Thread: We all have to start somewhere

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Your steering column is one of my favorites, have one stashed in a cabinet. It was originally designed and made by Gregg Seaholm when he had a shop in Tacoma years ago. He sold the design to Mullin, and of course Borgeson now has it. Such a clean look!

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Your steering column is one of my favorites, have one stashed in a cabinet. It was originally designed and made by Gregg Seaholm when he had a shop in Tacoma years ago. He sold the design to Mullin, and of course Borgeson now has it. Such a clean look!

Yes Bob i love the looks of the column too.. Thanks for the history lesson on it, didn't know all that.. I did buy it from Borgeson along with the 4 spoke wheel..

It appears that you're cooling your transmission with a dual finned heat-sink cooler and no coil in the radiator. Is that the case? If so, do you have experience that says that setup will work OK? I ask because my '34 radiator doesn't have a coil, and I have a fin-type cooler in front of the radiator. I need the space for an A/C condenser, and am looking for another way to cool my 700R4. The other problem with my current setup is that the trans almost never registers on my 100F-250F temperature gauge. I don't have a lot of miles on my car, but I understand that running a 700R4 too cold is not good.

Sorry for the diversion, but the question popped up when I was admiring your assembled chassis. BTW, your whole project is aces. Pro quality build.

I've also wondered about these types of log type coolers. My biggest issue in the diesel world with the radiator or coolant type coolers is that your atf will remain near the same temp as your coolant. If you're towing and the coolant is over 190*, this exceeds many OE specs for the tranny fluid and can cause failures. But like you mentioned, too cold of a temp could cause issues. I'm not real sure on a 700R4, but the biggest issue I've ever had with too cold of temps on a vehicle I've bypassed the radiator or coolant based cooler, was it took longer than usual for the TC to lock up, and that was due to having to wait for the trans to warm up. Other than that, unless high pressure taking seals out is an issue, I wouldn't know what other issue there would be?

If you run the hot trans fluid through the radiator then through the cooler, the returning trans fluid temp should be 40-50* cooler than the engine thermostat setting. With no heat exchanger in the radiator and no way to install one, coupled with the limited space under the car for something else, I just may be screwed. Or, at least looking at a very expensive fix - again.

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

If you run the hot trans fluid through the radiator then through the cooler, the returning trans fluid temp should be 40-50* cooler than the engine thermostat setting. With no heat exchanger in the radiator and no way to install one, coupled with the limited space under the car for something else, I just may be screwed. Or, at least looking at a very expensive fix - again.

As long as there no issues in your trans, your fluid shouldn't be getting that hot to need it to be cooled 50* unless you are towing or making a pass in my opinion. Most well respected trans shops want their transmissions to run below 165* to keep failure down. Most times in a well built trans with no fluid type exchanger and an external cooler somewhere, the temps on the trans fluid won't get hot enough to move the trans temp needle. It can really make you think your gauge isn't working.

My trany operates fine on a remote cooler mounted under my running boards, not through the radiator at all.
And, I've seen the trany cooler mounted in the trunk with a thermostatically controlled fan on it. A small fan could allow you to mount it almost anywhere.

Ryan and Jack, to answer Jacks question about the cooler i'm running i called the guy who built my transmission today and talked to him about it... I ask him if he thought the cooler i had on my car was good enough to cool the 700r4 and he said yes because of the way he built it and set it up... He told me that it should run between 140-230 degrees. He was telling me that a converter with a High stall and one thats small in diameter will cause more heat than than one with a lower stall and one thats bigger... He put a vacuum switch on mine that makes it work just like your new cars and trucks.. It locks up the converter just like a new car which he says will not cause heat build up.. If its not in lock up thats where the heat comes from. I'll see if i can take a picture of it tomorrow and post it.. These are light cars so to speak and if you're not racing it or pulling a trailer don't know why you would have any problem... On the '33 roadster i built i only had a B&M cooler mounted to the frame rail and just a little bit of an angle to help the air move though it and had no problem with the trans in it, but i was also running a 350 trans too...This guy who built my trans has over 40 years working on them and i've got 0 so i kind of trust what he's telling me.. If there is anything you would like to know i would gladly ask him for you..

Parkwood, my trans is a Bowtie Overdrives 700-R4 Level 2 with their 2400 stall high performance converter. I don't have a vacuum switch, but the trans is wired for converter lockup in 4th gear. It unlocks with a brake pressure switch. I also have a toggle switch on the dash to lock it up in the other three gears. I do have the wiring diagram that incorporates both manual toggle and vacuum switches. It's been a while since I worked on the wiring, so I'll have to take a look. Thanks for the info.

I had my 700R4 set up so that lockup is controlled hydraulically--no wiring needed. Doing it this way means that it automatically locks up in every gear, but that is not something I find objectionable. The only thing that took some getting used to is if I run it through the gears to blow out the cob webs, when it locks up it feels almost like a shift in the middle of each gear. I have been running it with a tube-type aluminum cooler for ten years with no issues.

Lynn,

I'm not in a position to have my trans reworked, but I can add a vacuum switch pretty easily. Now, if I can just find a place to put the cooler . . .

why don't you have a cooler put into your lower radiator ?????????? Besides it being a "COOLER" it is also a "PREHEATER" to make sure the trans fluid is warm-once the trans is in high gear and up to speed, there isn't anything creating heat to keep the fluid warmed up to operating temp----------


And I think we should use the term "HEAT EXCHANGER" instead of "COOLER"

This is where I mounted my "heat exchanger" (that is a good term for that, Jerry). It is between two and three inches from the side of the frame.

Jerry, this radiator is an odd shape. It conforms exactly to the shape of the grille shell, so the bottom tank is roughly a triangle 15" wide x 9" high x 3" thick. When I was building the car, I took it to a custom radiator shop and they told me they couldn't do it and recommended the external cooler. I'm going to have to give this some more thought.

Lynn, my coupe is channelled, and there isn't much room under the car.

I don't want to hijack parkwood's thread any longer, so if I have other questions or comments, I'll start a new thread. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and advice.

Hey don't worry about hi jacking my thread, runs my count up and makes me feel like a big shot... ha