RSR

Best all-around setup I can find is to run as follows:

1. Run Synthetic Fluid, amsoil mobil 1 -- higher viscosity at lower temps results in better tranny protection and unlike standard fluid it doesn't immediately exhaust its remaining service life if hitting in excess of 250*F. (Note that greater viscosity makes the effectiveness of the mechanical bypasses like B&M questionable -- is likely to circulate through entire most of the time...)

2. Run a magnefine filter (if your bypass is new, on tranny out before tying into external cooler)

3. Run your setup as follows Tranny Out to Remote Cooler to Radiator Cooler to Tranny In.
This ensures your tranny fluid meets minimum operating temperature for ideal viscosity while also allowing your tranny fluid to serve as a heat sink in the event that your engine coolant is seeing exceptionally high temps.

RSR

Gevo - The stock radiator setup is such that the air will always route through it, even if you add another cooler in front of it. These size of coolers block less than 1/3 of total radiator surface area but even then air temp coming through is such that the air will still absorb more heat... Point being, I don't share your concern, especially if running a 3 core all-aluminum radiator, but YMMV.

Another install option others have done is to route these external coolers between radiators and condensors. I don't think the thick B&Ms would work though, but the thin ones should due to that support bar/bar's width.

Gevo

RSR,
thanks for all that. I hadn't found that other thread you linked.

Also, I have a magnafine filter in line to the oil cooler. And, I do plan on changing the trans fluid again soon to a synthetic blend.

I am seeing that with properly installed shrouds, the clutch fan is able to create a decent suction through the radiator, so perhaps even with the B&M cooler installed in front it will be fine. However, regardless of this, the fact is I can't fit the cooler anywhere in that area. And, the all aluminum 3 core radiator is thicker than stock, so no way to fit the oil cooler inbetween. I am stuck with finding another location.

Admittedly, I don't think the location I've installed it now is ideal. The main clutch fan pulls the warm air and as it pushes it out, a lot of it goes down right over the B&M cooler. Although, the air temp there is probably about 120-140 F so it should still cool the 175 F oil. Today I'm gonna spend some time and do a temporary install of a cheapo 7-inch fan i got, to test the difference. Also, I'm going to fix the oil cooler stud out on the radiator to route it through there as well.

Either way, I'm convinced that I'll need the fan on the oil cooler for offroading since I can't mount in line with the clutch fan.

Gevo

An update on my experience with all this.

So I installed a cooling fan, moves pretty good volume. I don't like the location anymore, it's cramped, and the cooling fan isn't really making a huge difference. Granted, I still need to make some shroud for it so it creates a suction through the cooler and not what it's doing now, barely pulling air through some parts of it. Along these lines, after that shroud if I still get high temps I'll try to block the hot air comping off the bottom of the radiator and over the oil cooler see how that changes things. Also, I fixed my main radiators stub out and routed the oil through there as well. SO, RSR, it's now as you suggested. In the future, I may just mount this at another location, not in the engine bay area (as another member posted above).

Why do I make my life so difficult sometimes.. lol.

I'll post pics of what it looks like soon.

Also.. my temperatures vary a lot, easy cruising at 70mph can be 150 degrees, then in some traffic it goes to a steady 180/190, and on the streets it hovers around 200/210. I need to get a laser thermometer and check the accuracy of the sensor/meter combo.

Gevo

OK, so being the thick headed engineer that I am.. I continued this past weekend to salvage my installation of the B&M tranny oil cooler. I may have succeeded!

The fan I had purchased was a few inches wider than the small dimension of the rectangular B&M cooler. And, I had also mentioned that the hot air that is coming out of the radiator is being pushed down and right over the B&M cooler. This I thought is having a 'small' effect on the cooling ability of the tranny cooler, but the more I thought about it I became convinced that the heat exchange between tranny cooler and atmospheric temp air should be MUCH more efficient when the energy level of the air isn't already very high. So, I did all the work together. I didn't wanna waste to much time making 'perfect' shrouds and the shield, so the pics below are what I ended up with. Not tooo shabby actually.

Sorry for the HORRIBLE picture quality!

This is the piece I screwed and fastened that directs the hot air from the main radiator past the oil cooler then down and out. I cleaned it up a little more afterwords, and it will be hidden from view once the skid plate is put back on.


And, this is the bottom side of the oil cooler with my homemade shroud. In hindsight, I should have purchased one with the fan/shroud. But, in my defense I didn't know it wasn't going to fit in front of the radiator where others were able to install theirs.


And, after radioshack failed me AGAIN.... I got the bright idea to walk over to my parts rig and find a switch that will work. I wanted a switch that has a light to indicate it's on, since at the moment the power is coming from the batter still, before the ignition switch. I will re-wire that when I find and wire up a temp switch. I took the ECT button from the other 4runner, and installed it right beside the temp gauge, looks great.. ok it's a little dirty in the pic




OK, so preliminary results seem to be good. I've only driven it in cool weather thus far. I tried to keep it in the torque converter unlock mode for a while on the hwy and although I saw the temp rise, it only reached about 180. This is without the fan on. Where as before even in cold weather the temp would rise to 210 with torque converter unlocked, and the fan on wouldn't do much. I guess the hot air from the radiator was making a big difference after all. I have yet to test it in traffic on a hot LA afternoon, that's the worst. It would reach temps above 230 regularly. Once I got her running at a good temp range, I'll take RSR's advice and go to a good synthetic blend oil.

