2400cfm trans cooling fan?

[peteco]

Booster,
I just installed a Hayden 526 transmission cooler with fan in my 2006 RT210P with 6 liter engine. I was running hot in the VA mountains on only an average 75-deg day. I had 220-deg on both engine and transmission. I discovered that my van did not have the factory transmission cooler even though the build code said I had it. I presently have a manual switch to turn the fan on when I anticipate or have cooling needs. I have a thermostat but haven't installed it yet as I want to see how I do with just the manual operation.

I also replaced the fan clutch with a severe duty Hayden unit, which should provide better air flow from the engine fan.

I haven't been to the mountains to test these upgrades yet. What results have you had with sealing the airflow bypasses?

[booster]

Originally Posted by peteco

Booster,
I just installed a Hayden 526 transmission cooler with fan in my 2006 RT210P with 6 liter engine. I was running hot in the VA mountains on only an average 75-deg day. I had 220-deg on both engine and transmission. I discovered that my van did not have the factory transmission cooler even though the build code said I had it. I presently have a manual switch to turn the fan on when I anticipate or have cooling needs. I have a thermostat but haven't installed it yet as I want to see how I do with just the manual operation.

I also replaced the fan clutch with a severe duty Hayden unit, which should provide better air flow from the engine fan.

I haven't been to the mountains to test these upgrades yet. What results have you had with sealing the airflow bypasses?

We are out in the Rockies right now, and trying to relate what we see to what we had in th East coast mountains. We also changed the clutch, but with OEM. The highest we have seen is 186 on the trans and 200 on the water. The 200 water temp wpuld indicate the radiator was near capacity and would soon bring the trans temp up because the trans cooler is before ore the radiator ttrans cooler.

The one thing I do notice is that the water temp seems to drop significantly faster when the big load is removed, so that would indicate an improvement in radiator cooling.

I think a lot of the improvement is from the bypass blocking, but can not prove it.

Earlier, I had wondered about how the grill blocked maybe a quarter of the radiator area with the big bar and emblem. We happened to be parked next to a new Chevy three quarter ton pickup, which has a very similar grill, but big bar across the middle was narrower and even had big slot down the middle of it to remove even more blocking of the radiator. Peeking through the grill, it also loked like all the bypasses were plugged, also. Pickups are designed to tow heavy, so this would indicate tthe grill and bypasses are probably both issues.

[peteco]

Earlier, I had wondered about how the grill blocked maybe a quarter of the radiator area with the big bar and emblem. We happened to be parked next to a new Chevy three quarter ton pickup, which has a very similar grill, but big bar across the middle was narrower and even had big slot down the middle of it to remove even more blocking of the radiator. Peeking through the grill, it also loked like all the bypasses were plugged, also. Pickups are designed to tow heavy, so this would indicate tthe grill and bypasses are probably both issues.

Thanks. I also wondered about the grill bar blocking airflow. Looks like it blocks about 40% of the grill opening. I looked for an aftermarket full open replacement but found nothing.

I may try to look at a new truck to see what they have done with bypass blocking.

Have fun on your trip.

[peteco]

Another thing. I had several conversations with a guy that pulls a heavy trailer with his 190. He had an external tran cooler w fan mounted remotely that bypasses the in-tank radiator cooler, along with a higher capacity engine fan. Not sure where he mounted the cooler nor what fan he got, but claims no problems hauling the trailer through the mountains. I would have mounted the cooler elsewhere but couldn't find a good spot for it.

[booster]

Originally Posted by peteco

Another thing. I had several conversations with a guy that pulls a heavy trailer with his 190. He had an external tran cooler w fan mounted remotely that bypasses the in-tank radiator cooler, along with a higher capacity engine fan. Not sure where he mounted the cooler nor what fan he got, but claims no problems hauling the trailer through the mountains. I would have mounted the cooler elsewhere but couldn't find a good spot for it.

You must be referring to BJ. IIRC, he has the trans oil and the engine oil on separate coolers under the van on the frame rails, with their own fans. This can be a big deal for having the water run cooler just from removing those heat inputs. He has mentioned a larger radiator, also lately. He may have gone to a fixed fan, or a very high output clutch, not sure on that.

He lives in Florida, I think, so those setups are probably just fine, but in the north, most manufacturers want to get a little heat in the trans in the winter. Overcooled trans oil apparently can be as hard on things as too hot. That is why the factory option cooler is before the radiator cooler.

I have considered going to separate coolers, but if I did, I would use the thermosatic controlled bypass valves on them. Most are set at 180 degrees, so the oil and trans fluid will bypass the cooler until it gets to 180 degrees, so no overcooling.

[peteco]

You must be referring to BJ. IIRC, he has the trans oil and the engine oil on separate coolers under the van on the frame rails, with their own fans. This can be a big deal for having the water run cooler just from removing those heat inputs. He has mentioned a larger radiator, also lately. He may have gone to a fixed fan, or a very high output clutch, not sure on that.

He lives in Florida, I think, so those setups are probably just fine, but in the north, most manufacturers want to get a little heat in the trans in the winter. Overcooled trans oil apparently can be as hard on things as too hot. That is why the factory option cooler is before the radiator cooler.

