When is a Transmission cooler required?

[Harissz]

General questions regarding trans coolers and when one would be required? I understand it’s mainly geared towards people who tow, carry heavy loads and or rough mountain terrains? I’m in the process of getting a mild cam on my 5.7 LS1 auto with stock converter since the cam isn’t big enough to require a stally. Is this an upgrade everyone should get or only when playing with big cams and boost? any advice helps cheers looking into buying one for the sake of longevity out my auto

 

[Redline457]

You should definitely just get the cooler, anything that helps remove extra heat is a good thing for any auto box, pipe it in series with you radiator cooler, so outlet from radiator cooler to inlet of the external cooler and the back to the trans.

 

[Immortality]

A cooler never hurts.

 

[losh1971]

To get the most out of the cam a stally is the go. Be interesting to know how it performs with stock converter.

 

[Ginger Beer]

Yes, run it in series from the radiator

 

[vr304]

I’d get one even if the car was stock and not doing any towing, extra cooling for an auto trans is definitely not a bad thing

 

[J_D 2.0]

Yes, run it in series from the radiator

If I was doing a cooler I’d look into making it seperate myself. I’ve never liked the built in failure mode of pumping trans fluid through the radiator so your up for a new transmission if the built in cooler in the radiator craps itself.

 

[Ginger Beer]

If I was doing a cooler I’d look into making it seperate myself. I’ve never liked the built in failure mode of pumping trans fluid through the radiator so your up for a new transmission if the built in cooler in the radiator craps itself.

Do you know any that have failed? I haven't seen any fail

 

[vc commodore]

Do you know any that have failed? I haven't seen any fail

Haven't heard of any Holden ones that have failed, but it was a common issue on Fords around the AU and later models....So @J_D 2.0 post does hold merit....You can never be too careful

 

[J_D 2.0]

Do you know any that have failed? I haven't seen any fail

Read a few threads on here where people have said they failed. The odds are probably fairly slim TBH and you can probably negate it by changing the radiator say every 100,000kms.

Still the pedantic me doesn’t like built in points of failure. I removed (bypassed) the stupid throttle body coolant hoses on the missus Subaru Tribeca as it’s completely superfluous here in Australia. I would have removed the massive thick steel plates they put over the fuel injectors too but they were integral to the manifold setup. If I see a stupid piece of engineering I’ll always remove it or improve it where possible.