yet, so I added the remote filter! Now I just have to tell the wife I bought more parts!
Thanks again for the info aldive!

 

[Marvin-the-Martian]

I put the extra filter on and the extra cooler in series with the existing cooler. My temp gauge jumped up by about a quarter. but after about a month i changed the filter out and you could see the gunk in it that it filtered out. The shifts seem better but that could be wishfull thinking on my part. but between the stock cooler the B&M cooler the condeser then the radiater(sp) I've restricted the air flow a bit. but I figure the tranny is running cooler. Next step is a guage in the second filter

 

[jjue]

I was wondering how well the cooler was working on my '97 Mountaineer so I installed the external filter and an Autometer Electric Tranny Temp guage since it was actually cheaper than buying the Perma-Cool filter with their guage, plus the Autometer guage is better. Anyway, I noticed that my fluid is usally between 150-degrees F on the highway & 180-degrees F in heavy stop & go traffic so far. I can't wait to see what it will be when I move back home next week. I'll probably be pulling a trailer of one type or another at least once a week after I graduate next week.

With the filter, my roommate noticed an immediate difference in the way it shifts, and even more difference with the tranny flush yesterday. I think that along with the shift kit, my tranny will be fine with the stock tranny cooler for now.