What's up, everybody?

As a new '99 2.3 CL owner (Black w/ leather and spoiler, great condition in and out, all stock, only 59k miles, and all service reciepts for only $8150! I thought it was a pretty good deal, at least.), I've been trolling around here for a couple weeks and finally decided to post or the first time. I went to Autozone and bought a tranny cooler. I went to get my oil changed and asked the guy there, who I trust, what he thought of the tranny cooler. He said that if I install the cooler, it's going to take too long in the winter for the fluid to heat up. Is this true? I live in DE, so it can get pretty chilly here. Thanks.

 

Depends on the cooler. Some coolers bypass the cooling chambers under a certain temp.

 

Thanks for the reply. It's just the Hayden 676, so I don't think it's that sophisticated.

After some more research though I think I know what i'm gonna do. I'm going to have the fluid go through the Hayden cooler first and then the stock cooler. I understand that this will not be the coolest way to do it in the summer, but it should be good enough. And the stock cooler should warm it sufficiently in the winter.

 

im guessing you're an auto 2.3... welcome to the site, enjoy the ride

 

You guessed right. I'm enjoying it so far. I know all the 3.0 people sh*t on us for being slow, but this is still a hell of a lot faster than the Hyundai Accent it's replacing.

 

Sounds like it'll work

 

How about bypassing the stock cooler during the summer and then going thru it when winter hits?

 

I was considering that. Or I could just reverse it and go "stock --> hayden" in the summer and "hayden --> stock" in the winter, but I'm lazy so, I'll probably just leave it in winter configuration.

 

That won't do much, the stock cooler is a warmer/cooler. It cools/warms to the fluid to about 220 I think. This will happen regardless how cool your hayden will get the fluid down to first.

Check out the b&m coolers 70255 or 70264, they will bypass the cooling loops automatically depending on the viscosity of the fluid. Install after the stock cooler, you want to get the temps down below what the stock cooler can do.

 

Hmmm, so what you're saying is the stock coolers have a thermostat that will automatically bring the temp of the fluid to about 220, regardless of how cool or warm the fluid is before entering it?

 

The stock cooler prevents the fluid to go above 175F as much as possible. For every 20F degrees, ATF life is cut in half. If 175F allows 100,000 miles of fluid life, 195F allows 50,000, and 240F should have no life.

ATF is heated by the transmission running. A car estimates the ATF temperature by looking at the engine's temperature. The engine's (not transmission) theromostat prevents the car from going to overdrive. You'll probably notice this on cold mornings when a car w/ an automatic transmission delays shifting into the last gear. Basically the ATF is heating up during this time.

By adding additional transmission cooler, you could "over cool" your fluid; because a car only thinks the ATF is at normal operating temperature by looking at engine's temperature. I believe you only have to be concerned with this during the winter and in sub-freezing temps. But if you want to be sure, add a transmission temperature gauge.

 

Not exactly. The stock cooler simply consists of some cooling loops inside the radiator that the atf fluid gets pumped through no matter what. The radiator temp is controlled by the heat being dumped from the engines' thermostat.

On my 98 3.0 the thermostat starts to open around 169-176 degrees F and fully opens at 194. How hot does that make the radiator? How well is this going to cool the atf especially when the engine/tranny is under a heavy load?

Looks like a nice setup to heat the fluid but not so great for cooling.

 

Or go with the b&m cooler that bypasses the cooling loops for cold fluid.

This is from the B&m web site on their super coolers:

The Super-Coolers intended for automatic transmission fluid also offer an additional feature known as Low Pressure Drop (LPD). The coolers assembled with hose barb ends include a unique bypass feature allowing a controlled amount of ATF to bypass the stacked plate core when the fluid is cold. This is beneficial in cold climate areas to guard against lube system failure. Controlled by viscosity, fluid is returned directly to the lube circuit through bypass openings in the stacked plate core. As the temperature increases, more ATF is directed through the core. This highly efficient design combines improved protection against lube system failure with the required levels of optimal heat transfer.

 

I see what you're saying, but how do we know that the stock cooler will warm the fluid up to the same temp, regardless of it going through the aftermarket cooler or not. If the aftermarket cooler drops the temperature enough, then the stock "cooler" may not have enough time to warm it up to where it would have normally been. Of course, this is all hearsay, unless someone tests this out buing doing a before and after with a temperature guage.

Regardless, the B&M cooler seems like the best bet anyway and it's only slightly more expensive than the one I already bought. Now I just need to decide on the 70255 vs. the 70264. I'm leaning towards the 70255, the 70264 is a little more expensive and seems like overkill for this car.