Tranny Cooler options and mounting ?'s!

[dirtdudeaz]

Ok so I have a buddy with a sandcar. He wants to put a larger cooler for his tranny on the car. The last one mounted beneath the rear seat in the floor with no airflow....(great design the shops had). So I think we should put it on the cage somewhere on the rear towards the top of the car behind the passengers head or something. Does this sound good or no? Would next to the motor on the side, or in the rear work ok too or what? Is there any problems with how high you mount the cooler?

Any comments or concerns are welcome.


Thank you

[1450-ranger]

Our cooler is pretty high in relation to the trans and loves to back fill the trans after it sits for a while.

[DSRacing]

Is this a play car? I would try to mount it as high as you can so it gets as much airflow as possible. Is it important to the owner to have good vision out of the back of the car? I'd also be wary of mounting it too close to any passengers. If you were ever to have a hose or fitting failure, I'm sure they wouldn't want to be bathed in 200+ degree fluid.

[dirtdudeaz]

lol good point. Its a play car yes

[dirtdudeaz]

Our cooler is pretty high in relation to the trans and loves to back fill the trans after it sits for a while.

Back fill?

[dirtdudeaz]

Our cooler is pretty high in relation to the trans and loves to back fill the trans after it sits for a while.

Back fill?

[JONES PERFORMANCE]

Back fill?

thats where the fluid drains out of the cooler back into the trans.

[9Iron]

Back fill?


thats where the fluid drains out of the cooler back into the trans.

Yeah, and with a hi-stall converter(undersize) it finds any way it can to piddle
all over your garage floor...
gives real meaning to: "keep the greasy side down"

[dirtdudeaz]

I also heard about mounting it too high would cause the oil to flow out of the dipstick hole and and push it out.

[mpower]

u could also install antidrainback valves/check valve to prevent the flowback. ive also done this to diff and transfer cooler systems also. you can get the parts at tmr

[1450-ranger]

u could also install antidrainback valves/check valve to prevent the flowback. ive also done this to diff and transfer cooler systems also. you can get the parts at tmr

i thought about it, but would rather deal with the mess every once in a while versus the possibility of a failure...I mentioned the same idea to Culhane and Mogi and both said NOT to do it.

[ffjerm]

Simple fix for back fill.....mount the cooler with the fitting facing up. the lines will drain, but the majority of the fluid will stay in the cooler. This fixed the problem for me....

[DJDIRTWORKS]

i thought about it, but would rather deal with the mess every once in a while versus the possibility of a failure...I mentioned the same idea to Culhane and Mogi and both said NOT to do it.


Often, check valves are flow restrictive, perhaps that's why your tranny guys don't like them? We recentaly had a similar problem with a VW engine oil cooler. The solution was a full-flow-rated check valve. Places that sell fittings and automotive braided lines should have a line on these. Not cheap, however. Oh yeah, the valves have to be able to handle the heat and oil too.

Oh, and the post just before mine about putting the fittings up is excellant advice. In this VW however, it just wasn't possible.

[DSRacing]

Often, check valves are flow restrictive, perhaps that's why your tranny guys don't like them?

That's exactly why. I've also talked to Culhane about this very problem, regarding the drip problem with a C-4. He does everything he can to increase the fluid flow in his race transmissions and as he said to me, "You can let it drip, or install a check valve and pay me to re-build the tranny after every race.

When I come back from a race, I simply drain the fluid as soon as I can.

[RCJoslin]

good info, I had never heard of back fill.