Slowly getting stuff around for the LS3/4l60 and was thinking about cooling. The oil cooler takes up a good chunk of room infront of the radiator so im trying to think of an alternative place for the trans cooler.

Ive seen a few posts of a cooler/fan setup in the back and that looks possible, but my concern is with that long of a run, is it safe? Like is there enough pressure in the line the whole way to the cooler and back? Or would some kind of inline pump be needed.

 

The trans cooling lines are under about 100 psi pressure. Since pressure and volume are lost over distance, you might consider running 3/8" (8AM) cooling lines instead of the typical 1/4" (6AN) lines.
OOPS - See the correction below. 6AN lines are 3/8".
Be sure to use braided lines and not just plain rubber lines. Do your best to protect them from road debris. Normally I say to run PTFE cooling lines when using a front cooler, partly for their smaller outside diameter. But in your case, standard AN line with a rubber sleeve around the braid might give better stone protection.
I have seen recommendations here on which rear coolers and fans to use; I leave that up to your searching or perhaps someone can post the good parts to use based on their own experience.
Since you are already "thinking about cooling", I suspect you will be the type to do careful work, including running and protecting the electrical lines to the cooler's fan.

 

3/8" lines are a recommended upgrade over 5/16" lines for any and all GM Automatic Transmissions!

-6AN would be the US Army Navy equivalent of 3/8" Line.
-AN sizes are based on 1/16" ...#6 = 6/16 = 3/8".

 

Thanks for the correction, I edited my previous post to add an "OOPS".
I do wonder then if 8AN might be suggested for very long transmission line runs.

 

Regardless of diameter, any long length of fluid tubing should be steel.

PTFE hose has a lifespan of a few years, and then it can develop pinhole leaks.

Also, I thought that fluid-cooler pressure was typically 30-40 psi, unless something was going wrong in the transmission.

 

6AN lines was my "go to" while thinking of all this i wasn't barrel going to a 8an would be better or not due to the increase of line size vs line distance. As far as material, I was figuring normal braided/rubber lines.

Only reason im not wanting "dope style" is due to the car being a track car. its all good till it goes off track. The dips/debris would surely destroy the fan let along possible damage the cooler.

 

My understanding is that PTFE should last quite a bit longer than rubber. And I have sections of rubber lines for my trans cooler setup that are at least 20 years old (not to mention the factory rubber pieces from the stock radiator cooler that are even older) which haven't failed. I would think PTFE would last for decades in this application.

 

I’m doing pretty much the same thing as you aziroc. I’m using AN6 teflon lines, mounting the fan and tranny cooler assembly 4 feet rear of where the lines connect to the 4L65e. I’m not using the coil in the bottom of the radiator. No room under the hood or in the front.
I got 2 bungs welded to the side of a new tranny pan, one for a fan temp switch and the other for the tranny temp gauge.
Got all the parts, just need to find the time to do it.

 

Rear mounted and/or under car mounted trans coolers are a terrible idea.
For every 1 guy that says it works there's 5 guys that have struggled with overheating

Move the cooler up front in priority airflow in front of the radiator. That's the only RIGHT way to do it IMO

I don't care what you have for intercooler or radiator or tight space etc. If you can fabricate to make turbos fit or a supercharger fit or whatever else fit...you can make room for a transmission cooler

 

I hear ya, but there is no room up front in my 33.
With a temp sensor in the pan I can see if it will work or not.
Currently I have an in-line sensor that reads about 185ºF coming out of the tranny in the summer heat.
I can always switch it back if it doesn’t work.

 

There's Room
Just have to look at it right
No Room and no Easy place to drop it right in aren't the same
You may be the 1 guy that gets lucky that his combo doesn't make much heat and get away with the rear mount cooler
But for anybody else reading...it's a bad idea

 

I’m using a Hayden 679 cooler (11 x 11.7 x .75) the fan adds another 2”, so 2.75” thick.
It could fit in front of the engine but it would be getting hot air from the engine radiator.
No room at all on the side of the engine. I don’t want tranny heat adding to the engine radiator.

 

Looks like an abundance of room in from of the rad
Don't need a fan on the trans cooler if it's mounted in front of the rad.

I'm not saying this to be a jerk.
I build transmissions for a living. I can't tell you the number of phone calls I've fielded where a guy is asking why his unit is getting hot and my first question is "is the cooler rear mounted or floor mounted?" and the answer is VERY often yes.

I've seen it so many times. That's why I said there is 5 guys not having success for every 1 guy that does have success when rear/floor mounting a trans cooler.
I've seen guys try ducting and scoops and HUGE fans etc etc and at the end of the day none of it can measure up to a simple cooler mounted in front of the rad.

If you want to take a shot and be the 1 out of 5 guys to get lucky and not overheat...be my guest. Not my car, not my headache. For your sake I really do hope it works for you.

 

this! I tell my customers the only way a rear mounted cooler works is if you are running a fan and you have the cooler spaced off the belly of the car enough that it still gets good air flow with the fan.

-Dalton

 

I would definitely follow the advice of the two experts above this post. If it were just a cruising car, maybe you might get away with a rear mounted cooler, but you stated this is a road course racing track car.
This brings me to the question of whether you have a triple disk converter and you have it tuned to keep the converter locked all the way up to WOT on 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears.
Since single disk converters cannot handle being locked at high throttle, the tune unlocks them at about 50% throttle. When unlocked, the converter/trans produces much more heat. IMHO, driving a road course track car at frequent WOT with an unlocked converter is going to produce an exceptional amount of heat, perhaps more than any cooling can handle.
Having sold all of my dedicated (road course) track cars, I will likely try my '81 Camaro as a road course car since it already has all the Detroit Speed & Engineering front and rear suspension systems. I do have a triple disk and large front cooler, but even then keeping it at reasonable temps will determine if this cars works as a track car. Not sure what my temperature threshold should be, maybe 250F, 275F ??

 

Azirooc, sorry to butt in on your thread.

MMLS, no offense taken, I hear you. I’m not racing this car, maybe a 1/4 mile run next spring just to see what it will do.
Yes, the cooler could fit in front of the AC condenser but with the summer temps 98-102ºF that extra heat would effect the AC and somewhat possibly effective the engine cooling.
I do have space under the the car for the cooler and fan so I should be OK. The driveshaft is pretty high up. The tail shaft of the tranny is above the floor level.

 

I guess the reason for asking about rear mount is cause its going to have an improved racing oil cooler (basically the c6 version just adapted for a 4th gen) up front already and that takes up a surprisingly good amount of room at the bottom. A trans mount MAY fit but im just worried about the cooling efficiency for the radiator if I have 2 coolers in the front...plus ac.

As far as the rear mount.. id rather people tell me no vs go for it and have bad results. It would be spaced out and a fan though.

I have thought about adding the Midwest front bumper support and opening up the front end some to help airflow. But past that im at a loss.

 

I run a Derale double stacked remote cooler with a 10" fan mounted in the rear of my car using -6an ptfe lines. Transmission is a built 4l80e with a billet 10" FTI converter around 3200-3400 stall. I never have issues even in the summer when it's really hot my fluid temps never go beyond 175*

 

See a lot of drag race cars do it this way, and all have fans.
With it's own fan, I've seen them mounted horizontal, and at a 45*.
Can't speak for road race or street cars.