Tranny cooler installation

[LoJac963]

looks good, nice work. I was waiting to see someone use the zips that go through the radator/condenser to secure the ext cooler.

[chris4851]

I will be installing a tranny cooler soon. I had a couple questions before I placed the order. I live in Massachusetts, would you recommend the bypass? What exactly is the benifit of the bypass? Even if you live in a vey cold climate is there a downside not having the bypass?

I was looking into purchasing the Flex-a-lite 4120, how has this cooler been working out?

[SummitUp]

Originally Posted by chris4851

I will be installing a tranny cooler soon. I had a couple questions before I placed the order. I live in Massachusetts, would you recommend the bypass? What exactly is the benifit of the bypass? Even if you live in a vey cold climate is there a downside not having the bypass?

I was looking into purchasing the Flex-a-lite 4120, how has this cooler been working out?

I can't speak for the the Flex-a-lite 4120 as I purchased the Tru-Cool Max cooler. I live at 9000ft. elevation in the Colorado Rockies (yeah, it gets real cold here on occasion!), so I ordered my cooler with the bypass option. The bypass is supposed to work in the same way the coolant thermostat in your engine works, i.e. it wont open to allow free flow of tranny fluid until the tranny has reached operating temperature.

However... I had nothing but problems with the bypass on my cooler. Tranny usually ran way too hot, so much so I thought the bypass unit was defective so I ordered a replacement. The replacement bypass unit wasn't any different and the tranny temps were still way too high even in cold weather so I re-plumbed my cooler without the bypass and never looked back.

Yes on really cold days it takes much longer for the tranny to "warm up" but in my case I never take my H2 on short trips so it doesn't really matter to me. What does matter to me is I wheel my "Deuce" hard on trails in Moab often in hot weather conditions so I need maximum flow of tranny fluid through the cooler and that isn't going to happen with the restriction the bypass unit places in the circuit.

Just my $.02

[chris4851]

I pulled the car in the garage this weekend to have a look at the bypass procedure before I purchased everything. I have a 2005 H2 and noticed that I already have a stock external tranny cooler. Is there any reason not to just bypass the radiator and still use the stock tranny cooler?

[Egan]

Originally Posted by SummitUp

Not possible. H2's never had factory installed external transmission coolers. If you do have an external tranny cooler than it was installed as an after market add on by the previous owner. Is it possible your thinking the power steering cooler is a tranny cooler?

It would be great if you would post a pic of this "stock external tranny cooler".

It's that thing in Step 1 above (post #2).

[chris4851]

Originally Posted by Egan

It's that thing in Step 1 above (post #2).

Correct. What is the cooler in Step 1 above, which is attached to the two vertical brackets? I believe the power steering cooler is to the right of this cooler. Also behind this cooler is another cooler then the radiator. What are they all for?

[Egan]

Originally Posted by chris4851

Correct. What is the cooler in Step 1 above, which is attached to the two vertical brackets? I believe the power steering cooler is to the right of this cooler. Also behind this cooler is another cooler then the radiator. What are they all for?