Air/water heat exchanger vs trans cooler

[vegas39]

So In prepping for my air/water install, I'm curious as to whether I should put the heat exchanger in front of the trans cooler, or vise versa. I dont know how hot the heat exchanger will get but I know when towing that the trans temp can hit 210 on steep grades on a 110 degree day.
Most other times, the trans temp stays right at 160.

 

[BDCarrillo]

Heat exchanger in front... Temps will be quite a bit lower than the tranny cooler.

 

[snicklas]

Food for thought - not saying this is right, but.....

On my 6.0 PSD, factory IC and Tow Package it goes:

Grill
Transmission Cooler
A/C Condenser
Innercooler
Radiator
Fan


This is how the factory did it on the newer trucks.........

 

[vegas39]

Interesting. It doesnt take much to move the trans cooler, so I guess I could experiment with what seems to work best.

I'm probably going to add a temp gauge to the air/water unit, as I'll be interested to see what kind of temps it runs.

I really would like to control the water pump with a temp gauge for exhaust temps but cant seem to find anything that gets up into the 7 or 800 degree range.
I have found a few boost pressure switches that can be used, however my first choice would be to control the pump by temp.

 

[BDCarrillo]

6.4 PSD had the intercooler first, FWIW, then 8 other things around/behind it. My SRT-4 had it up front and IATs were only a couple degrees over ambient after a hard run, ECT was solid at 185.

You need a wide thermal gradient for heat transfer... The greater the difference, the better cooling. So lowest temp things up front so the hotter stuff toward the rear can still dissipate heat.

Heat soak takes a little time... Once you see elevated heat exchanger fluid temps, it's too late, your intake temps will be skyrocketing already. Switching on by boost or intake air temps would keep you a step ahead.

 

[The Warden]

6.4 PSD had the intercooler first, FWIW, then 8 other things around/behind it.

Forgive the slight tangent, but do you know why Ford went this way with the 6.4l after the 6.0l and 7.3l put the a/c condenser in front of the intercooler? For that matter, how did the 6.7l handle it?

I ask because I have an intercooler out of a 6.0l that I want to put on my truck, and I've been thinking about relocating the a/c condenser in front of the intercooler...but, if Ford engineers found a good reason to put the intercooler in front instead, that's worth considering before going through the trouble to do this...

Thanks in advance

 

[BDCarrillo]

I can't begin to guess why it changed so much... Could range from unsat AC cooling to the sequence of installing accessories at the factory or just how the piping ran easiest.

Bottom line, intercoolers need cool air. Will a tranny cooler affect it very much? I really wouldn't think so unless your TC was unlocked and you were boostin to the moon for a long duration.

 

[vegas39]

I'm gonna mount the trans cooler in front of the heat exchanger. My next issue is trying to find a place for the intercooler that will work with the Hypermax pipe kit. I want to put it in place of the passenger side battery but it looks like it will be a tight fit the way I wanted to mount it, I may have to turn it a different direction.
Still gotta figure out how I want to control the pump, as I don't want a simple on off switch. I like things to be fully automatic.

 

[OLDBULL8]

I dont know how hot the heat exchanger will get but I know when towing that the trans temp can hit 210 on steep grades on a 110 degree day.
Most other times, the trans temp stays right at 160.

That is normal trans temp when towing and steep grades, as long as you don't exceed 230*F for very long. I don't know what your concerned/worried about.
Are you still using the rad heat exchanger, then to the Aux cooler? Liquid to liquid heat exchange is the most effective way, air to liquid is second best.

 

[vegas39]

That is normal trans temp when towing and steep grades, as long as you don't exceed 230*F for very long. I don't know what your concerned/worried about.
Are you still using the rad heat exchanger, then to the Aux cooler? Liquid to liquid heat exchange is the most effective way, air to liquid is second best.

Not sure what your asking. I am adding a heat exchanger behind the grill for my new intercooler and was originally wondering if I should mount it in front of, or behind my transmission cooler. I'm gonna go ahead and mount it behind the transmission cooler.

I didnt buy the whole Frozenboost kit, only the intercooler. I want to do a bunch of searching and see what I can find for the biggest heat exchanger I can get. I read where most of the problems with the air/water setup is heat soak on long runs and I want to avoid that as best as possible.

 

[vegas39]

So it looks like I'll end up getting two heat exchangers from Frozenboost and mount one above the other. The kit only gives you a choice of one but I think I may end up putting two of the 26x7x2 units in there. They also offer those in 3.5inch thick and if I have the clearance between the condenser and grill, I'll use those.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Quote Originally Posted by OLDBULL8 View Post
That is normal trans temp when towing and steep grades, as long as you don't exceed 230*F for very long. I don't know what your concerned/worried about.
Are you still using the rad heat exchanger, then to the Aux cooler? Liquid to liquid heat exchange is the most effective way, air to liquid is second best.

Not sure what your asking. I am adding a heat exchanger behind the grill for my new intercooler and was originally wondering if I should mount it in front of, or behind my transmission cooler. I'm gonna go ahead and mount it behind the transmission cooler.

I guess I should of said about the radiator and aux cooler it's pretaining to the transmission. There is about a 40*F difference from the top to the bottom of the radiator, using the radiator cooler takes most of the heat out of the transmission fluid and the aux cooler cools it further.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

i placed my trans coolers down behind the bumpers on my trucks so they didn't interfere with the intercoolers.
with trans t-stats (180F) my trans temps remain around 185-190 all the time.very rare do i ever even see 200F.with a large enough trans cooler (and placed in after the radiator like bill points out) it doesn't need direct airflow to cool well.