I pull a fifth wheel and regularly see pretty high trans temps.
I'm approaching 15,000 miles and I'm thinking about what I may want to do for my trans in the next 5 to 10K miles or so.

I was leaning towards an oversized trans pan and AMSOIL ATF.
It looks like that pan is about $160 and the AMSOIL $140, so this looks like a $300 plan give or take. I had not been leaning towards AMSOIL until I saw a spec sheet that clearly indicates that it is ATF+4 and intended for a DC application.

Will the combo of a bigger pan and new oil lower temps?
Any truth to the claim it will improve fuel economy?
Is it worth the $300?

 

someone on this forum pointed me towards
http://www.dieselperformanceparts.co...&e_unique=9393
for a pan.

bigger, heat sink, drain plug, I think I like it.

 

What are "pretty high trans temps" ?

 

Make sure you get the double deep pan. These newer trucks already have a deep pan. they just don't have a drain plug or a place to mount your temp sender.....

 

I bought one of the DPP tranny pans. It was installed with the ATS tranny parts. Seems to do the job, no leaks. Much cheaper then Mag-Hytek and made by same company in CA. Came with all required stuff.

Oh, there was no port for tranny temp sending unit. You will have to drill pan or get a tranny line with sending unit port. Mass Diesel has the tranny lines, $80.

Mike

 

pretty high temps =

190-200 running flat on a highway
200-220 climbing hills or in stop/go traffic
220-240 backing into my driveway or a camp site

(all while towing) normal driving is 170-190

btw - typical next question... "where is your temp sender"
I don't know, it's where DC put it. My X-monitor taps the stock sensor voltage from a line on the engine block connector.

If I can get 30 degrees from that pan (that DPP pan IS oversized compared to my 04 2500?) or I can at least give myself an extra 30 minutes in stop/go traffic before the temp rises to 220 I'd be happy with it. Since I'll be messing with fluids when I swap pans anyhow, I'm thinking of AMSOil vs Mopar.

with fuel prices going bonkers, an mpg improvement would be nice too.

 

I went with the PML pan. I don't have it installed yet.
I like it because it is NOT powder coated (just plain old unfinished alum.)
I believe powder coating holds in the heat.

 

I went with ATF+4 from the dealership for $16.50 a gallon and an $8 B&M drain plug kit from Discount Auto Parts to mount my tranny temp sending unit in. Towing our 10,400 lb 5th wheel, I see temps of 160*F in 90*F~ weather on the highway towing 68-70mph in O/D. By the time I drive through town and get to the campground or back home and parked I've seen the highest temp of 180*F.
I like the sending unit in the pan so if the cooler or drainback valve clogs or sticks shut (again) I won't be seeing normal temps in the cooler line while the fluid in the tranny is cooking.

 

Here is a thought for ya. If your willing to spend $300 to lower temps, have you considered installing a new valve body? It would cost you another $100 over what your looking to spend, but the benefits are many.

For instance, from a cooling aspect, the stock valve body pumps 3.5 gallons of fluid through the trans cooler per minute. This is at cruise with the converter locked. A BD valve body pumps 4 gallons through the cooler per minute. An ATS valve body pumps 4.5 to 4.7 gallons per minute. A DTT valve body pumps 5 gallons per minute. You talk about lowering temps, an ATS or DTT will double the time your fluid will spend in the cooler. I can't say for sure (don't have a tranny temp gauge), but one can see that it would lower temps much more than just adding a pan.

Side benefits: If you ever wanted to update your torque converter, your ready for it. Shift quality will be improved 100%. Add a lock-up switch and you can lock your converter in 2nd gear if you want. Eliminates converter drain back. Pumps fluid in "Park" so the trans is ready to go when you put it in gear. The stock converter does not pump in "park". Just a thought.

That is a good looking pan though….and it is cheap. I'll have to bookmark that page.

 

I can only guess that my trans temps vs the report of towing 10K#+ and staying at 160 are not apples to apples because the temp sensors aren't in the same place... Or, could it be indicative of a flow restriction or some problem in my trans?
When towing 180 is the best I see, not the highest. In stop/go driving I can predictably get to 220 in 30 minutes - though it will drop to 190 after 10 minutes of steady highway speed.

... should I be worried?

 

I'd be wondering about the calibration of your transmission temperature gauge. I've had three different gauges in my trucks. A VDO in my '95, another VDO in my '01.5 and now an Autometer in my '03. All were measured in the pan. I've not seen over 160*F running empty. Even when I had the sensor in the hot line for a while in my '03 I never saw over 190*F moving the 5th wheel around. I wouldn't expect to see over 200*F unless I was in city traffic for a good while towing or climbing a grade. The pan is deep and the cooler is pretty big. Unless your drainback valve is partially clogged, your temps should be comparable to mine.
FWIW, the temperature sensor for the TCM is in the governor pressure sensor assembly bolted to the underside of the valve body in the pan. The gauge might be calibrated correctly and the sensor might be reading a little high. Who knows but I'd rather have a seperate sending unit to be sure.

 

hmmmm....

when you bolt on gauges it is hard to know if they are accurate - there's really nothing to compare to besides expected results. I watched the truck today on the way to work. At 48F ambient the trans heated up to 160 and stayed there - an expected result I think. When I see temp spikes while towing it's always due to stop/go loads on the trans or while backing maneuvering - also an expected result.

This leaves the possibility of a faulty gauge and/or a flow restriction or... "normal" operation.

I guess I'm pretty sold on trying a bigger heat/sunk pan.
I'm not sold on trying a new fluid yet.

If the pan can drop my towing temps I think I can safely assume the trans is circulating fluid OK. If not... well, I gues I hope something blows up big time within my 7/70...

Also, although I like the idea of beefing up the trans some day, I'm thinking I won't get to that expenditure until the trans is out of warranty and/or giving me some problems.