[jswillms]

Ok, just got back from a 3300 mile trip to Black Hills and front range of Rocky Mountains towing my very large 5th wheel (10k plus). I have an early 2000 model truck with the OTA cooler only. As you can see in my sig, I added the largest Hayden cooler I could find up front. It is around 12" by 12" and is mounted up front, high on the condenser.

Only had two or three instances of over 220 degree temps. Most of the time, regardless of ambient, temps were 180 or below. First high temp was when running into the Hills from the south at around 25mph on winding road, ambient around 70 degrees. Needle hit 230 after around 30 min so I stopped to let it cool. Pulling the Raton Pass on I25, temps when into the 210-220 range but did not hit 230 with ambient around 80, at 45-50mph. One other time on the I25 south run in New Mexico, hit 210-220 range at around 80 ambient at 65 mph.

So, the 230 number bothers me. Seems that when I am pulling hard on a slow run, the temps will not stablilze. Not sure how far it would go and whether enough cooling could be established to overcome the extreme amount of TC heat being generated. Pulling hard with adequate airflow, temps are hotter but stable.

Do I have enough cooling?

Side Note - my radiator has the OTW cooler, that is not connected. I bought the truck used, so I don't know why it is there. Truck was manufactured without the OTW (I checked manuf. Date), so the radiator must have been replaced at one time. I purchased the tubes to hook it up but decided not to, worried that maybe they disconnected it due to a tranny failure and only replaced the OTA cooler. I could still hook that up after a good flush. I an running the inline filter that should catch any gunk.

So, hook up the OTW?

Or, I could change out the OTA for the V10.

Or, I could change out the hayden for a Tru-cool Max in front of the condenser,

Or, I could mount a cooler with thermostatic switched fan somewhere under the truck,

Or I could just leave it as is...

What should I do?

 

[AutoJim]

Looks fine to me. Leave it alone, or hook the OTW cooler in if it makes you feel better. Should go trans out -> OTW -> OTA -> trans in.

I'm not sure if you added the Hayden cooler or replaced the OEM cooler with the Hayden one. If the former, you'll want to make sure you don't have too much backpressure in the cooler circuit (do a search around here -- disconnect the return line at the trans and see how much fluid you get in 15 seconds. Should be at least a quart) if you then add in the OTW cooler. If the latter, you shouldn't have to worry about it.

 

[0010]

Temps sound high at times.I would flush the snot out of the otw cooler and see what comes out.If you can get it clean (some may say you can't)then I would hook it up and see what, if any benefit you get.If temps don't drop you may want to just add another ota cooler and see if that gets you where you want to be.Let us know.

 

[jesse460]

I think the reason your temps got high were because the convertor was unlocked, due to the slow speeds. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif

 

[jswillms]

JHoss, that is my guess also. So, in the case of a heat generator running full bore (unlocked TC), I am not convinced that additional cooling will help, only delay the inevitable. Guess I could add a TC indicator light and then try to drop it into the right gear to keep it locked... Hard to do when going around turns, though. Was a tough grade...

 

[jswillms]

AutoJim,

I am running trans -> OTA -> Hayden -> Magnefine -> trans. Will do the flow test when I change out the fluid next time. Hesitate to hook up the OTW if I do not have a problem, so I think you confirmed that for me. If I hooked it up, I would have put the OTW last, so that any trash would have been picked up by the filter. If I hook it up first, trash could possibly be caught in the other two coolers. Best to leave it alone I guess. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

thx for the reply...

 

[jesse460]

If it was me I would just add the manual TC switch, Then you could manually lock it and gear down to keep the rpms up.

 

[kilapapipa]

[ QUOTE ]
If it was me I would just add the manual TC switch, Then you could manually lock it and gear down to keep the rpms up.

[/ QUOTE ]

The TC lock and gearing down gets my vote and it is easy and cheap to try.

 

[Larry M]

I would hook up that OTW cooler which should really help IMO and if you're seeing 220 to 230 at the pressure port on a steady increase I bet the PCM tranny temp is hitting 235 to 250 which is IMO too hot under the conditions you described. With a stock thermostat the bottom of the radiator should be down in the 130 to maybe 160 range and that will help take a lot of the heat out so the OTA can do a good job. Also, with all those coolers and the Magnefine, I would definitely recommend a flow test since with a properly functioning tranny, operating the vehicle correctly just the stock OTW and a V10 type OTA cooler out front should be all you need up to the GCW of your truck. Last year with my 6K TT I jerked that around the Black Hills even thru the park and never saw above 190 deg in 95 deg ambients. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Also, you didn't indicate, but I would hope that your engine fan would have kicked in before you reached those temps or you were running too low RPMs for the load and conditions.


Larry, keeper of the <font color="red"> New revised </font><font color="blue">"little secrets" </font> CLICK HEREhttp://forums.thedieselstop.com/ubb...73329&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[bmiliate]

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, just got back from a 3300 mile trip to Black Hills and front range of Rocky Mountains towing my very large 5th wheel (10k plus). I have an early 2000 model truck with the OTA cooler only. As you can see in my sig, I added the largest Hayden cooler I could find up front. It is around 12" by 12" and is mounted up front, high on the condenser.

Only had two or three instances of over 220 degree temps. Most of the time, regardless of ambient, temps were 180 or below. First high temp was when running into the Hills from the south at around 25mph on winding road, ambient around 70 degrees. Needle hit 230 after around 30 min so I stopped to let it cool. Pulling the Raton Pass on I25, temps when into the 210-220 range but did not hit 230 with ambient around 80, at 45-50mph. One other time on the I25 south run in New Mexico, hit 210-220 range at around 80 ambient at 65 mph.

So, the 230 number bothers me. Seems that when I am pulling hard on a slow run, the temps will not stablilze. Not sure how far it would go and whether enough cooling could be established to overcome the extreme amount of TC heat being generated. Pulling hard with adequate airflow, temps are hotter but stable.

Do I have enough cooling?

Side Note - my radiator has the OTW cooler, that is not connected. I bought the truck used, so I don't know why it is there. Truck was manufactured without the OTW (I checked manuf. Date), so the radiator must have been replaced at one time. I purchased the tubes to hook it up but decided not to, worried that maybe they disconnected it due to a tranny failure and only replaced the OTA cooler. I could still hook that up after a good flush. I an running the inline filter that should catch any gunk.

So, hook up the OTW?

Or, I could change out the OTA for the V10.

Or, I could change out the hayden for a Tru-cool Max in front of the condenser,

Or, I could mount a cooler with thermostatic switched fan somewhere under the truck,

Or I could just leave it as is...

What should I do?

[/ QUOTE ]

Guarantee it is the lockup. I had a similar problem and added a True Cool and a Derale remote fan cooler, and it didn't help. What did help is having Jody Tipton reprogram my off the shelf 4-position chip to lockup sooner. I had exactly the problem you were having at the same MPH. In 2nd gear, the TC wouldn't lock at all, and in third, it took a while. Contact Jody Tipton. If you don't want extra power, he can give you a great TOW tuned PCM (that happens to come with more power anyway /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif) with better shifting and TC lockup.