Upgraded trans cooler

With all the towing/hauling, beach sand driving, and Baja 500 runs I’ve never had a transmission overheat.

I’d rinse spray all your radiators really well to clean them from road debris and then shoot some PB silicone on them to ward off dirt.

When spraying the rads: Do so from the backside. You’ll be surprised on all the cack between the A/C rad and engine rad.

Definitely do not cut that center support Jerry! I’ve been searching for that sweet trans radiator the Taco guys recco’d on my last years research and can’t find it. It was almost double the size of the OEM and mounted in the same spot with special brackets.

 

Wait... Are you Ivan Stuart?

 

Got a 40k unit in... it’ll fit. Gotta devise mounting. But idea is to mount it lower. Won’t have the most flow in the world. But I’ll monitor temps and see if ducting will help at a later time. This is all in prep to remove the original cooler and just run one big cooler with a thermostat to allow it to get up to temp fast.

 

That's a fuckin monster! Let us know how it goes !!

 

Hopefully within the next few weeks I’ll have it all installed and finalised.

 

Next paycheck I'm going order a Champion aluminum radiator just because

 

ehh... go on tacoma world and look at the champion radiator failures for the 1st gen tacos.. CSF or mishimoto are the ones id go with... granted you'll pay more.

 

The Champion has lifetime warranty.... My old rad is good. .

Hmmm
I just want to throw in a Aluminum Rad and not have to worry about it. I just don't like the plastic on the OEM. But 2005 and it's still fine.
I'll jump over to Tacoma world and check out failures. I was looking into one when I had my Supercharged 1st Gen

 

CSF and mishimoto both make aluminum rads for the 1st gen v8 tundras. The mishi does not have a trans cooler. the CSF does. both are sold on summit

 

Could we not use the OEM cooler with the mishimoto radiator?

 

The mishimoto has no cooler at all for the trans. The stock tow package cooler is far to small to cool alone.



now if you go with the CSF radiator that has the trans cooler, yes they can be used together

 

I’m currently looking for a newer Prius trans mission cooler rad. My buddy put one on after I told him I was thinking about buying a Hayden one. The one he got from pick and pull(for 20$) was the length of the regular radiator And 5-6 inches tall and he mounted it below the other rad. It already had a temp sensor on it so he wired it up and has trans temp gauge now.

 

A Prius trans cooler? They use coolant and a radiator to cool the trans and inverter? I’ve never seen a normal trans cooler on a Prius

 

Not coolant. Trans fluid. I guess radiator was the wrong word in English. I talk to people who speak different languages so they call things different names. I meant oil/ trans cooler.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Oil-Cooler...GAS/202937568465?fits=Model:Prius|Make:Toyota

I took a quick look on the eBay. I’m 95% sure this is the one he has. Except he pulled it so it was cheaper. I’ll try to take a pic if I go over to his house. He had it hooked up last time I was over but he hadn’t wired up the sensor yet.

 

The Prius doesn't have a transmission cooler. It does have a two radiators -- or a two piece radiator depending on how you want to look at it. The main radiator is for cooling the engine, the second radiator (like the one in the eBay link) mounts on top of the engine radiator and is for cooling the inverter. It's made to pass coolant through it, not transmission fluid.

 

That Hayden cooler won't cool as well as the OEM cooler. The tube and fin design is really inefficient at heat transfer -- it's just bent tubing with fins. You'll get much more cooling capacity from a much smaller unit with a stacked plate type cooler like a B & M.
Here's a link. I have no experience with that retailer, they were the first hit in a Google search for B & M transmission coolers, and they seem to show a good variety of the sizes and options.

Here's a good expanation of the differences between different types of trans coolers:

https://transmissioncoolerguide.com/transmission-cooler-types/

 

I usually stay out of these Radiator/Trans Cooler Threads just because.

Anyways, I am always asking myself questions and I don’t talk back to myself so I know I’m not crazy.

1) Whats wrong with the OEM Tow Package Cooler? Seems to be working just fine for me in almost 20 years. From what I can see it looks like its a stacked unit like the B&M. Seems like a thick unit is best. The OEM Toy looks about the size of one of the B&M units on offer of which they also sell a larger unit.

2) What happens in winter when the larger units work against you? In other words, they cool too much and not allow the Engine/Transmission to optimize.

3) What happens in summer with a big trans cooler thats blocking the stuff behind it?

Full Disclosure: I do not monitor trans temps or rad temps. Those items are trusted to the dummy lights which have not gone off. Current transmission is the original.

 

Reason I’m going overboard with mine is i do plan on towing a car cross country when I locate a clean mr2.

second factory cooler works fine if your using it with the stock in radiator setup. But I plan on bypassing this for the aluminium radiator setup.

mans as for overcooking, I plan on running a 160 degree thermostat. This will also allow the trans to warm up quicker in general which does good for fuel mileage and atf life. Transmissions are like engines and prefer to be around 180 degrees

 

I think I speak for the entire forum when I say, you might want to get a second opinion.

 

Interesting. I wonder how long his will last then using trans fluid. He is a real ase certified mechanic and I’m just home taught wrencher with 15+ years of fixing my own vehicles. So when he said it’d work I just believed him since it was hooked up and he was driving around the neighborhood already. I’m not doubting for a second that its original purpose was for what you said it was for, but it’s working as a trans cooler now.

Anyone know the difference in oil/trans fluid from coolant as far as being corrosive to plastic?

 

The top of our radiators hold coolant and the bottom holds atf. I very they are built the same internally. Prob no issue at all

 

the radiator top and bottom tanks both have coolant. the trans cooler is a internal pipe that the trans fluid runs through in turn using the coolant to cool or heat the fluid. there are typically fins on the tube to aid in heat transfer.. but when these internal tubes joints fail, coolant gets into the trans. rare. but not unheard of. (4runner pink milkshake and these tundras do do it too.. not as common though)

 

I have the Hayden, towing 2000lbs same speed and similar wind conditions I have dropped about 20 to 25 degrees over stock. I was never even close to the danger zone on temps but my stock unit had bent fins from the googan err I mean previous owner, used a pressure washer.

 

BTW this is the model I used, it measures 11" x 11" and fit perfectly snug in it's new home. This is the hd towing/fleet cooler not the dinky light truck one.

 

With these bigger coolers, are you guys having to add more trans fluid keep the system full? Also, are you having to use new lines?

 

When I took oem off I took out the mounting bolts, took off skid plate, turned cooler upside down and removed hoses as to not lose any fluid. Poured fluid in a measuring cup out of old oem. When I installed Hayden I filled it up first and measure the amount it was 1 ounce difference. So I topped off the cooler and connected hoses. 1 ounce is not going to make a difference in a tranny. Just make sure you fill the new unit before putting it on.

 

Your cooler is a plate/fin design. The cooler I was commenting about is a tube/fin design. The OEM cooler is also plate/fin like yours.

 

Gotcha

 

That makes a lot of sense! Your OE hoses screwed into the after market cooler just fine?