General Turbocharger Thread (formerly "Turbo Charging A Tundra!")

No leaks! So far, so good! 20 minutes of idling + 10 minutes of cruising.

The transmission warmer is still there, but without the coolant hoses, of course. It's pin open until next weekend, when I plan to install the elbows.

Interestingly, it idled for 20 minutes + a short 15 min cruise ride. The maximum transmission fluid temperature was 127°F. ( Isn't that too low for the right fluid viscosity?) and the coolant temperature was 198°F. I'll do more extensive testing to see what happen.

 

I think you will want to look up the trans tables and what temps trigger them. Try unpinning it and seeing what you get. Does it hold perfectly at 185'ish if it doesn't have the heater luck adding an extra 10*?

Reason I'm saying that is because it's probably still wise I have a thermostat on it and pinning it is just always-on, full flow, so you'll take a long time to warm up. I think I bought the 165* thermostat (fully open at 180). @Mdl got the next step colder, if I recall correctly.

 

I ran it in winter 30deg F and it took 15min or 20 min to get up to 130eg F. And in 50 deg took 15 to hit 150deg F. Running was 150-170deg F. Running wot and towing was at 190 or below.
I added the 145 for the winters. I believe the cold fault shifting ends at 176deg F ECT.

 

I will do few tests tomorrow. I will add an inline thermostat if it stay too low.

 

With 145 thermostat I'm about 160degF at 78 ambient. Will hit 190 when I'm wot runs and it cools down. Only hit with colder less viscous fluid is lower mpg with a supposedly stronger clutch hold. I would of went without a thermostat if it was above 30F in winters.
Toyota WS is 5.45 at 212F and 23 at 104F. The only weird shifting I had was delayed 3-4 with dex3 under 110F. But my transmission has been needing a rebuild for over a year. Surprised it held on for this long with the abuse it took.

 

Ok, at 80°F ambient and normal driving (50-65mph) the top trans. fluid temp. was 155°F. This it where I will be must of the time. No issues with shifting.

I see in many places that 175°F to 220°F is the best temp range for the right fluid viscosity.

I understand that running it at 155°F can be an issue in a long term. Therefore a 165* inline thermostat (fully open at 180) looks like a good option for this if there is no other starting at 175* and fully open at 180.

IMO, At the end is better to have the inline thermostat and not the factory warmer with coolant lines going all the way down and near the turbo and pipes.

 

Going by WAT cooling video the atf is best to keep it as cool as possible. I like keeping the fluid away from the 200deg area. Plus cooler fluid lower viscosity better clamping force for clutches, even for WS fluid.

 

Ok thanks let me see it! Is this the vid?

https://youtu.be/DyU3LIpA-Mg?si=9PpJYpoK1d3RLlBQ

 

Please don't go based just on me - lots more smarter people in the room. Main difference we should discuss (like @Mdl) - I'm in a 4 season climate and temps range from -15 to 105*, so I'm trying to cover all of my bases. It would be cool to know what viscosity Toyota was targeting with the temps in their trans tables, and then be able to correlate that to a DEX III or whatever to find a comparable temp. I guess if it is just the duration between shifts that is impacted by those temps in the tables, then change those values and send it?

For now, I'm just chasing a more consistent, cooler temp than what my truck has ever had, even with the OEM thermostat and cooler added. 180 is 20-30* cooler than where I run at highway speeds, unloaded, and 30-40* cooler than where I run at highway speeds while towing. IIRC, OEM thermostat starts opening at something like 183* or thereabouts. Additionally, opening up more space down by the up pipe and removing any potential heat soak by having coolant lines running parallel with the turbo plumbing is also a win as far as I am concerned, but I'm mostly chasing this to cool my temps down towards these 185-188* numbers people have talked about for years. Never has my truck run there, unless driving around town.

If you are at 155 without anything, then the idea of a thermostat is pretty much a personal choice, IMO. It'll get you up to temp faster, but if it is known that temp in the tables essentially mean nothing, then do you even need one?

I love that video, btw. And I get what they are saying, but I do think they are only looking at it from a physical perspective and not including the electronic control portion of it into the discussion (unless I forgot that part of the video). But I guess holding gears longer like @Mdl suggests isn't a horrible thing since pressure is being applied and there isn't slippage happening?

Again, I don't think there's a right/wrong, it just comes down to personal choice. If I find my temps are still too high for my liking, I'll 100% be dropping the 145* pill into the in-line thermostat.

 

Once it gets out of the cold default shift schedule it shifts normally. I personally changed cold default to normal parameters when I read slownstock writting about shift parameters. Once engine temps reach 176deg F I believe it goes to normal mode, I could be wrong...when the atf hit 120deg it was good and I was running Dex3 reason why I shifted back to a WS type fluid. I believe Toyota is targeting as close 190-220 temp range. Ws hits 5.3 at 212deg F. Especially seeing how they are trying to squeeze every .001 mpg they can get. I am only going by what the transmission peeps state on fluid properties and the ab60. Toyota stated using the type 4 fluid, which ws superceded, could cause delayed shifting and "increase mpg".

 

@bflooks @Mdl Interesting data! All of the above makes perfect sense to me.

For now, the only thing driving me to install the inline thermostat is reducing the waiting time on cold starts. Also, now I know how to achieve lower transmission fluid temperatures if necessary in the future.

Thanks for the info, appreciate it!!

 

Definitely! It's your ride and you make it how you want it. At least it's good info on pro's and con's of different fluids and their characteristics with varying temps.