Wow, for $117 shipped you can get a new radiator from rockauto.com. Seems to me for that price, for preventative measures against the stawberry milkshake, you'd be better off replacing the radiator versus an aux trans cooler. Unless you want the added cooling for heavy duty trans use, in which case you should add one inline to your new radiator.
Either way, it seems foolish to not get a new radiator .

 

The appropriate word would be impractical.

You're Welcome!

 

Really good info on this thread. Thank you to those of you who have provided lots of helpful advice!

Like a lot of you guys, I'm kinda getting paranoid about the strawberry milkshake too. I really want to fix this problem waiting to happen before it's too late, so I've decided to bypass the stock cooler and planning to get the Tru-Cool 4454 sometime in the near future.

It's too bad that this issue has become a pretty major point of weakness for our rigs.

 

After looking at this
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/a...-we-go-194976/
I parked mine and ordered B&M 70268 SuperCooler Automatic Transmission Cooler
looks the same as the 4454 but found better pricing.

 

I am planning on installing and bypassing the OE tranny cooler. I am looking at the TruCool 4454 or the Hayden 672 (?). The question I have is what is the whole point in having 2 bypass valves (one external based on temp and another based on fluid viscosity)?

 

Unless you drive where is very cold a lot of the year I can't see any need for it.

 

Goat, if you were me, what would you install? I don't tow hardly at all if I do it is under 2,000 lbs. Temps here in UT USA are 0 deg at night winter and 110 day in the summer. Would you just put the TruCool in no external bypass and temp gauge or would you just install the TruCool? There are a lot of mountains here and I do like to go up and play in them in 4WD.

 

I'd say no ext bypass, and a temp gauge (or Scan gauge II with ATF temp code if you can find one). Other than that its hard to get specific on different setups because there are too many variables (like cooler location, closeness to the fan, size of the fan, load on the tranny, etc...) and I'd just be speculating. I can only really say what I've experienced with my setup which I admit is rather different than most.

 

which cooler is most recommended? the tru-cool 4454 or the B&M one? any pros or cons or either. amazon has the b&m for like $45 shipped which seems like a good deal. tru-cool is about $10 more at other places. also I live in Arizona, doesn't get too cold during winter, sometimes in the 30-40 degrees. but in summer a good 115 degrees. any recommendations?

 

I am going with the TruCool 4454 because it is thin and I like the look of the install pics other people have posted. People are considering the B&M one for cost but it is 2x thicker. As Mt. Goat said, thicker is not always better.

 

Where did you run your temp gauge wire (from temp gauge to dash or console)? Do you need power access from the battery?

 

It depends on what gauge you use, I'm using this electric Isspro gauge: http://www.egauges.com/vdo_mult3.asp...=EVA_R&Units=E and yes it needs power. If I had it to do over I'd probably go with a Scangauge II in place of lots of my gauges. Mechanical gauges I guess don't need power except to light them up at night.

 

I live in Houston and tried a Tru-Cool and it couldn't keep the temps down in stop and go traffic when the temps were in the mid and high 90s outside.

I put in a B&M which is 1.5" instead of the 3/4" thick that the Hayden and Tru-cool are. The extra thickness makes a world of difference, I can sit in that hot stop and go traffic and never hit more than 15OF.

As far as thicker isn't always better,,, the only way that would be a problem on a transmission cooler is if you can't fit it in a mounting place. Which I had no problem fitting my B&M in front of my condenser coil.

So if you never see temps in the 90's then you don't need a thicker cooler but if your areas that see that kinda of heat you will be glad ya went with the thicker cooler.


FOG

 

Thanks FOG, that was the exact information I was looking for.

Where did you run your wires for the gauge (from the hose to the dash)? Where did you tap into your 12V DC?

 

Just curious what temps you were seeing with the 4454? I currently have my trans lines run through my new aftermarket radiator, to the 4454, then back to the trans. I was thinking about bypassing the aftermarket radiator, but I'm not sure if the 4454 alone can handle the heat.

