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Trans cooler help

72 charger

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I have a 383/727 combo in my 72 charger the trans is currently hooked up.to.a built in trans cooler at the bottom of my radiator the radiator is an all aluminum but the radiator support is right in front of the area of the colooer I was checking the trans fluid the other day and it is starting to smell burnt and turn blackish in color. I'm thinking of putting a seperate trans cooler and just not using the built in one. Can anyone recommend a specific brand or what will work well with my setup. Looking for one that just mounts to the front of the radiator through the fins. Also cheaper the better :grin:
 
Tci

I just put a TCI to the front of my radiator in my '72 Charger. It keeps it around 180 degrees here in the Georgia heat.
 
most of the cheeper brands will work fine and be better then the stock setup.just put in the biggest one that will fit easy.carquest is a good supplyer,but any of the common auto parts stores have them.dont get caught up spending a ton unless you have a racing application.
 
You will really be better off running through the radiator first, then through another cooler and back to the trans for best results. The best coolers are the stacked plate design and do an excellent job for their compact size. These are more expensive but, like a helmet, you spend a little more when you have something worth protecting.
 
You will really be better off running through the radiator first, then through another cooler and back to the trans for best results. The best coolers are the stacked plate design and do an excellent job for their compact size. These are more expensive but, like a helmet, you spend a little more when you have something worth protecting.

I totally disagree with this , stay as far away from the radiator as possible

Radiators are hot and the enemy of transmissions is heat . Mount the cooler up in front of the radiator and run the lines directly to the trans and not through the radiator first and keep the heat away from it. My two cents .
 

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Use the radiator cooler first, then tranny cooler. Any cooler comes with installation instructions. And they all recommend this route.
 
Use the radiator cooler first, then tranny cooler. Any cooler comes with installation instructions. And they all recommend this route.

again why introduce more heat . yes it make the routing of the hoses alot simpler but you dont need that extra heat that the radiator tranfers to the fluid . Heat is what you are trying to get away from . If your in a cold climate and its a daily driver is the only time you would want more heat in your transmission . Believe me i see them with burnt black fluid everyday .
 
again why introduce more heat . yes it make the routing of the hoses alot simpler but you dont need that extra heat that the radiator tranfers to the fluid . Heat is what you are trying to get away from . If your in a cold climate and its a daily driver is the only time you would want more heat in your transmission . Believe me i see them with burnt black fluid everyday .

I don't think this will introduce more heat. Yes, the radiator is hotter than the outside air, but is still likely much less warm than the oil coming from the transmission itself - the very reason that the factory put the cooler there in the first place. Once the first cycle of heat is extracted to the radiator, the add-on external oil cooler can continue to further cool down the tranny fluid. It's pretty unlikely that the radiator will be HOTTER than the tranny fluid.

In a properly operating cooling system the radiator can be a lot cooler than the engine, as the thermostat only opens as needed to keep the block at it's desired temperature.

-=Photon440=-
 
I don't think this will introduce more heat. Yes, the radiator is hotter than the outside air, but is still likely much less warm than the oil coming from the transmission itself - the very reason that the factory put the cooler there in the first place. Once the first cycle of heat is extracted to the radiator, the add-on external oil cooler can continue to further cool down the tranny fluid. It's pretty unlikely that the radiator will be HOTTER than the tranny fluid.

In a properly operating cooling system the radiator can be a lot cooler than the engine, as the thermostat only opens as needed to keep the block at it's desired temperature.

-=Photon440=-

precisely what i was trying to say.
 
put a heat gun on them u will see 109 degrees here today , keep heat away from the fluid and the cooler its just that simple . alot of people even attach there bigger aftermarket coolers to the front of the radiator it self with zip ties . Not a good idea either it also heat up the cooler and reduces the surface area air gets to your radiator .
 
Water pulls away more heat then the air ever could by itself, the Mopar radiator cooler is mounted in the coolest part of the radiator tank, by not taking advantage of this you are compromising your transmissions cooling ability.
 
