C-6 Temp

[redline]

Does anybody that runs a c-6 with manual valvebody know what normal operating temp is? I installed one and just running it up and down the street it is up to 250. The company that built it is on vacation otherwise i would call them. Any help i could get would be appreciated.

[hoeker]

in my race truck i ran as hot as 320 deg in the line to the cooler. 250 was just warmed up. thats with an 8 inch convertor. at the end of a race i'd be up to 250-260 in the pan everytime. if your reading in the pan you better have been really beating the heck out of that thing to get it that hot. (doesn't sound like you were though)

a little more info on what your running may help. conv size? HP? cooler size?

do you have a good cooler? did you make sure it flowed good? coolers can plug in time and not be efficient. Torque convertors can go bad with age and build lots of heat. are you sure of the condition of your conv?

if you don't find a problem, make sure you run synthetic oil.

LIGHTS RIGHT
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.rosshoek.com>www.rosshoek.com</A>

[redline]

I'm not sure of the converter size i just took it out of the box and put it in. It is a TCS converter. The motor has about 450-500hp. The sending unit is in the pan. Trans cooler is a PermaCool roughly 8x12" with 1/2" line and its own fan. (yes the fan is blowing the right way). The cooler was put on the truck about halloween. The motor temp was anly about 200.

[hoeker]

sounds like you have a fairly healthy engine, a cooler thats maybe a little small, and a brand new torque converter. i wouldn't consider the temp out of line, but i wouldn't want it to get much higher. C-6 transmissions build lots of heat, just the way they are. i really like the setrab plate fin style coolers or the fluidyne enduro cooler. both will set you back about 500 bucks with a fan. i'm going to put the fluidyne on my new race truck. a less expensive option would be to add another cooler and fan to your current system. make sure the cooler is getting cool air by preferably mounting it in the bed of the truck.

synthetic oil will make your whole system run cooler without any additional changes also. i use Royal Purple max ATF-HF for manual valve body transmissions and have had great results.

one more thought, make sure your linkage is adjusted perfect. if its trying to go into 2nd (even just a little) and third at the same time, you'll build lots of extra heat. i had a couple c-6 trans that i just couldn't get quite right, never did figure out the problem.

LIGHTS RIGHT
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.rosshoek.com>www.rosshoek.com</A>

[Kritter]

Royal Purple rocks...run it!

Kris
"Buy American before it's too late"

[rdc]

You've got a problem! That thing won't live long at those temps. We have a Steve Culhane C6s in both trucks and we keep the trany temp between 160 and 190 under race conditions behind 530 HP by turning the fans on or off. Once in a while we might see 220 if we are slow on getting the fan turned on. We run SwepCo per Culhane. Where is your cooler mounted? Use tell tails to check the air flow around the cooler at speed. I have seen dead air situations that no fan could overcome. How is it plumbed? You should fill the cooler from the lowest point and return from the top. Make sure that your fittings are not screwed in to the trany too deep restricting fluid flow, I've seen that also, and trany temps shot right up and it took for ever to figure that one out. Get or borrow a Temp Gun and check tempatures at different points in the system.

[JoeB]

Ross,

Ramsey sounds close to where the temps should be in your next application. You're going to find when you get a big motor for the new truck, your tranny temps are going to be a little tougher to control with the added HP. I worked with a Pro-2 team and we dealt with a lot of tranny problems before finding the answer to our cooling issues. Once fixed, tranny temps never went over 190. I wouldn't want to run over 220 again.

Joe

[hoeker]

everybody knows cooler is better when it comes to tranny temp. maybe you could enlighten redline, and the rest of us, what things you changed that helped you out.
i could have easily added another cooler to mine, but didn't because i didn't want the added weight, didn't feel like spending another 500 bucks, and was having zero tranny problems as it was.

LIGHTS RIGHT
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.rosshoek.com>www.rosshoek.com</A>

[redline]

The cooler on the truck is mounted just behind the grill and about 3/4" in front of the radiator. It is an suv and has all the windows in it so mounted the cooler elsewhere is near impossible therefore i put in the most obvious place for air flow. I will check the fittings at the tranny and see how tight they are. that could be a possible problem. How can i check air flow at speed? Whole time in which i was running the truck the fan was on once temp hit 180.

[redline]

checked fittings and they do not seem to tight.

[ntsqd]

One thing that has tripped me up is the gauge. Roughly, if the gauge didn't cost you at least $200 then it's readings are suspect and even if it did cost that much I wouldn't take it as gospel until proven.
Few, if any, of the aftermarket 'racing' gauges are accurate and repeat within industrial control systems standards. Buy or borrow a known to be accurate and repeatable industrial gauge, or thermocouple and a reader to calibrate your temp gauge(s). Until then you really don't know what you have.

I once saw a graph in a trans rebuilder trade publication, I wish I'd kept it. It related trans lifespan to trans fluid temp. The curve was Logarithmic and fairly flat until around 190-200* then look out !! Lifespan went from hundreds of hours to minutes over a pretty small difference in temp.

TS

I used swerve around my halucinations, now I drive right thru them.

[rdc]

It is not how tight they are, but how deep they are threaded in to the case,that is the concern. If one is "based out" in the passage it may be blocking flow. We had that problem on a C4 and went through 3 tranys before getting it figured out.

[hoeker]

this chart? keep in mind this is fluid life, not trans life. if the fluid is cooked, you can change it and may not have hurt the trans yet.

www.rosshoek.com (http://www.dakota-truck.net/faq/Transmission_and_Gears/transmission_fluid_life.html>http://www.dakota-truck.net/faq/Transmission_and_Gears/transmission_fluid_life.html</A>

synthetic)