Have any of you heard of or do not run transmission coolers on your race cars only. I had heard somewhere that if the car is a race car only (no street use) that a tranny cooler isnt needed? I have always run one and thought this was kinda weird, but was curious. Thanks
may be ok if you don't make a lot of pass's, but for bracket racing you need one, i use the stock cooler in the radiator and if i start doing round-robin it will puke a little fluid out of the overflow tube on the trans because it's hot....my .02 cents:beer
I know several people that don't run them. I run a small external aircooled only mounted under the car. When I built the car I had a trans brake in it and did bracket race it some and run some of the Buick races that can hot lap you. I have since removed the brake and don't bracket race much. I do have a transmission gauge and the temperatures never gets past 150 degrees with the type of racing I do. So I don't think I really need one. Jim N.
Carl Rossler did my 400 and he recommended a cooler. Vince Janis put my new Coan 3800 stall in, and since I drive it to the track recommended a larger cooler, which I did.
We were talking racecars that are trailered to the track I thought. Of course a street car needs a cooler. Jim N.
Denny, my buddy Frank said that when Pat Barrett from Level 10 built him a Turbo 400 for his high 8/ low 9 second turbo car, it just had a small loop of trans line right back into the case. That being said, it's one of those things I'll never understand. My tranny guy said "If you can be sure you'll never make more than one pass per hour, you might be ok, but why risk it? Is trans line and a trans cooler that heavy?" I run a pretty big cooler in my car and I leave the electric fan on all the way down the track just to cool the trans. There isn't any open grille area on my car, so I just want to be sure there is enough air moving through the cooler. The fan has got to be pulling air from somewhere! :laugh:
An old friend of mine that runs A/SA Camaro runs one of those long narrow coolers that only make one pass across then one back. He has it mounted right above his front U joint on the driveshaft. I asked why and he explained that he tried w/o a cooler, but down here in the south, it's a little harder to keep a cool tranny. He said was under the car while it was on a rack in gear looking for a vibration when he realized how much air comes off the u joint. Kind of like a fan. He said it did help make the tranny temp more manageable on hot days. One like this..... http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stor...=10002&productId=748609&langId=-1&showValue=3
I don't run a cooler on mine, but there is a deep finned aluminum pan on the trans. If you plan to make power and not run a cooler, then at least run a deep pan. A finned aluminum would be best.
Denny My question would be, " Why would someone not want to run a cooler?" Let's look at the dollars here. Add about 3 pounds to your car and spend about 100 bucks on a heat sink or trans cooler with about an hours worth of your time installing it, compared to frying your trans, hours of your time taking it out along with at least $500 or more bucks to get it rebuilt. Full quarter mile passes, crowded staging lanes slowing creeping up, higher stall convertor, trans brake, line lock, hot racing bracket days, and possible hot laps to boot...that trans will be taxed to its limits. All it takes is one bad day at the track with all or most of the above and that trans could very well be toast! I had a trans cooler on even when my car was on the street. I now have a heat sink that is mounted under the car near the frame rails on the passenger side. No fan is needed, it gets flowing air from under the car. Never had a problem with over heating the trans, and I have a 5,000 rpm stall convertor and I mat it on the convertor using the trans brake off the line. Penny wise dollar foolish My advise would be to install a cooler or heat sink, why take that chance.
If you are doing ANY street driving, then a cooler is needed. Maybe some cars at the track. I'm just amazed at how cool the trans in my car runs. Never thought about it until I got a data program that records torque convertor hook rpm. Now I can tell you for sure that trans fluid temperature will vary the rpm the convertor hooks and that of course will vary the 60' and et of the car. Cold trans fluid will slow down my car .05-.07 every time. The rpm of the convertor hook can be 400 rpm difference. I actually have to stall the car in the lanes to get the temp up to where it will run the best or on the index. Some times we can have 3 hours between runs and I have to be careful that the fluids don't get cooled down and the car slows up. Like most said, for the cost and weight a cooler is not a big deal, but you might be surprised at fluid temps if you don't have a gauge and kept track of them. Jim N.
Thanks for the input guys. Picked up the new tranny this morning and will be putting it in this weekend. I have decided to go with the heat sink that you are talking about Rick. I have always run a cooler, just heard about people not running them and was curious about it, i still think that i would have run something anyway as i would feel much better about it. The car wont be ready for Cecil but will have it back out before the end of this year and hopefully be ready to go for next year. Thanks
I agree with Jim Netherland that a cooler on a race car is not needed unless you are making a lot of passes less than 30 minutes apart. In fact on my cars I run a Moroso heat pad on the deep Moroso aluminum pan and HEAT the trans fluid to at least 150 degrees before a run. Worth .05+ in ET. I run synthetic Redline fluid and after a pass the trans temp is about 175-180 degrees. Footbrake with 5400 flash stall convertor. Also I heat the engine oil as hot as I can get it and have ice cold heads and intake. Why do you suppose they heat oil on dyno before a pull? To make more horsepower of course. When racing a heads up race I take a small portable Honda generator to staging lanes and keep heaters plugged in till time to run. Tom
I didn't run a cooler up until recently. I just put one on because I want to try to drive mine on the street once in a while. (It's a long term goal). Anyways, why not run one? Think about what Jim N. said above about heating the fluid to get the stall up. Then think "hot fluid is faster." When the fluid heats up it gets thinner. It's a trick I learned from Stock and Super Stock racers. It's one of those small details that seperates a heads up car from a bracket car. I run a temp gauge and I would have to make back to back passes for the gauge to even move. I also run a deep finned pan, so that helps.
