Monday, August 12, 2013 - 10:03 pm, by: Joe Trojan(Jttt)
Alright, planning to install something pretty soon but could do with some pointers on how to go about a thermofan setup. Parts to use, location of temp. sensor and also which line is the oil send from gearbox? I'll most likely route the oil through the radiator first, then to the separate cooler and have the fan come on over a certain yet to be decided temperature however a two speed fan setup would be nicer.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - 06:11 am, by: Daniel Clarke(Dieseltrain)
Mate , mine is located where the factory FMIC was located . Also I didn't bother with sensors and different speeds . Mine is switched on with ignition .
It's been on for over 4 years and still works a treat . I did route it through the radiator cooler then The external cooler back to trans .
I don't think you will ever cool it too much , and the fact it's going through the radiator one first will help get it up to temp no worries .
I person think setting up with sensors and thermostats and multiple speeds just is overkill . No car has a thermostat fitted to external coolers even factory or aftermarket .
Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - 10:15 am, by: Robert Day(Lexsmaz)
Might I ask why are you running a External cooler & i don't really agree with you cant cool it to much, oil is designed to operate at a certain temp & if run considerably below that Temp is not ideal in a number of ways ..
Daniel actually a lot of cars with factory external coolers run through a thermostat arrangement for the oil ..
Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - 11:33 am, by: Jeff Bedsor(Jeff_bedsor)
Robert, i think it has more to do with the drags. Stalling up and doing warmup burnouts puts massive heat into the transmission. I have the same setup.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - 12:35 pm, by: Joe Trojan(Jttt)
Robert I agree which is why I am interested in a thermofan setup. I am getting the car ready to up the power through the thing, I don't want to be afraid to stall it up every now and then and I'd rather run the box a bit cool than a bit hot. Failures and high wear rates from excessive heat are common, excessive cool not so much, within reason.
Plan is to put a Spal fan on the thing and it will probably draw a fair bit of current so I don't really want it on all the time. If I have a manual switch I'll probably just forget to switch it on. Switching it with the ECT or with a yet to be installed shift kit are possibilities.
You can also mount the cooler on the edges of the bumpers beside the front mount intercooler
I doubt by adding a transmission cooler you will over-cool your trans fluid. Just touch the lines and see how hot it gets just with normal driving.
Fan is a Good Idea make it a Draw fan so it does not obstruct airflow.
I would place a Sensor perhaps in the sump and make it switch the fan on when temp begins to approach dangerous levels as you don't want that fan switching on when the cooler is still able to remove enough heat.
So long as you have some sort of meter or gauge to monitor the trans temp then you can experiment to see what works.
I might actually do something like this on my Soarer
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 05:52 am, by: Daniel Clarke(Dieseltrain)
If you weren't using the factory radiaor unit , the. You would need a thermostat of some type , but it will heat the oil up , when warming up , then the external one cool it down upon getting back to the trans .
Robert , I wouldn't change my setup . After putting over 60,000km of street driving , and over 150 1/4 mile passes without hurting the trans , I think my setup speaks for itself ! And the Stally also adds a little bit if heat too .
Thursday, August 15, 2013 - 03:28 pm, by: Joe Trojan(Jttt)
Daniel the thermostat was just an idea to stop the fan running 100% of the time. This car is a daily driver. No need for the fan to be on much of the time eg. doing 110 down the freeway and short winter commutes. Great to hear yours has been that reliable. I have a spare engine and gearbox but hope to never need either of them.
Thursday, August 22, 2013 - 02:53 pm, by: Joe Trojan(Jttt)
Oil cooler arrived yesterday. I looked up the Soarer parts catalogue to work out the flow of oil from and to gearbox. Part number 32921 labelled "tube, oil cooler inlet". So much easier that tracing the tube under the car:
Sunday, August 25, 2013 - 11:11 pm, by: Joe Trojan(Jttt)
I have some bits ordered in to achieve full monitoring and thermofan operation. Boris thanks for the info, I went with an 11 inch Spal pull fan. Ordered but hasn't arrived yet.
Went with largest PWR core I could imagine fitting and it only just fits. Actually it sits a touch lower than the drivers side plastic innerguard/undertray piece which needed trimming, but my front bar is comfortably lower. When it's all together I'll make up a new undertray piece to protect it all. Progress so far, these pics are from my worklog thread:
Friday, September 20, 2013 - 12:31 pm, by: Joe Trojan(Jttt)
Controller installed and everything is operational. The unit has provision for 2 sensors that just get bolted externally onto whatever you want to monitor. It kit only comes with one standard, but I ordered with two to keep an eye on the engine too, or as a spare if the gearbox sensor plays up.
For now I've set the fan to turn on at 70deg, off at 65deg. At these settings I've only had the fan turn on after thrashing the car for a bit then sitting with the car idling in neutral. The box slowly went up in temp. however I have the sensor for the gearbox on the gearbox itself which doesn't help when the fan is trying to cool the gearbox when in neutral/park haha.
Freeway cruising sees the temp get to about 45 deg. and stay there, but that was a coolish night. I'll experiment more with sensor positioning and keep monitoring temps in different conditions:
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