Transmission temp ?

[farmb0y]

Wondering what everyone is seeing for trans temps? I'm trying to compare what I'm seeing now to my '99, and to me they seem really hot. Just cruising empty they can get up to 170*. The other day I was towing 20K+ behind the pickup and had them up to 230*+ driving through town. I about didn't make a hill because the TC was slipping so bad, was just crawling at about 10mph.
That was with KEM 250 tune.

I just had a transmission flush done and they said everything in the trans looked good. I was seeing the same temps before as after (except for the high temps and slipping).

Guessing my TC is going. Is there a good way to test the cooler? What's available for aftermarket?

 

[tbsimmons]

My tranny temps will climb also when going slow towing the trailer, 18000#, but never that hot.
I hardly see the temp below 170 after the tranny is warmed up. I am pretty sure the circuit for cooling is set around that. My 04 ran a little cooler but not much when just cruising down the road. Had 35's with 4.56's in that.
Pulling my trailer up hills and such as long as I keep my speed above 35 the hottest I have seen the tranny is about 190. The only thing I have done is the Mag-Hytech pan. Seems like it has worked. This was climbing some steep grades in 105+ heat.
Now for the tuning. I dont know what MPH Mike locks the TC up in his tunes, but like above mine is locked at anything above 35 so that might be some of the reason mine stays down. I have 4.88's so I can lock the TC earlier. If you have 3.73 gears and larger tires that is going to put more of a strain towing that much weight behind you more so if you have the same lock up MPH as stock trucks. A lot of torque hitting that clutch plate. With the torque of the 250 tune I am sure if you pushed the truck hard it would slip the TC with that much weight. A lot more power with a loaded truck.
To test the coolers on anything I have always just took the lines off and blew either air through it, a tranny cooler cleaner, solvent, etc. then air. I doubt your cooler is blocked. The tranny will get warm if the TC is not locking or staying locked.
The cooler is fine for these trucks if everything is working fine. Even with the stock pan and stock tuning I didnt get much above 200 degrees. Might have before I got gauges but the glorified dummy light for a guage didnt move much.
I run Innovative's tow tune towing. I dont need more power than that. I have towed a little with the street tune (about 7000#) but the tow does fine for me.

 

[BFT]

in town you will most likely see higher temps because of going slow and starting and stopping.

like mentioned above...the hottest ive seen is 230+ stuck behind a slow big rig on a huge grade going 30. keeping up with a constant speed (70 or so out of cali) i see 175-180 with about 15k+. this is with 37" tires and 3.73's...

 

[97powerstroke]

37's and 3.73 equals distruction for the tranny and convertor I would put 4.56's or at least a 4.30 gear in.

 

[BFT]

37's and 3.73 equals distruction for the tranny and convertor I would put 4.56's or at least a 4.30 gear in.

true, i recently had my converter go out. but it was also do to making 450 and towing.

4.30's seem to work pretty well with these trucks on 37's

 

[tbsimmons]

Just got home from a trip.
If you want to see the hills and speed you can look up the terrain.
Few descent hills out of Taft but nothing that compares to what I go over heading to the beach.
Hwy 119 from Taft to 43 to go North.
43 to 7th Standard
7th Standard to 99 North.
99 to the Kingsburg Gun Club.
The hottest the tranny got was 191. That was on the way home on 119, had to slow down some because of a truck.
Most of the trip when I looked at it was 178-183.
It was hot also. 104 when I pulled onto my street.
Drove between 55-65 the whole trip.

 

[mortal798]

Normal operating temp range is 170-180F, according to Ford. I recently had the same questions. I was hitting 210F in the city pulling my 14K 5th wheel. I have found that 210F or less is pretty normal while pulling. When the temp climbs, it is climbing due to more friction - probably some internal slippage. I added an external cooler in-line with the factory one. The new one has a fan, so if it is getting too hot I can flip a switch and cool it down.