Gevo

Well, some good testing has been done by now and the setup is working very well! Only thing I care to do with it now and make everything look better

In the future, I would probably try to find a different place altogether, away from the engine bay, to isntall this cooler.

One thought, the fan doesn't really do much. I will be taking it offroading today and I believe this is where it will be most useful. But the setup is workign very well, the warmest temps I've seen now are still under 200.

Now, I need to do another oil change to better oil. PRicey :/

Gevo

An Update:

I don't like it, for a while it seemed like it was doing well. After a couple of offroading trips I saw high temps again and the external cooler wasn't doing jack. I searched for another area to mount the cooler, but can't really fit it anywhere.

I am thinking once I get my rear spare tire mount on a custom rear bumper, I will use the stock spare tire area to mount a new, much nicer and larger cooling unit.

I just don't understand why the temps are going so high, even in city driving at speeds below the torque converter locking speed ( i believe it was 37 mph?) it gets to 210 deg and has a hard time coming down. Idling doesn't really help either. I'm beginning to think there is something wrong with the oil flow through the admittedly not ideal setup of hoses and such....

What is the oil flow rate supposed to be??? I need to find out and test...

For what it's worth, I don't like this B&M cooler and I don't like the location.

Yotard

I'm running a hayden 777 under the front plastic valence and at first I ran it through the radiator after the cooler and saw similar temps to yours 210-225climbing 180 in lockup. This past summer I bypassed the radiator and now it runs between 150 at lockup and 180 climbing hills. I was up in the Tahoe forest this past week with temps in the 30's and the transmission had no problem warming up to 150. Maybe in places that get below zero need them piped through the radiator or a bypass but not in California.

Gevo

Yes, Yotard, I forgot to mention that! I currently do have it piped through the radiator, and haven't tested the cooler with fan setup on it's own. I will bypass the radiator (CA, yeah.. no sustained below 0's anywhere near here) and see what happens. \

thanks for the reminder

JasonYota

iTrader: (1)

Torque converters build heat. The higher the stall the more heat build up. When it's unlocked that's when its producing heat because it's slipping, when in lockup very little heat is produced.

JasonYota

iTrader: (1)

Do you have a dedicated fan on the cooler? What temp do you have it set at?
A cooler will do nothing if it has no air flow.

Gevo

Yes, I've installed a dedicated fan. I've isolated the hot air coming down ahead of the cooler from the radiator fan above, and that definitely helped a bit. However, still, the fan on or off doesn't help enough to bring the temps down from 210 during slow city driving or slow hills.. or offroading. THere is no auto temp control at the moment, I turn it on myself as the temp reaches 180. (I have temp gauge installed).

I do know how the torque converter works and all that... but i'm coming to a scary thought that perhaps my tranny has some issue that the heat is building up so much? lots thoughts at the moment while trying to figure it out.. insight is appreciated

881stGenRunner

5 speed swap time!

Gevo

Better not be! I've only got 10k miles after tranny rebuild! evrything else works very well.

881stGenRunner

Ha I am just messing with you. I made the decision to go with a manual transmission and it was one of the best things I ever did to my 4Runner. Freed up a lot of power, better mileage, more fun to drive, and offroad is great.

I don't blame you for wanting to make it work though. I wish you the best of luck with it.

Gevo

thanks 881st...
Well, I love manual tranny's. My 2010 Audi A4 is a manual.. everyone think's i am stupid for doing that because it's such a nice car... psshhh Southern LA people have no clue what they are missing..

Perhaps one day a manual will make it's way onto this thing... I hate torque converters! (although the nerd in me loves the engineering behind it )

881stGenRunner

Me too, my 2001 4Runner i my DD and it is auto. SOOOO boring. Cars like your Audi are meant to have manual transmissions! They are way more fun to drive.

The entire manual swap cost me about $800-$900 back in the summer of 2008 and took 1 Saturday to complete. The only thing that was truly a PITA was installing the clutch pedal bracket and clutch master cylinder.

nortonian

Great timing on this thread. I was just about to post a question on wether there was an aftermarket cooler that would work. I found a cooler in the junkyard but the fittings on the hoses are too rusted to use.

Gevo

Hi there.. There are a lot of threads that came before this that would be helpful to you. If you go back one or two pages here, other forumers have linked conversations related to this. goodluck.

As for my continued efforts... I took the radiator out of the oil cooler loop, and I honestly can't say its's made all that much of a difference. When the torque converter locks it cools down very quickly, but below 35mph and especially during acceleration that sucker heats up so quickly...

SO A QUESTION TO YOU THINKERS::: Is there some way that the transmission could be working improperly as to create additional heat but show no mechanical symptoms other than the heat itself? My worry is that maybe something internal to the tranny is not working properly which is enabling it to create a lot more than usual heat.. but also not affecting the operation of the transmission...? It runs perfectly, it shifts perfectly.. no sounds, etc..