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extra oil cooler for 1994 autobox

S

Steve10

New Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2011
Messages
28
Hi

I would like to fit an extra oil cooler to help keep my auto box cooler on a forthcoming trip to Morocco and I have in mind one from Kenlowe
www.kenlowe.com/oil-coolers/automatic/technical.html

Has anyone fitted one of these before and if so what was your experience, would you recommend them? Does anyone have any other recommendations?

cheers

Steve
 
Generally regarded as a good idea, Steve - auto 80s in hot climates come with an OEM auxiliary oil (ATF) cooler.
No reason why a Kenlowe of sufficient cooling capacity wouldn't be good :thumbup:
You can find 2nd hand OEM aux coolers for sale every so often. Karl Webster in this club may even have one in stock.
If you search in the 80 series forum, you might find some threads with more detail on these and debate around whether they should be plumbed in before or after the rad cooler :lol:

Have you priced the Kenlowe up yet?

Cheers,
 
i have fitted a 13 row kenlowe rad to my 80.
It seems to be a nicely made bit of kit and came with hoses, fittings etc.
the man i spoke to there was also very helpful and honest with any advice. he wasnt just trying to sell me the most expensive thing.
 
just as if not more important IMO is to fit an ATF temperature gauge so you have some idea what's going on. Even with an aux cooler you will sometimes need to change your driving style to avoid overheating the box and waiting for the light to come on is not a good idea, it means damage may already be being done and may not be at a convenient time.

Quite a few people on here have fitted the Kenlowe coolers and they seem to work ok, I've had a couple myself, but if I had a choice I'd fit the OEM cooler.
 
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Fridayman [was first] then Chas at the moment. Good to hear you are patient Etienne - that must be a dad thing :lol:
 
Steve, get yourself a bottle of this... your ATF will love you for it :thumbup: it came highly recomened by a friend who builds automatic transmissions for a living :thumbup:

As well as the Lube Guard Red I also fitted an auxillary cooler AFTER the in rad OEM one for my recent Maroc trip.
 
Evening

Thanks for the various replies, very useful although I have gone slightly cross eyed reading some of the links :lol:

I spoke to Kenlowe today (spoke to a chap called Jeff, very helpful as Tom said) and they will do a 13 row cooler with all the pipes etc for £175, which seems fine to me. Thanks for the feedback above on these.

SimonD - I'm interested in the OEM aux cooler but you seem to have a couple of other guys interested and since I would like to get one next week I probably just go for the Kenlowe one. :thumbup:

Jon, I like the idea of fitting an ATF temp gauge, thanks. I searched on here and someone said the VDO gauges are fine. A google search shows various sellers for those so I reckon that will do for me.

Bat21 - thanks for link re the red lube guard , I'll get some of that. By the way, Kenlowe also recommended fitting the aux cooler after the in rad OEM one.

Thanks again for help!

Cheers

Steve
 
I doubt that little 13 row cooler will make any appreciable difference to transmission temperature. The std in-rad cooler is extremely efficient, and pretty big, so adding a little extra may no make a difference. Check out the size of the OE extra cooler to give you an idea of what may be required.
 
Does anyone know the pipe size to the cooler - internal bore?

Edit - actually, what are the threaded connections on the rad?

Chris
 
I used 10mm bore pipe for mine, the rad connections on my autokool rad were not threaded, they were sticky out bits of pipe that the 10mm pipe also fitted

Andy
 
Yes the AKool one I had were braised but the OEM one isn't.

Chris
 
DaveN said:
I doubt that little 13 row cooler will make any appreciable difference to transmission temperature. The std in-rad cooler is extremely efficient, and pretty big, so adding a little extra may no make a difference. Check out the size of the OE extra cooler to give you an idea of what may be required.
Click to expand...
If you mean the Kenlowe one it does make quite a big difference going by my experience of them.
 
I have been reading up on these gearboxes just lately as I am about to do a manual to auto conversion, the A442F gearboxes suffer badly with heat as they tend to slip alot in the gears and don't lock up well, I have been told that the main reasons these fail is due to heat... A after market transmission cooler is a good idea... but also a new valve body will do the job by locking up the gears and stopping the heat build up...

http://www.automatictransmission.com.au/release.asp?NewsId=4651

I have to use a after market cooler as the front mount IC takes up its old position. I have sourced a 2.5 litre trans cooler from a Allison transmission, positioned correctly and a good temp gauge with the new valve body I should not have a problem...
 
Kiwipete said:
.... A after market transmission cooler is a good idea... but also a new valve body will do the job by locking up the gears and stopping the heat build up...
Click to expand...

Kiwipete said:
.... I have a 1991 HDJ80 5 speed manual and have just purchased a second hand 442f Hydraulic gearbox....
Click to expand...
Are you sure the Extreme Valve Body kt will fit the hydraulic box Pete?.... I thought they were made for the solenoid controlled one, or are they essentially the same box?
 
the factory cooler is nice, any additional cooling is great since these are not cheap to fix and it won't die in your driveway but when you have the family in the car, all packed for a trip and on a busy highway and on a HOT day. picture wife and kids and dog barking at you while they are baking on the side of the road waiting for a tow.

the BEST addition you can make is the ATF temp gauge, those idiot lights are for idiots that can pull out a wallet ... cause that is what that light is telling you, damage is done.

make sure you install PRIOR to the rad and not after, important.

do a thread of the install, we all enjoy threads with pics.
 
Crushers said:
.... those idiot lights are for idiots that can pull out a wallet ... cause that is what that light is telling you, damage is done.
Click to expand...
I have heard it said many times that once the light comes on 'damage is done'. How bad is this 'damage'? My light came on in 2010 in Morocco and 20,000 miles later she is still running fine.
Crushers said:
make sure you install PRIOR to the rad and not after, important....
Click to expand...
Again another much debated subject. I did a lot of research before deciding weather to fit my axillary rad fore or aft of the factory in rad rad.

I decided to fit it after the main rad and have never seen the light come on since.

Pete, when you fill up your newly aquired auto trans, get yourself some Lubeguard Red.... trust me your autobox will thank you for it :thumbup:
 
Crushers wrote:
make sure you install PRIOR to the rad and not after, important....


I checked the fitting instructions for Kenlowe, mocal, and another 2 or 3 auxillary cooler manufacturers and their fitting instructions all said plumb the cooler AFTER the rad...

EDIT- are you talking about the gauge or the cooler? in terms of prior to the rad?

i put my gauge before the rad
 
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