Question for guys up north

[msteiny]

As you all know we live in a wonderful climate in the north country. Winter can be up to 6 months long some years. I have been doing some reading here in the forum about people putting cardboard over the tranny cooler to bring the temp up to lock-up the torque converter. Now I dont drive mine in the snow but there are times I go to work in the morning and it is still butt cold out. Are any of you guys using a tranny thermostat instead of the cardboard trick? I have my car tore apart right now and I am thinking of installing one and just use the cooler up front and skip the radiator. My reason for this is beacause the thermostat that we already have is a POS and restrictive. Somebody on the forum wrote in explaining how much better the shifts were after by-passing all the crap going to the radiator and just went up front. So if anybodys using a thermostat for there tranny I would love to hear some feedback. Thanks to all.

The thermostat I was looking at installing was the Perma-cool 1060, it opens at 180 degrees.

 

[sperold]

I think the automatic transmission cooling system actually gains heat from the radiator section on those cold mornings.
The external cooler keeps the temperature from climbing too high on those hot summer days.
If you wanted to get fancy, you could hook up a bypass in the tranny lines and isolate the rad section with valves, but I would only do that in the hot summer weather.
Get a transmission temperature gauge and try a few things.

 

[rubydist]

I have covered the external trans cooler (wrapped in cardboard) and it will definitely cause it to come up to temp quicker. the reason this is good is that the torque converter lockup clutch will not engage until the trans temp comes up to a certain temp, and in the winter one can drive for hours w/o the lockup occurring unless the cooler is covered, or unless there is a thermostatically controlled valve to allow the trans temp to come up.

just make sure you take off the wrapper for the summer months!

 

[SHOZ123]

The radiator adds little heat to the fluid. It's a cross flow radiator and the cooler is on the cold side.

Bad thing about blocking it off is when the temp rises and you forget about it.

 

[msteiny]

The reason for doing this was to eliminate the cover over the front tranny cooler in the winter. You see with the thermostat installed the fluid will by-pass the cooler back to the tranny until the temp reaches 180 degrees, then the valve opens going to the cooler. Its the same as an engine thermostat, of course I will get a gauge to keep an eye on everything. I guess if nobody else is doing this I will experiment and keep everyone in the loop on my results.

 

[SHOZ123]

I had one at one time but didn't drive the car in the winter that much so took it out.

When I did drive in winter with the exposed Gen 2 cooler the temps usually ran about 125F. The PCM on a stock car needs to see 100F within a few of minutes before it will lock the TC.

But an unlocked TC will heat the fluid much faster than a locked one. With my tunes I lowered the lock temp to 70F.

 

[msteiny]

If I lived in the Phillipines I dont think I would need it either LOL. However there are some times here in North Dakota that the temp is still below 32 in the mornings and while driving 25 miles to work the torque converter doesnt lock up with out the cover over the cooler. Im just trying to **** two birds with one stone here. Free up the fluid flow by removing the stock plumbing, and be rid of the cooler cover. Its no big deal right now I'll dick around with it in the fall, and see what it does.

 

[msteiny]

Update. Got the engine done a little bit ago and installed an aftermarker transmission thermostat. Removed alot of crap from the engine bay while the subframe was out. After engine went in I installed the t-stat just below the ABS module and plumbing. Ran the lines so the fluid went through the radiator first to warm it (kinda) and then it came back to the t-stat and while cold it went bad to the tranny. When it warms up enough (180) the valve opens and let the fluid go throught the stock cooler in front. It works great now, shifts better, no need for a cover over the cooler for the torque converter to lock up. When I tested my work I think it was around 5 below zero, just a little cool. No problems and everything worked great. The t-stat I put in was bought off Amazon. Derale #13011, around $50.