The transmission of your truck works harder than you know. The transmission spins, creating friction and heat and getting hotter by the minute, and heat is the enemy of the transmission. An aftermarket transmission cooler can help cool down the trans and prevent it from getting too hot. Keeping it cool will help you get the most out of the transmission, especially while towing. Understanding how transmission coolers work will help you find the right one for your truck.
What Coolers Do
When a truck is hauling several tons of extra weight, the engine and other components are working hard. That hard work generates a lot of heat, and that heat can in turn damage vital engine parts including the transmission. Under normal operating temperatures, the transmission fluid will flow and allow adequate friction. But when the engine temps get too high, the fluid begins to break down and doesn’t protect the transmission’s parts. Under these extreme operating conditions, the normal radiator isn’t adequate to keep the transmission cool. The fluid continues to heat to the point of failure. It’s under these circumstances that coolers become necessary.
How They Do It
Understanding how transmission coolers work is helpful if you have a big truck that hauls a lot of weight. Transmission coolers look and work a lot like the radiator does. Fluid moves through it to cool down and in turn cool down and protect the transmission. The cooler works a little differently, though. The transmission fluid is forced through a hose at the front of the truck and then through a series of coils and fins to cool it down. The more bends and turns that the fluid travels through, the cooler it will become. Just like the steam moving through a distillery, the more bends there are in the copper coil, the cooler it gets and the more impurities are removed. Before deciding to put an aftermarket cooler on your truck look under that hood, check to make there isn’t one already there. Many manufacturers put a transmission cooler on their heavy-duty trucks with a “towing package.”
Consider getting a cooler for the Allison 1000 transmission of your Duramax diesel. NextGen Diesel has lots of performance parts too, so contact us today.
