Recently while hauling a slide-in camper and towing a 14' flatbed full of OHVs here in the mountains, my tranny has been running as hot as 220 degrees for about 20 minutes at a time on the steeper climbs. It's got a stock tranny cooler and the owners manual says this is well within operating parameters but it seems a little hot to me. It's only gonna get worse as summer heats up. Would a different (B&M) cooler be better than the stocker? Or has anyone tried running an additional cooler alongside the stocker? Any additives work worth a flip? BTW it's a 4L80E.

 

I think trans temps need to be below 210 for the trans to have any kind of a life expectancy. Possibly a bigger cooler could help?

 

i used to have a b&m racing super cooler and my trans never got over 160degs., i installed a 6 pass perma cool cooler and now i run up to 200degs, what pos.
so i bought another b&m and i'm sending that pos back to summit.
install yourself a b&m cooler and get those temps down, every 10 degs cooler will just about double the life of your trans.

good luck,

allen

 

whats a normal range for a 4L60E

 

Is there such a thing as too cold though? Is it like running a cooler 'stat on the motor where you run the risk of not burning off any condensation that's built up?

My tranny has no cooler on it, and I've never seen it go above 200. But, the only thing that I haul is ***, so that might have something to do with it!

 

The owners manual says "the normal operating range is from 100 to about 265 degrees F". I dropped the pan yesterday to put in a new filter (what a PITA that was!) and check out the condition of the old fluid that had 30,000 miles on it. Everything looked great. The stock cooler looks a little on the smallish side so I think I will just put the largest B&M offered(24,000gvw?) and see what happens. BTW, with the way it is now, my cold winter driving tranny temps rarely get over 100 degrees, with the truck empty of course, and it shifts and goes about it's business very well. That leads me to believe that it's no problem to have too much cooling.

 

Ideally you'd want to keep the temps from 125-175*.

Any hotter than ~225* and you get glazing of clutches, burned fluid, etc. NOT good.

If it is too cold, it would be like motor oil when cold...thicker and just not good for performance.

Stay within the happy medium and enjoy your 4L60E as best you can, lol!

 

My 4L80E rarely sees 200* towing our 30' camper. That is with the stock cooler. Another thing I seen was those high capacity tranny pans that have the air flow tubes through them. I would think that would disapate a lot heat.

 

On level ground the temp stays at about 160. It's the route I take from Loveland to Grand Lake through Rocky Mountain Nat. Park that's causing me concern. I go from 5000' to 12,000' in about 45 miles with some really steep/slow **** inside the park(damn tourists slamming on the brakes to snap a pic of a marmot!). Truck has performed flawlessly so far. Maybe I could get some quick disconnects for a jumbo cooler to run in the Summer and return to stock in the Winter. Hmmmmm...sound like a plan?