thanks for that info unreg.. it will give me something to research and something to discuss with him so he doesn't have ALL of the upper hand..

would swapping the entire valve body for a new one, and that new one having a shift kit cause any undue stress to an aging tranny do you think?

 

I finally have all the parts and pieces to do the cooling/remote filter/ deep pan project.. They are sitting on the workbench staring at me..

So is the truck.. staring at me that is.. It wants to know precisely what I have in mind, and doesn't much appreciate it when I approach with a drill and self tapping screws in hand.. So far, the truck has lucked out- and here is why:

the Derale heat exchange is something like 17 3/4" x 12" or something close to that. There is not a single place, that makes sense, to put it.. It has at least a 1/4" tube that passes eight times through the fins/frame.. The OE exchange hiding out on the front of the radiator is bigger, and designed MUCH better.. It must have two dozen passes through, and MUCH smaller passages that go through a distributor system inherit to the exchange.. That bad bear stays and that is all there is to that..

remember now, my truck has a third gen dress on over her 2nd gen everything else.. So, the grill is split something like 75/25, Radiator to A/C.. w/ a/c on the right as you face the truck.. The derale exchange is too big to fit over the a/c exchange and still have freedom to put an un-kinked hose to it..

bye bye notion of additional heat exchange for the tranny... I'm back to just the deep pan and the remote filter now.. At least I'll be able to do a check delete on the truck in the mean time, and the deep pan and filter extender.. But then I discovered this:

the exhaust cross over pipe runs directly in front of the pan.. those little derale designed cooling tubes in the pan will feed HOT **** air through them.. I have a choice, either dump the idea of the pan, or exhaust tape wrap the crossover tube..

I have a couple rolls of exhaust wrap in the shop- that is a good thing.. question I have is this: Does exhaust wrap insulate enough so that using it won't super heat the tranny juice in that 'vented' pan?

dang it.. why can't things be simple?

 

It will help, but it might cause you are rotted out crossover as it'll trap moisture right up against the pipe. Even stainless pipe won't last forever.

You'd be surprised at how quickly the heat dissipates when your moving though.
At stand still, there ain't no air flowing thru them thar tuber thingies anyhow.

If you have a remote cooler just hook it up somewhere and let it dissipate what heat it can with minimal flow. It'll still radiate some heat. You can always run a smaller efan on the cooler and mount it wherever it'll fit.

 

I have that derale pan, and the aux tranny cooler (stock). My tranny temps never get above 149.

When on the highway, your tranny will seldom get over 125, even when hauling (I just moved at the end of april from arkansas to Indiana).

When you get off the HWY and then get into stop and go driving, then the temp soars to about 140-150.

You should have just gotten the derale tranny pan. Because that thing REALLY cools tranny temps (even with the crossover right in front of it, when you are traveling fast, it is not a big deal)). You will get great cooling with that setup you have, but you will never really know WHICH thing is doing all the cooling. I would bet that just getting the derale pan would make you happy.

NOTE: My temp gauge is in the bung on the derale tranny pan. So the fluid is probably 20 degrees higher on the line going into the radiator.

Also, am i the only one here that thinks that the grill of our trucks flows more air that a ram air hood would? I think that tranny cooler with the fan was not worth it, because the stock cooler in the stock location probably would get more air.