I have considered going to separate coolers, but if I did, I would use the thermosatic controlled bypass valves on them. Most are set at 180 degrees, so the oil and trans fluid will bypass the cooler until it gets to 180 degrees, so no overcooling.

Yep. That's who. Very helpful, just like you. He did put in a larger radiator. I could not find a larger 2 or 3 core radiator online. I called a local radiator shop and they said it would be a special order or construction. They said I shouldn't worry about temps to 220 or so. The guy said he has a 2004 Silverado with 6.0 engine and he pulls a heavy race car trailer up the mountains and it gets hot all the time. Has 260k miles. Just regular maintenance. He did say the tranny fluid was smoking a time or 2, and he just changed it out when he got home. So either these engines and trannies are tough or he's hoping I will burn mine up so he can fix it.

I saw the overcooling issue so I kept the radiator cooler. I thought the external cooler is supposed to go after the radiator cooler. I hope I don't have it backwards. I also put a magnefine filter inline. When I had changed fluid and filter and pulled the pan at 60k miles there was a fair amount of metal dust on the magnet. Hopefully that will keep much more of that metal out of the transmission.

[booster]

The info I saw all said add on cooler should be before the rad to prevent overcooling the trans oil. Some even said having it the other way makes it worse than just having an add on cooler because in cold weather the radiator is cooler than the trans fluid, so it cools it some, and then the addon cools it even more.

We just did a climb of 4500 vertical feet in under 10 miles. It was 3rd gear 40-50mph, 63* at the bottom at 5500 elev and 54 * at the top 10K feet. At 4000 feet of climb we had 202 water and 192 trans temps, so I turned on both of the Spal fans. Within 2 minutes we were at 193 water (normal highway temp) and 188 trans. Water temp stayed the same for the rest of the way, trans was still dropping at 183 when we topped at 10K. It appears the dual fans are doing a very good job at this point. Will be interesting to see at higher ambients

[peteco]

Here are the Hayden instructions:
http://www.haydenauto.com/Upload/Hay...il-coolers.pdf

Another site:
Automatic Transmission Oil Cooler - Installation Guide

I do recall seeing some other placement discussions but I thought they converged on putting the auxiliary cooler after the radiator cooler. I see your point also.

How is the factory GM cooler installed?

[booster]

Originally Posted by peteco

Here are the Hayden instructions:
http://www.haydenauto.com/Upload/Hay...il-coolers.pdf

Another site:
Automatic Transmission Oil Cooler - Installation Guide

I do recall seeing some other placement discussions but I thought they converged on putting the auxiliary cooler after the radiator cooler. I see your point also.

How is the factory GM cooler installed?

The OEM, that we used, is before the radiator. That is what got me looking at things, because it was obvious it wouldn't give maximum cooling that way. As I read more about it, I found more and more information on the worries of overcooling in cold climates. Even going back through the radiator, and temps no colder than 35*, I have seen our trans temp stabilize at only about 120*. I thought it would be considerably warmer than that. The thermostats are looking better every day.

[peteco]

The OEM, that we used, is before the radiator. That is what got me looking at things, because it was obvious it wouldn't give maximum cooling that way. As I read more about it, I found more and more information on the worries of overcooling in cold climates. Even going back through the radiator, and temps no colder than 35*, I have seen our trans temp stabilize at only about 120*. I thought it would be considerably warmer than that. The thermostats are looking better every day.

I will have to keep an eye on the tranny temps when it gets cold. Right now driving 60-65 mph level ground at 75* ambient: 190-195* coolant, 140-150* tranny (cooler fan off). Before installing the tran cooler the tran temps would gradually creep up to 170-180* or even 190* at 85* ambient, level ground.

[booster]

Originally Posted by peteco

I will have to keep an eye on the tranny temps when it gets cold. Right now driving 60-65 mph level ground at 75* ambient: 190-195* coolant, 140-150* tranny (cooler fan off). Before installing the tran cooler the tran temps would gradually creep up to 170-180* or even 190* at 85* ambient, level ground.

Those are similar to what we would have in those conditions. The rad is probably right aroud the same 150 degrees then.

[booster]

I have been going through the pix we took while we were out, and found the one of the new Chevy pickup grill.



Compared to the Chevy grill on our van, they even put a big slot right down the middle of the bar to open it up more.





This is a new Savana grill, the older ones were similar, but I didn't find a good pic. This looks to have a lot more clear area.


Might be a decent airflow and cooling improvement.

[peteco]

I had also noticed the Savana probably had more open grill area. Interesting that Savana has a thicker border lip though. Looks better too in my opinion. There are aftermarket grill inserts for the Savana that do away with the GMC logo. Here's one from Summit. That would look real nice on a Roadtrek.

[tlillard23]

I posted in the other thread as well, but thought it was relevant to this one too.

I just sealed up the radiator area by adding some plastic sheeting (heavy milk jug type stuff instead of masticated rubber). I notice a huge difference in the cooling and amount air through the radiator area. The temp sensor on the rearview mirror used to track the intake temperature, fairly quickly heating up and A/C would warm up when stopped/idling. Now the rearview stays close to ambient, while the intake still rises when parked/idling.