GEN 1 Mishimoto Radiator upgrade experience?

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vegascarnut

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@letsgetthisdone what transmission cooler are you running? My boat and trailer are about 6,500 lbs. Just went to Lake Powell and back over Labor Day Weekend, and it did well. Upgrading the transmission cooler has really helped overall trans and coolant temps. Honestly, I think just changing the transmission fluid made a big difference, but the extra capacity and larger cooler obviously are key.

Since I'm running the blower, I do think I need to upgrade the radiator at some point, but for now I'm managing.
 

letsgetthisdone

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All stock coolers right now. I went with the radiator first as that is the temp that spikes the quickest when the rpm's are up when the power is needed for a hill. The reason for the oil temp gauge is I want to see if the oil temp is also spiking in that scenario which isn't helping coolant temps. Since I already had a trans temp gauge, the trans seems to "lazily" follow coolant temp, so I'm not convinced the trans adds much heat to the coolant, vs the coolant temp going up and that is actually heating the trans.

There are multiple pretty steep and long grades going to duck creek, especially after St. George. And getting up the mountain from Cedar City to Duck Creek on the 14 is particularly nasty.

And me wanting to do 75-80 didn't help...lol
 
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Dane

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All stock coolers right now. I went with the radiator first as that is the temp that spikes the quickest when the rpm's are up when the power is needed for a hill. The reason for the oil temp gauge is I want to see if the oil temp is also spiking in that scenario which isn't helping coolant temps. Since I already had a trans temp gauge, the trans seems to "lazily" follow coolant temp, so I'm not convinced the trans adds much heat to the coolant, vs the coolant temp going up and that is actually heating the trans.

There are multiple pretty steep and long grades going to duck greek. And getting up the mountain from Cedar City to Duck Creek on the 14 is particularly nasty.
I tow my toyhauler up the Rocky Mountains - we know hill climbs here. My tranny was the first upgrade I had to do. I went with the Ford Saudi cooler (as many have) and the AFE tranny pan. I haven't had any more tranny heating issues. The tranny pan let me install a separate/independent tranny gauge too. The tranny heat was under slow pulls (think traffic) up nasty hills.

Now I can start getting my engine hot on the worst hill if I don't chill out - hence the radiator upgrade in the future (which also upgrades tranny cooling). I do aim to also install an oil pressure/temp gauge soon. I already installed the sandwich plate to allow this.
 

letsgetthisdone

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Sandwich plate is the wrong spot for oil temp. The oil has already gone through the pump at that point and doesn't represent correct temp. You need the temp sender in the oil pan. Luckily our oil drain plug is 14mm and can be drilled and tapped for 1/8" NPT so it's easy to put the sensor in the drain plug. No need to weld a **** into the oil pan.

I'm not too worried about watching oil pressure as long as temp is in check. Ford did the development on that (pump volume and capability vs engine clearances, etc), so unless I build the engine and am looking to change clearances I'm not going to bother with oil pressure.
 

vegascarnut

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All stock coolers right now. I went with the radiator first as that is the temp that spikes the quickest when the rpm's are up when the power is needed for a hill. The reason for the oil temp gauge is I want to see if the oil temp is also spiking in that scenario which isn't helping coolant temps. Since I already had a trans temp gauge, the trans seems to "lazily" follow coolant temp, so I'm not convinced the trans adds much heat to the coolant, vs the coolant temp going up and that is actually heating the trans.

There are multiple pretty steep and long grades going to duck creek, especially after St. George. And getting up the mountain from Cedar City to Duck Creek on the 14 is particularly nasty.

And me wanting to do 75-80 didn't help...lol

Yeah, we head up to DC a lot, and that is quite a climb.
 

vegascarnut

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Sandwich plate is the wrong spot for oil temp. The oil has already gone through the pump at that point and doesn't represent correct temp. You need the temp sender in the oil pan. Luckily our oil drain plug is 14mm and can be drilled and tapped for 1/8" NPT so it's easy to put the sensor in the drain plug. No need to weld a **** into the oil pan.

Drilling and tapping the drain plug is a cool idea.
 

vegascarnut

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I tow my toyhauler up the Rocky Mountains - we know hill climbs here. My tranny was the first upgrade I had to do. I went with the Ford Saudi cooler (as many have) and the AFE tranny pan. I haven't had any more tranny heating issues. The tranny pan let me install a separate/independent tranny gauge too. The tranny heat was under slow pulls (think traffic) up nasty hills.

Yeah, we took an RV trip through the Rockies. Holy hell! Haha. It was an old RV and an OLD 454. Poor thing.

Climbing was terrible, but descending, oh man! What a rush.
 

letsgetthisdone

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Ok, so even with the open trailer and "just" the Evo on it, I saw 220-225 coolant temps on baker grade and mountain pass going 65-70 this weekend with 90* ambient temps. So the radiator is definitely needed (which we already knew).

Oil temp doesn't seem to effect coolant temp, coolant goes up and stabilizes and oil goes up at its own pace that is slower than coolant. On the longer grades oil temp got up to 242. Not a huge deal, most OEM vehicles run 240-260* oil temps as normal op temp these days. Cruising flats oil surprisingly stays at 170-190ish. Due to that, I'm reluctant to put an oil cooler on until I see how it does with the radiator upgrade. Even with a thermostat for the oil cooler, the cooler still gets about 10-15% oil flow so that oil is circulating through it and the system isn't shocked with thick/cold oil when the thermostat opens. My concern is that with an oil cooler the oil will run cold, especially without a load and/or in colder weather.

The trans doesn't run that hot. It seems to stabilize at 210-215ish, only going up from there when coolant temp is higher than trans temp. So I feel like high coolant temps add heat to the trans. So again, I'm just going to put the radiator in and see how everything does. This may change based on what I see with offroading where the converter is unlocked more often, but we'll see.

For now I'll be doing just the radiator, getting more data, and I'll go from there.
 
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