 

yea here in az it stays hot...so the B&M is better for this continuous heat. why doesn't the tru-cool not keep the temps down, isn't it supposed too??? i want whatever works. should i also get a new radiator? i don't know when and its ever been changed. you all recommend doing the cooler as well as new radiator? or would a new radiator first be good enough for now that is. what should i do first.

 

In stop and go traffic on a 90+ day I could see 180-190F easy with the 4454. I tried it with a 4,000 trailer and it got into stop and go traffic and it hit 200F really quick which resulted in a exit and U-turn back to the house.

With the B&M I've yet to see anything over 160-170 with the exception of when I was driving up Pikes Peek with 4 adults in the truck. The temp climbed to 180 and stayed there the whole climb up which is pretty brutal because of the lack of airflow from the slow speed.

Its because of the amount of surface area of the B&M. To gain surface area you can either make the overall size bigger (height and length) or you can make it thicker. To make the Tru-cooler give the same performance as the B&M you would need to make it almost twice as big (height and width).

A really easy way to think about is a single row radiator vs a 2 row radiator.

I have the outlet from the transmission feeding into a spin on filter adapter under the wheel well. on the inlet of the filter I have a Tee fitting that has the transmission temp sender screwed in the top, the fluid coming in on the side. The from the filter it goes to the cooler and back to the transmission..

For the gauge I tapped the 12volt line to my power port/cigarette lighter. As far as gauges, the auto meter led backlit gauges are great for the money, but go with the black face with red back light or you will get too much glare.

FOG

 

Same here, I ran the ground and the sensor wires through the wheel well and run it with the wires from the passenger side door panel cause its hard to pull out the wires from the dash if you run it through the passenger side firewall. You'll know what i'm talking about once you start running your wires.

I tapped the cig lighter for the power, (wire color=gray) so that the gauge will turn on when i turn the key to ACC. For the lights, i tapped the cig lighter light. (+ goes to white & green, - goes to solid green). you could also tap the ash tray light, your choice, so that the gauge light will turn on and dim with the rest your dash lights.

Haven't had any problems with the 4454 yet, maybe i'll upgrade to a thicker cooler if the 4454 doesnt hold up to the summer temps, we'll see this summer.

 

I know we discussed this once before, but I can't remember if we talked about you thinking these temps are too high for synthetic ATF or are you running non-synthetic ATF?

IMHO, I never thought of those temps (180-200* F) as being too hot. Keep in mind Toyota engineers set the "too hot" idiot light to come on at over 300* F and go off at around 250*. Unless you are trying to make the ATF last 100,000 miles or something I don't see a problem with those temps (180-200 F), especially with good synthetic ATF. Maybe I'm wrong. EDIT: For reference I'm taking about temps measured in the tranny output line on the way to the cooler. Very different than say tranny pan temps (see link in my post below).

But that a side, I'm all for the extra cooling though, and if the thicker B&M fits in the space I'd definitely try it next time I'm looking for a cooler. No way would it fit where I put mine (along with a fan too). But I put mine in a strange place. That or just a bigger model of the thin type or even 2 coolers in series.

I do think air flow is even more important with the thicker coolers. I think 2 thin coolers would "out-cool" one thick one (of the same size) in just about every situation given the same air flow. I do have 2 thick coolers on my truck, one is an oil cooler and one is an auxiliary radiator.

 

FOG, I was looking for where we discussed this before (I didn't find it), but I did find this great information you posted earlier:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/t...esults-200965/

And you make a good point with this statement, and that is why I removed my coolers that were in front of my radiator, I was trying everything I could to reduce coolant temps, which were running too high.


I also found some other interesting info (just consolidating as much info in one place as possible):

This guy ran tests of ATF temp monitored at 3 different locations of the flow cycle at the same time, very interesting.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...=519586&page=2



This was some info on ATF temps, but I can't find much at all relating to synthetic ATF (at least with hard numbers).

http://www.aa1car.com/library/atf.htm

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...1429826&page=1



Also ran across this on ATF filter testing, makes sense to me, anything to help keep those little fragments out of the solenoid valves and reduce wear.

http://www.fourwheeler.com/techartic...ers/index.html