U660E Trans Oil Cooler

[Adamsy]

Just thought this may interest a few of you fella's

On the last road trip we did i we was chasing down WRX's so had to give the ZR6 a fair work out (was one good way of sorting out what had to be done with the coil over’s) anyway the transmission copped a fair bit of man handling and whilst it didn’t slip or flare i did feel that perhaps the transmission didn't appreciate the caning. Paradigm on the other hand who ran out of brakes who was perhaps even harsher on his gearbox to compensate did mention it perhaps wasn’t working as well as we would normally expect from it. So i did a little bit of research and found it to be a reasonable cheap as far as mods go so i have now fitted a Transmission oil cooler to my car to keep things cool :)

Most of these coolers can reduce transmission fluid by 30 degrees and in general a 11 degree drop can double the life of the fluid and greatly increase the life of the transmission itself and stop it slipping or flaring under extreme conditions.

It seems somewhat strange that Aust delivered Aurion’s do not have and external transmission cooler (with the exception of TRD model) as from what i can tell the Middle East export ones do. Also MCV36 Camry Sportivo also has one. Aurion's transmission however does however run through the bottom section of the radiator.

All we simple did was fit some 10mm oil cooler hose from the outlet of the radiator and pipe that to the inlet of the external cooler then ran another pipe from that outlet and ran it back to the transmission however this did need a change to the fitting on the inlet of the transmission as that has a 90degree bend in to fit up nicely with the stock piping then all was left to do was to find the check and "filler" plug on the gearbox and top it back up run the engine for a bit to check for leaks. We did have a minor one which was coming from the washer on the new fitting which was soon sorted no biggie. Only other drama we had was that for some strange reason we tripped a VSC sensor as the check VSC appeared on the dash, but i suspect that may of had something to do with me fiddling with the two VSC relays (all I did was push down on them to make sure they was in properly lol) and then the check engine light came on. i stopped the car turned it back on and it went off but as we was at work we ran the I.T over it and a code did come up which from what i gather basically was to say that you’ve tripped a sensor on the transmission when we was pulling hoses off also no biggie and just to be safe we cleared the code despite the engine light not turning back on again when i restarted the car. Other than that it was a pretty easy mod and one that should make a difference when the going gets tough!

I’ve put a few pics up on my gallery if your interested :)

[450HP/tonne]

Which cooler did you go with?

One option I'm considering for the mid-engined car I'm building is using the TRD cooler. But as the engine will be at the back and the radiator up front, I'm trying to avoid running the oil 3m to the heat exchanger in the radiator. Got any hints for oil cooler selection?

[Adamsy]

Which cooler did you go with?

One option I'm considering for the mid-engined car I'm building is using the TRD cooler. But as the engine will be at the back and the radiator up front, I'm trying to avoid running the oil 3m to the heat exchanger in the radiator. Got any hints for oil cooler selection?

Well after a bit of research and many reviews i settled on the Australian brand Daviescraig who appear to be really quite respected when it comes to coolers, water pumps, switches and piping etc I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that they must be tied up with PWR (Paul Wheel Racing) as you can tell there has been a rubbish attempt of disguising the PWR logo under the daviescraig sticker so im not sure if davies makes them for PWR or vice-versa but i have laid eye on a PWR one that is damm identical(but in saying that a cooler is a cooler the look of them doesn’t differ massively) anyway then i just when through the davies,craig catalogue til i found one that would both fit and suit the Aurion in dimension and performance and naturally the perfect fit happens to be the one for a Commodore or Falcon 6cyl was a bit of a no brainer! From memory the part number was 0677.

I looked at both the TRD and MCV36 Sportivo coolers as the GSV40 Sportivo has the studs already on the lower tie-rail to bolt the TRD cooler straight up but it was priced at like $230 and the MCV36 (which did look different so probably wouldn’t bolt straight up) was more at $270 so was hard to justify the expense of the genuine product when there are products out there from companies that make them for race cars etc for a competitive price and certainly there isn’t a worry about the quality.

an oil cooler does sound like an ideal thing for you but since the specs of these coolers are judged of them been in a chain with the factory cooling system you would need to get a bigger cooler then you would if you was doing it in a chain for example if i had bypassed the factory system that is not run it through the lower part of the radiator still i would of needed to go for a big cooler to compensate but yes sounds like an external cooler would be the go.

[DJKOR]

If you follow the flow of oil, does it go:

Transmission -> external oil cooler -> radiator oil cooler -> transmission

Or does it go:

Transmission -> radiator oil cooler -> external oil cooler -> transmission

When I was speaking to SupaTouring back when I had my Sportivo and was going to put an oil cooler on it when I changed the transmission fluid, he mentioned to have it pass through the radiator oil cooler afterward to aim in warming up the transmission fluid in colder temperatures.

[450HP/tonne]

If you follow the flow of oil, does it go:

Transmission -> external oil cooler -> radiator oil cooler -> transmission

Or does it go:

Transmission -> radiator oil cooler -> external oil cooler -> transmission

When I was speaking to SupaTouring back when I had my Sportivo and was going to put an oil cooler on it when I changed the transmission fluid, he mentioned to have it pass through the radiator oil cooler afterward to aim in warming up the transmission fluid in colder temperatures.

I knew the heat exchanger in the radiator also helps with warm-up, but considering the time it can take to get hot water flowing through the radiator it could also mean quite a long time before the transmission fluid receives any heat.

Plus the type of car I'm building won't be used in cold climates that normal road cars are expected to go. In the worst case it will be under full load around race tracks in summer, so the purpose will be to prevent overheating.

Thanks guys, I will have a look at the 678 (V8) and possibly the 677 (V6) from http://www.daviescraig.com.au/

[Mole]

Which cooler did you go with?

One option I'm considering for the mid-engined car I'm building is using the TRD cooler. But as the engine will be at the back and the radiator up front, I'm trying to avoid running the oil 3m to the heat exchanger in the radiator. Got any hints for oil cooler selection?

They're a little expensive, but B&M make a range called Hi-Tek which have a small thermo fan on them (and a termostat) which should stop you having to run it all the way forwards to air... I'm getting one to handle the extra heat my built up transmission will generate once its finished and it will be mounted under the car and not in front.

[Adamsy]

If you follow the flow of oil, does it go:

Transmission -> external oil cooler -> radiator oil cooler -> transmission

Or does it go:

Transmission -> radiator oil cooler -> external oil cooler -> transmission

When I was speaking to SupaTouring back when I had my Sportivo and was going to put an oil cooler on it when I changed the transmission fluid, he mentioned to have it pass through the radiator oil cooler afterward to aim in warming up the transmission fluid in colder temperatures.

Well if you follow the flow it goes Transmission -> radiator oil cooler -> external oil cooler -> transmission, that's the way we did it as this seems to be the way 9 out of 10 people have rigged there’s. this is also the best way to get the coldest fluid back to the trannie, but yes i guess it depends on your local environment and where you plan on driving as to which way would be best suited to your car i suppose? I’m not sure if it has something to do with the cooler or whether it's because of transmission now has a litre or so of fresh fluid but it shifts even smoother than it did before literally half the time you'd swear it was a CVT you don’t feel nor hear the transmission shift, always was smooth but yeah even better now!