Massive (22" wide) trans cooler installed - pics inside.

[TType84]

Just tossed it in this afternoon.. pain in the ass with the header panel on but i got it in there. Loctite and lockwashers on everything, its not going anywhere.

$105 + shipping from www.bulkparts.com

i will be making longer straps, i dont like how i had to do the bottom ones. need to run up to lowes and get some thicker strap steel.

 

[FlaBoy]

Damn dude, that looks NICE! I bet your tranny is a lot happier too!! Just don't be surprised when some people look at it and think you sold out and converted to an intercooled setup when they see that front-mount sized tranny cooler :biggrin:

 

[Turbo Indian]

I'm not trying to sound like an a**, but one question, WHY. my one Gn went 10.90's all day long with a small 7"x9" cooler & never had any problems. the firebird in my signature has a 12"x12" mounted over the rear axle & it don't get over about 206* with a trans brake. so why waste your time $ & effort installing something like that?

 

[Turbo1dr]

Nice installation! Where's your A/C condenser???

 

[TType84]

I'm not trying to sound like an a**, but one question, WHY. my one Gn went 10.90's all day long with a small 7"x9" cooler & never had any problems. the firebird in my signature has a 12"x12" mounted over the rear axle & it don't get over about 206* with a trans brake. so why waste your time $ & effort installing something like that?

time.. took no longer installing it than any other cooler

money.. the B&M plate cooler I was going to get from summit was $89 + shipping.. bruce's ultimate cooler is $99 + shipping..

effort.. no harder than a standard cooler to install

 

[TType84]

Nice installation! Where's your A/C condenser???

in my garage, lol

 

[Firechicken]

That is a really nice cooler. You can't go too big when it comes to trans cooling.

Its too bad bulkpart doesn't ship to Canada.

 

[Bescurred]

I'm not trying to sound like an a**, but one question, WHY. my one Gn went 10.90's all day long with a small 7"x9" cooler & never had any problems. the firebird in my signature has a 12"x12" mounted over the rear axle & it don't get over about 206* with a trans brake. so why waste your time $ & effort installing something like that?

For a DD street car I don't see whats wrong with this? Cooler the better.

 

[Rocketrod]

For a DD street car I don't see whats wrong with this? Cooler the better.

Definitely. It's cheap insurance.

 

[Turbo Indian]

For a DD street car I don't see whats wrong with this? Cooler the better.

street driving is a lot easier on a transmission than racing is. TType84 is the one that said it was a PITA to install. my question was if it's that much of a PITA why install it on a 13+ second car? you are not building enough heat to warent it unless you are sitting one the line for an extended period of time. all I'm saying is the $ could have been spent else where, where it could have been able to help performance, IF quicker is the direction he wishes to go in.

 

[FlaBoy]

street driving is a lot easier on a transmission than racing is. TType84 is the one that said it was a PITA to install. my question was if it's that much of a PITA why install it on a 13+ second car? you are not building enough heat to warent it unless you are sitting one the line for an extended period of time. all I'm saying is the $ could have been spent else where, where it could have been able to help performance, IF quicker is the direction he wishes to go in.

The way I figure it is this:

Lets say he spent, I dunno, $40 more on that cooler vs. a smaller more normal sized one like you use (just picked that figure outta my head, I imagine the price difference is a lot less). And lets say installing it where he did for better airflow vs. installing it where you did over the axle, or someplace easier took an extra 2 hours (again, realistically I imagine the difference would be less). I think an extra 40 bucks and 2 hours is a pretty small price to pay for the extra cooling. Would his trans have been fine with a smaller cooler? Sure. But if this cooler and this location makes it run even slightly cooler, thats going to mean that the fluid is going to last slightly longer, and provide slightly better protection. If you strectch that out over the life of a transmission, I think taking that negligible amount of extra time and money to be SURE makes eprfect sense. With my car, do i NEED the extra cooling provided by an aluminum f-body radiator and dual electric fans? Nope. Could my car have run just fine with no overheating with a v8-gbody rad and stock fan, or small single elctric? sure! But was it worth the extra time and money to know for a FACT that i don;t have to worry at all about my car running hotter than it needs to? Definitely!! As for your contention tht the time and money could have been better spent on making his car faster... what mod do you know of that costs 40 bucks and takes 2 hours that would make ANY noticeable performance increase? Then compare that negligible increase to the gauranteed gains in increased transmission life due to a cooler fluid, and I think it makes perfect sense. Lastly, if you still disagree (as is likely, I know chances are that this post isn;t going to change your mind, thats just the way huimans work) keep in mind that this is his car. If he's proud of his work and this it was worthwile, then more power to him. I'm kinda glad we all have different opinions on how best to build these cars. It gives us all more ideas to go off of when we deciude to mod ours. Now if someone down the road NEEDS a big-a$$ tranny cooler, and does a search, they'll ahve some useful ideas on how to install one

