Remote mount trans coolers?

[Avery4]

Hello everyone, I am wondering if remote mount transmission oil coolers actually work well when mounted in an area where it would receive little or no airflow other than what the fan provides. I'm fundamentally not too impressed with the idea of using electricity running an extra fan constantly to draw air through a cooler even when the vehicle is in motion. In my opinion, a well designed system should only rely on the fan for cooling at low speeds and ram air would be sufficient to cool it at freeway speeds without the help of the fan, so from an efficiency perspective it doesn't seem too impressive. Also, a the little electric fan just isn't going to move nearly as much air through the cooler as ram air would driving down the highway. In some applications like mine it seems like the best option though since there is no room to mount it anywhere other than in front of the condenser.

Does anyone have experience with remote mount transmission oil coolers? Thanks in advance!

 

[Brian123]

I would probably take some temperatures with an infrared gun. Do you know how hot your trans fluid is in your vehicle?

 

[Avery4]

I would probably take some temperatures with an infrared gun. Do you know how hot your trans fluid is in your vehicle?

Right now my car (2005 Civic) has no trans cooler at all, the cooler I had in front of the condenser started leaking so I removed it and my Mishimoto radiator has no trans cooler. I will not install another cooler in front of the condenser. According to my Glowshift trans temp gauge I am seeing a maximum of around 190 degrees at the supply line, but I am taking it it easy and locking the converter whenever possible (I have a lockup switch) instead of running the crap out of it as I normally do since I have no cooler and don't want to overheat it. If I ran it hard I would surely see way higher temps.

 

[WyrTwister]

Each to his / her own . However , I would install a traditional aftermarket cooler in front of the radiator .

 

[Malo83]

Each to his / her own . However , I would install a traditional aftermarket cooler in front of the radiator .

That's what I run on my 83 Siverado, been that way for the last 30 yrs with a BM temp gauge in the dash. 🌡

 

[Avery4]

Each to his / her own . However , I would install a traditional aftermarket cooler in front of the radiator .

Thanks for sharing your opinion. My concern with doing that is the cooler will block and preheat airflow to the AC condenser and the radiator, reducing their effectiveness. The effect probably isn't huge and may still be better than dumping that heat directly into the coolant like the factory setup did, but either way dissipating the heat by dumping some of it under the back of the car instead of concentrating all the heat near the front of the car is going to be better all around. Besides, I know that I am going to be losing sleep wondering how much AC and radiator cooling capacity is lost if I put the cooler in front of the condenser

Here's the setup I made so far. I built a shroud for a 30 row engine oil cooler a friend gave me and installed a 7 inch puller fan I had laying around. I may end up replacing that fan with something better like a Spal though, it would be a lot less of a hassle to replace it now than once the cooler is installed. I am hoping that this cooler setup works well enough that I can run the car as hard as I want without the trans temp exceeding 200 degrees. Even though I would rather have ram air cooling the cooler when driving at higher speeds, I'm sure this setup will still be a lot more effective than the cooler in the OEM radiator.

 

[Malo83]

Your setup will work fine, as long as you have airflow.

 

[Avery4]

Your setup will work fine, as long as you have airflow.

Thank you. By having airflow, I presume by having airflow you just mean the fan on the cooler running with nothing blocking it from pulling air through the cooler?

 

[Malo83]

Yes.

 

[Chris142]

Thanks for sharing your opinion. My concern with doing that is the cooler will block and preheat airflow to the AC condenser and the radiator, reducing their effectiveness. The effect probably isn't huge and may still be better than dumping that heat directly into the coolant like the factory setup did, but either way dissipating the heat by dumping some of it under the back of the car instead of concentrating all the heat near the front of the car is going to be better all around. Besides, I know that I am going to be losing sleep wondering how much AC and radiator cooling capacity is lost if I put the cooler in front of the condenser



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you are over thinking. You should see the latest trucks. They have several heat exchangers stacked and the AC works fine.

 

[Avery4]

Yes.

Cool, I should be good then. I'm thinking I may as well move the transmission's external oil filter mount to the back too while its apart to get it out of the hot engine compartment. Probably won't help cooling a lot, but it would simplify the routing of the lines and wouldn't be much more work since it will be apart anyways. I will probably get a decent amount of cooling from the extra lines as well, my plan is to use 1/2 inch copper pipes for the majority of the run underneath and 10AN hose to connect the copper pipes to the trans and to the filter and cooler. I would think that would be more than large enough to not restrict flow and should add a little extra cooling and fluid capacity

 

[WyrTwister]

you are over thinking. You should see the latest trucks. They have several heat exchangers stacked and the AC works fine.

Kind of what I was thinking .

 

[WyrTwister]

Will copper pipes / tubing be prone to metal fatigue from vibration ?

 

[Avery4]

Will copper pipes / tubing be prone to metal fatigue from vibration ?

I don’t think so. Any tubing will fail eventually if repeatedly flexed such as if one end is solidly connected to the transmission and the other end is solidly connected to the body (transmission can move a few inches back and forth when shifting, accelerating, and decelerating while the body remains stationary, forcing the tubing to flex), but this won’t be a problem for me since I will be using flexible hose to connect the transmission to the copper pipes.

 

[Lubener]

Had good results with a Hayden which I put in front of the condenser and used along with the internal one within the radiator. I plumbed it between the transmission and the radiator's cooler.

 

[Avery4]

you are over thinking. You should see the latest trucks. They have several heat exchangers stacked and the AC works fine.

Yeah I tend to do that lol. When possible it's definitely better all around to avoid stacking heat exchangers though. The idea is to dissipate the heat by spreading it out over as large of a surface area as possible, not concentrate it by stacking hot pieces of metal that we are trying to cool off on top of each other.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

Where is the cooler going to be mounted? It seems like there wouldn't be much room underneath a 2005 Civic.

 

[Avery4]

Where is the cooler going to be mounted? It seems like there wouldn't be much room underneath a 2005 Civic.

Here's where I put it. It's mounted solid now, just need to run the lines and wire the fan. Hard to tell from the picture, but there's at least a couple inches on the top so the fan can freely pull air through it and it's high enough that it isn't in any danger of getting smashed. My exhaust system and hitch hang down a couple inches lower and don't scrape, so I'm not worried about the cooler. I will let you know how it works and upload more pictures when I finish the install.

 

[R1jake]

I have the same concern as you do with not wanting to put one in front of my ac condenser on my E150. I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do, I have plenty of room under the van and would like to make some type of scoop that would aim fresh air right at the cooler.

 

[Avery4]

I have the same concern as you do with not wanting to put one in front of my ac condenser on my E150. I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do, I have plenty of room under the van and would like to make some type of scoop that would aim fresh air right at the cooler.

If you don't want to put the cooler in front of the condenser I think a setup like this would be a good choice, you would get the added benefit of improved cooling at idle and low speeds too since the cooler has its own dedicated fan. I would definitely mount the cooler so it gets decent ram air when moving. That's what I wanted to do, but there really isn't room for that on my car. Since I was able to mount the cooler so its angled back a few inches I may be able to use some type of scoop, not sure yet. I don't like the idea of totally relying on a fan when ram air could be doing the work