Water pulls away more heat then the air ever could by itself, the Mopar radiator cooler is mounted in the coolest part of the radiator tank, by not taking advantage of this you are compromising your transmissions cooling ability.

wrong according to my heat gun yesterday my tranny cooler runs 50 degrees cooler then the bottom of the radiator , my tranny cooler has a much bigger capacity and cooling surface area . And avoiding the radiator heat it keeps my tranny nice and cool , again i pull burn up transmissions out of cars everyday heat is the enemy of transmissions .
 
wrong according to my heat gun yesterday my tranny cooler runs 50 degrees cooler then the bottom of the radiator , my tranny cooler has a much bigger capacity and cooling surface area . And avoiding the radiator heat it keeps my tranny nice and cool , again i pull burn up transmissions out of cars everyday heat is the enemy of transmissions .

well boys and girls, god knows i am not the sharpest knife in the drawer but my thinking on this is, the big thing you want is a constant temp with-in a certain temp range. to achieve this they invented the tranny cooler within the rad itself. the thermostat controlled the heat range. this satisfied the greater masses geograficly, ie, northern america, southern america. winter temps of say 0 to minus's probably need the fluid heated to help circulation properly where as high heat in summer months needed cooling.
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due to the fact these are now toys that we pretty much drive in the summer months i believe the tranny deserves it own cooler. no winter driving.

my .02 cents: do you think maybe:eusa_think:
 
well boys and girls, god knows i am not the sharpest knife in the drawer but my thinking on this is, the big thing you want is a constant temp with-in a certain temp range. to achieve this they invented the tranny cooler within the rad itself. the thermostat controlled the heat range. this satisfied the greater masses geograficly, ie, northern america, southern america. winter temps of say 0 to minus's probably need the fluid heated to help circulation properly where as high heat in summer months needed cooling.
.
due to the fact these are now toys that we pretty much drive in the summer months i believe the tranny deserves it own cooler. no winter driving.

my .02 cents: do you think maybe:eusa_think:
and under normal driving to a cruise or once a month type stuff the radiator cooler is probable fine and dandy. But if you have that one boil over or thermostat go bad or the water pump go bad and you burn that tranny fluid . It will go south fast from there . If your racing Never use that radiator cooler . My .02 cents
 
and under normal driving to a cruise or once a month type stuff the radiator cooler is probable fine and dandy. But if you have that one boil over or thermostat go bad or the water pump go bad and you burn that tranny fluid . It will go south fast from there . If your racing Never use that radiator cooler . My .02 cents

i agree:headbang:
 
I have a 383/727 combo in my 72 charger the trans is currently hooked up.to.a built in trans cooler at the bottom of my radiator the radiator is an all aluminum but the radiator support is right in front of the area of the colooer I was checking the trans fluid the other day and it is starting to smell burnt and turn blackish in color. I'm thinking of putting a seperate trans cooler and just not using the built in one. Can anyone recommend a specific brand or what will work well with my setup. Looking for one that just mounts to the front of the radiator through the fins. Also cheaper the better :grin:

Ok so I was rereading the original question. Doesn't seem to be a 1/4 car. So. Im not going to reference what a racer would run. Allot of race only mods aren't suitable for the street cars. I do believe (could be wrong, going on memory ) if you don't hook it up in series with the radiator it will void the warranty of the trans cooler.

I had a sprint car mechanic build my engine and transmission. He told me too get a heavy duty cooler (no electric fan) and hook it up in series with my radiator cooler. Radiator first then secondary . He's been racing / building transmissions for 20 years. He's also a tranny tech in a Dodge dealership. So i believe he might know a little about the subject.
 
wrong according to my heat gun yesterday my tranny cooler runs 50 degrees cooler then the bottom of the radiator , my tranny cooler has a much bigger capacity and cooling surface area . And avoiding the radiator heat it keeps my tranny nice and cool , again i pull burn up transmissions out of cars everyday heat is the enemy of transmissions .

Don't want to argue with you and I'm sure you have had great luck with your set up or you would not be as adament about the results as you are. And I agree with you 100 percent that heat is an enemy of automatic transmissions. However, my "opinion" is based on testing and fact, as an owner of a high performance transmission company for 30 years, one cooler or the other is great but running both gets the best results.
An example I like to use to illustrate this point is this: If you took a piece of steel bar and heated it to 225 degrees and then had a choice of quenching it for 10 seconds in 150 degree water or waving it around in the 85 degree air for the same period, then touching it to your skin, which would you choose?
 
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