PS, not trying to argue or put-down here, or anything negative like that... just trying to show another point of view that maybe you hadnt considered

 

[TType84]

street driving is a lot easier on a transmission than racing is. TType84 is the one that said it was a PITA to install. my question was if it's that much of a PITA why install it on a 13+ second car? you are not building enough heat to warent it unless you are sitting one the line for an extended period of time. all I'm saying is the $ could have been spent else where, where it could have been able to help performance, IF quicker is the direction he wishes to go in.

Selective reading man.. pain in the ass with the header panel on, as is anything up in that area, not a lot of room. As for the 13.6, that was with a jay carter chip and 17psi, like 5 years ago.

Tt has quite a few more things done to it now, I just have no time to take it to the track.

As I said, Bruce's cooler is $99+shipping. B&M's cooler is $89+shipping. This one was 122$ to my door because the company is about 4 miles from my house. ~$10 doesnt pay for my lunch, so please enlighten me as to how I could have spent this money better

 

[84gnguy]

nice install and that is one sweet 84 t-type type you got there..
Nice ET too

 

[DeltaT]

Nice car.

Why did you install the cooler upside down? That is the worst position for a tranny or oil cooler, because it's always trying to drain by gravity. You might end up only using the bottom few rows of the cooler. Also you can trap a large bubble of air in there that keeps the fluid out of a major portion of the cooler.

Right side up is best. Sideways is OK if you use the bottom hole as the inlet. Then the fluid just about fills up the cooler before it leaves, with no possibility of a bubble.

Sorry, but I want to see you get the most out of that beauty!

Jim

 

[TType84]

Nice car.

Why did you install the cooler upside down? That is the worst position for a tranny or oil cooler, because it's always trying to drain by gravity. You might end up only using the bottom few rows of the cooler. Also you can trap a large bubble of air in there that keeps the fluid out of a major portion of the cooler.

Right side up is best. Sideways is OK if you use the bottom hole as the inlet. Then the fluid just about fills up the cooler before it leaves, with no possibility of a bubble.

Sorry, but I want to see you get the most out of that beauty!

Jim

havent even hooked it up yet, but yeah you make a good point.. i'll flip it around

 

[turbojoe]

cooler install picture from gnttype.

 

[85HOT-T]

I'm not trying to sound like an a**, but one question, WHY. my one Gn went 10.90's all day long with a small 7"x9" cooler & never had any problems. the firebird in my signature has a 12"x12" mounted over the rear axle & it don't get over about 206* with a trans brake. so why waste your time $ & effort installing something like that?

If he is running a T brake bigger is better

 

[85HOT-T]

cooler install picture from gnttype.

If you have a new torque converter, I have been told to run a dedicated cooler cause mettal shavings get caught in the stock cooler. Good insurance.

 

[GNVYUS 1]

Money well spent as hopefully your clutches will last that much longer due to the lower temps your bigger cooler will send back to the trans.

Great pic on the tranny cooler TurboJoe, I was going to comment on that very issue.

 

[Turbo Indian]

If he is running a T brake bigger is better

look at his signature do you really think he's using a T-brake?

If you have a new torque converter, I have been told to run a dedicated cooler cause mettal shavings get caught in the stock cooler. Good insurance.

you can do 1 of 2 things. #1 there is a cooler flush you can buy that is an aerosol can or #2 you can have a radiator shop replace the cooler in the radiator.