I have a 2001 A4 Z28 and will be installing a Midwest 3400 TC with a 2.0 STR. will a 19000 GVW tranny cooler be big enough to handle the cooling or do I need a bigger cooler?

thanks

 

I got a 22000GVW for the trans cooling, and it held up fine through a whole track day (5 sessions of 20-25 mins). I am on a stock converter though, and bigger converters can create much higher temperatures. If you're a quarter mile sort of guy, it should be fine, just don't try to road race it for extended periods of time, you'll cook it.

 

19000 should be good, but it's only a few extra bucks for a 24000. That's what I got with my Yank.

 

i found a used 19000 GVW for $25, so i was figuring for half the price of new if it worked why not buy it.

 

if you are going to drag race in the summer heat, get a deep pan, and a BIG **** cooler. Check out the summit racing fan'd ones. They are huge.

or don't and watch your temps skyrocket hotlapping and staging

trans fluid (normal) isn't very stable at 225F.

Bring a datalogger and you'll see REAL life results. The street/freeway/street races aren't like a 90F day with short lines and alot of runs to make

at least thats what i found out on the first track day.
best i could do was 12.268 on a 80+F day hotlapping (no-one to race, towards the end).

On a 50F night i hit 12.163 on my 4th try (after mods). The lines were longer so im figuring the cooldown on (motor,trans) helped ALOT.

the m6 drivers were pulling 12.6-13.0 due to their lack of A4 ability. Mind you they could run 12's in their m6's but they thought it was easy to launch a mad torque A4 lol. they were wrong.

 

ive got a 19k but ive only got a 3500 stall...last tuesday when it started @70 degrees and ended @55 by the end of the night the tranny temps were at around 180 all night but that was 4 runs...imagine a summer day of 90 degree weather and a few hot laps and your talking 210-230 pretty easy even with the cooler...go big and youll be fine...if possible bypass the stock cooler and you'll be even better off.

lata
Bill

 

In put a 24000 on mine. I live in Florida and in the summer it gets down right hot here. I didn't want to take the chance on it running too hot. I'd rather be safe than sorry and I only paid $50 from Summit for it.

 

bypass the cooler? this is even better? howd i do something like that. i have a 19000 and i was told that there were fitment issues with anything bigger than that.



thanks J

 

there are no fitment issues. i have a 19k for power steering and 22k for trans all in front of radiator, and besides getting few extra feet of a line, it all works just peachy. if it wasn't raining i'd take a picture.

 

the stock cooler uses the radiator...keep in mind those temps wih the stock stat can get to 230F in the summer before the stock fans come on...now if the tranny lines run through there how hot do you think your tranny is gonna get? hehe its a good amount of extra work to work around it so its not for everyone but its really your best bet and yes you can go somewhat bigger than the 19k that you got.

lata
Bill

 

this is true but at cruising speeds the area of of the radiator is going to cool much better than just a cooler..

keep the fan's running at the track im gonna reprogram them to be on all the time next track event.

 

would you say its a good idea to keep the fans goin all the time when i am cruzn around?

 

If you run cooler than stock fan settings that keep your coolant under 200* and run the aftermarket cooler after the stock cooler (it should go...... out of trans - into stock cooler - out of stock cooler - into aftermarket cooler - back to trans) the stock cooler should help you when you're really pushing the trans hard.

I am running my stock cooler plus a 16K B&M unit and fan settings that keep my coolant temps in the 194 to 205 range plus a deeper truck trans pan, and my trans always stays under 185 on a-tap. I've never hot lapped the car at the track in 80+ degree weather though, but after TONS of hard street driving in 80+ degree temps my trans still stays in the 18X* range.

 

do you know if the tranny fluid actually runs through the radiator or does it just hang out in the resovior on the pass side? I always assumed if it just hangs out there its cooking at 200 degrees? I mean after my 10 minuted drive to work in the morning my tranny temps were like 150-160 i think..now they dont even hit 100 in that same time...200 degrees is 200 degrees no matter how big your radiator is...JMHO but i think the stock "cooler" does more heating than anything which is fine to get it up to operational temps but other than that I'd think it does little good.

 

hard call mate. we all know the most damage can occurr if you **** on the car with too low temps (high pressure) just as well as overheating.

hmm. will have to ask a ls1 mechanic.. i'm not up to speed on that, i just assumed the radiator shared the job as most cars did.

anyone got a spare rad laying around?

 

I have a 30,000 mounted right in front of my radiator(C5 corvette), My tranny temps have never been over 180F. Thats after alot of hard runs. Around town the tranny runs at 169 steady. It take about 5-10 miniutes to get it to 169.

I have a Vig 2800.

AZC5

 

got pics of that? thats a big **** ?

 

"Stacked Plate" coolers are smaller than "tube" type. 24,000 is a good place to be with our cars if you arn't just racing all the time.
You live in MA and it gets really cold there in the winter. Any tranny cooler can cause problems when the outside temp goes below 25°. When it gets down there, ALWAYS let the car idle for at least 5 min after you start it. The problem is lubrication and if you go out, fire it up and just drive away, you can cause some real damage to the bearings and bushings in the tranny.
You might even consider placing a shut-off valve in the cooler line if you have a big (20,000 gvw +) cooler to force it to warm up quicker in those conditions. A thermostatically controlled switch to operate the shut off valve is needed.
Even here in MO, there are many mornings in the winter that I have to drive over a mile before the converter locks up. A really cold, 18° day and it would not shift into OD 'til I drove over 2 miles!