So I finally haul my 5th wheel over one of the worst mountain range highways in my area and as I expected, the trans temp light came on but I was quite close to the top. The climb is about 25 kilometers long and is a notorious engine/tranny killer. I have the stock trans cooler. So I guess my choices are to add another cooler orreplace the stock with a larger one. I talked to another guy with a Ram and he said that he upgraded the pan and left everything else stock.Anyone have anyadvice?Thanks

 

I have tried 3 different trans coolers, and found that it took a much bigger cooler then the stock cooler to really make any difference in temps. So the stock cooler you have isn't doing much. Check out the cooler I am running (see link in my sig for pics). It's rated at 32,000 GVW. It is the only size that I found to make any real difference in temps. OEM size coolers made virtually no difference at all.

My suggestion to you would be to get a cooler with an integrated fan. They have the best peak cooling ability (i.e.cooling when you need it the most, like when pulling that big climb). Most of the other coolers (like the stock cooler) work best for keeping normal operating temps a little cooler, but once you start to heat up, they can not keep the temps down anymore. A cooler with a fan is better at this. I recommend Flex-a-lite.
http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/html/remote-mount.html
Here is the one I am going to be getting.
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...p;autoview=sku

The larger pan would help too. Maybe also consider by-passing the radiator completly. It does a good job of heating up your trans fluid before it gets to your aux cooler. This is not an option for everyone though, escpecially if you live in an extremely cold climate in the winter (you want the radiator to warm up your trans fluid in those climates).

 

Silver_Dodge,
I was reading on an RV forum the other night where one guy argued that it is better to keep the tranny fluid going through the radiator and that it does not warm up the tranny fluid. Here is the link: http://www.rv.net/forums/index.cfm/f...d/19599565.cfm

I know you are running two temperature sensors for your tranny on your truck. I was just wondering what experiences you had in measuring the temperatures in the two loactions. The link above does give good infomration relating to the initial question in this post. That site is pretty good for anyone who is towing, although it isn't specifically for Dodge trucks.

 

Silver_Dodge, that cooler is really nice, where are you going to mount it?

 

I think it definetly does heat the fluid, but I have never tried bypassing the radiator to know for sure. The temp of the fluid I see in the pan is almost always proportional to the engine coolant temp minus the amount of cooling the cooler is doing. In other words, I have found that my cooler can keep trans temps 25-30 degrees cooler then normal. So when normal conditions would have had the trans fluid measure in at 180 degrees, I see 155 degrees. But when the engine temps go up by 10 degrees, I see my trans fluid temps also go up 10 degrees from 155 to 165. I definelty think the two are related. Or, it could be the opposite is happening. In otherwords, since my trans cooler is so big, and sits in front of the radiator, maybe an increase in my trans temps results in hotter fluid running through the cooler, which then causes an increase in my engine temps as it pulls in that hotter air into the radiator.
Probably the onbly way to know for sure would be to bypass my radiator and us only my aux cooler. May have to try that someday, but I think going with the thermostat controlled cooler could answer the same question for me.


Probably in the space next to the radiator on the passenger side. It would allow good airflow while moving in addition to cool air when standing still (for the fan to pull in). Since I no longer have a FIPK filter getting air from that space, I don't mind putting a cooler there.

 

An aux cooler with a temp switch to activate an electric cooling fan. Mount inside the frame rail and give it the juice. Then you also add a switch in the cab so that when it's towing time, you've already had the fan running, cooling fluid.

A double deep pan is a HUGE bonus. Buys a lot of extra pullin time. Takes longer to heat up that much fluid. And since it doesn't get as hot, the coolersare much more efficient at disipating heat.

If you're a serious tower, I would consider some tranny upgrades if you have none at this time. Shift kit, heavy duty multi disc tc, hd clutches, etc. A dodge tranny is pretty tough. They will do what they are designed to do if you keep fluid temps within a certain temp range. Today was almost 90 degrees where I live. My tranny never climbed above 165. At that temp I can go 150,000+ miles on the same fluid.

Havingt your tc lock up at a lower speed is also a plus. As soon as your tc locks up, tranny fluid does nothing at this point where it builds any heat. Infact the fluid cools during lockup.


There's a lot you can do to make ur Ram a towing beast......lol.


All depends on how much escarole you wanna spend.


Good luck with you ride.

 

I had a discussion with my tranny builder, Billy from Dr. Evil Transmissions who owns patents on some of the parts in Dodge transmissions http://www.dreviltransmissions.com/about.html, about keeping my new tranny cool and here is what he stated:
[ol][*]Always run your tranny fluid through the radiator and not just an external cooler because in regular day to day driving where you are sitting in traffic and at stop lights, the external cooler does nothing for cooling. Now that being said, I would suppose that if you have an external cooler with an electric fan you could bypass the radiator as you would be pushing air through the cooler.[*]More fluid = cooler temps. I have an extra deep pan on my tranny that takes 4 extra quarts of fluid. More fluid takes longer to heat up thereby giving you better cooling.[*]Put as big of a transmission cooler as you can on when you put one on. You will never be sorry for the added cooling capacity.[/ol]
Hope this helps.

 

I agree with all the above. Only comment I have about extra capacity pans though is they can be a double edged sword. More fluid does take longer to heat up, but more fluid also takes longer to cool down. If you get into an overheating situation, and you have more fluid, it will take longer for your cooler to get the overall fluid temp down. I run a 2qt extra capacity pan myself.