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Best Place to Put a Transmission Oil Cooler

From past cars, I learned that high transmission fluid temperature kills a transmission fast. I will be using my auto Geo Tracker for slow off-roading. I am trying to figure out what is the best way to install a transmission cooler.

Is it better to put the cooler in front or behind the radiator? There is 1-1/4" between radiator and engine fan. Is that enough? There is plenty of space inside the engine compartment. I would prefer to install it there. Is is ok to put a cooler there along with a fan. Will that provide enough cooling air. Need some advice please.

Ben

Reply to
Benjamin Lee
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The best place to put the tranny cooler is in front of the radiator because it draws cool air through the tranny cooler using the radiator fan to provide the airflow. If you put it in the engine compartment, you'll need to put a fan on it. It would make more monetary sense to just put in front of the radiator.

-Bruce

off-roading.

Reply to
Bruce Chang

ditto on putting in front of radiator. if you put the cooler behind the radiator, it will be sucking the hot air off the radiator instead of cool fresh air. you might force a couple degrees into the radiator when you do this, because the new cooler will be much more efficient then your stock in-the-rad-tank version

Reply to
MudPuppy1976

There is a little bit of doubt over which mode of installation is preferable: series or parallel with the in-radiator cooler.

The arguments might be that the series installation could give lower final temperatures, but the parallel may facilitate ATF throughput.

My first one was installed in series. I might not do it that way again.

Reply to
Larry Smith

Most vehicles come from the factory with the extra cooler mounted in front of the radiator (when they have one). So that will be the easiest and most efficient place assuming it will fit. Some people like to completly seperate the fluid from the radiator. I like to run it through the additional cooler first, and then through the tank cooler for a year-round car. If it's pretty cold out, then the cooler will keep the fluid too cold to operate correctly. Running it through the tank will provide additional cooling OR it may warm the fluid up, depending on what's needed. Your radiator is thermostatically controlled, but your oil is not. Even though it should be. I believe that's the way my Dodge is routed.

Reply to
.boB

for an older vehicle, i would suggest taking the OE cooler out of the loop completely, especially if you are worried about coolant getting into your tranny, which is a HUGE problem.

if you're putting this cooler on a newer vehicle or if you are replacing the radiator too, then series installation would work great.

however, parallel installation would not ensure you are getting the full cooling capability of the new cooler.

Reply to
MudPuppy1976

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