Transmission temp question

[chief1983]

For anyone who has installed a gauge, what's the normal peak temperature you see, especially when towing? I installed the AutoMeter 3 mini gauge cluster (2391) and want to replace the voltmeter I don't need with a transmission temp gauge, and AutoMeter told me that the 2355 water temp gauge could easily double as a transmission temp gauge. It goes up to 280 (or possibly more but isn't numbered past that), and I did see many transmission temp gauges with peaks of 240 to 300. But, some posts I read in a couple places suggested that especially for towing, I'd need a peak well in excess of 300 degrees. Just wondering if you guys regularly cross the 280 threshold. If so, having it hit that in any occasion would then kind of leave me wondering how much hotter than 280 it is

If you've installed an external transmission cooler, has that brought your peak towing temps below 280?

Also, any tapping suggestions that don't involve welding would be welcome. Could a transmission drain plug kit double as a sending unit mount? Was thinking I could get two, and have a drain plug and a place for a sending unit both so I wouldn't need to pull the sending unit to drain, or could still drain before removing sending unit from the pan when dropping the pan.

 

[gungearz]

It should run in the 220' with a big trans cooler. I would recommend an external trans cooler on any vehicle but its cheaper for a manufacturer to put it in the radiator. All of my automatic transmission vehicles were converted by me when I got them.... Very easy and cheap to do.

 

[wayne pick]

This is a Derale electra cool 16 pas fan driven trans cooler. I also mounted an external spin on filter. It has a provision for a sender on the filter head. You can get the spin on filter, filter head, and guage kit from Derale. Both the cooler and spin on kit come with hose, fittings and clamps.

 

[biggestc69]

I run the Derale extra deep pan with cooling tubes and a Haynes external cooler bypassing the factory one. I tow 8 to 10k loads and on a 100 degree day the highest I got was 195. The big helper was the external cooler. I ran the gauge before it and even with the slightest slip it would bring up the temp but with the factory cooler it would never bring it back down. Once I installed the external cooler the temp would start coming back down and even pulling hard hills in 100 degree heat I have only gotten to 195. And it comes back down pretty fast after the hill.