Pans with fins

[bigalpha]

What about making a transmission pan and/or oil pan with small fins or ridges on them? Nothing major that would get hung up anywhere.

Would it provide much more cooling? Would be a neat test. See how it stacks up to running an aux tranny cooler.

 

[stewie]

i like the idea. i have seen similar setups on diff covers. a diff cover wouldnt work for most of us for obvious reasons. but i dont see why we wouldnt be able to benifit from a finned trans pan or oil pan as long as the rig is properly armored (to keep from bashing it in/breaking a fin/cracking the pan).

 

[5-90]

One plan I've seen that might work a little better for us:

There's talk of making a "double-depth" pan (and I think Marcus/Gojeep has covered that very thing on his site,) so why not do something like that, but drill the pan endwise to accept tubing through the sump? This would give more cooling effect than a finned pan (more fluid contact with the cooling surface,) and allow for welding on a skid plate to the base of the pan as well - since the deeper pan will likely end up wanting one.

You'd essentially end up with a double-deep pan, with 1/2" or 3/4" tubes run front-to-back through the lower half of the sump (about 1/2" or so off of the inside bottom.) When fording the cooling effect of water getting splashed up in there would be amazing, but you're not going to end up chewing your fins off sliding over rocks or something (because you can protect the bottom of the sump without losing cooling effect.)

 

[bigalpha]

So, you run tubing from the front of the pan (towards the engine) to the rear of the pan (towards the exhaust)?

Are these open to the outside air, so when you drive, air passes through them?

If so, the major downside to that would be keeping them cleaned out. They could get plugged with mud pretty easy.

 

[5-90]

So, you run tubing from the front of the pan (towards the engine) to the rear of the pan (towards the exhaust)?

Are these open to the outside air, so when you drive, air passes through them?

If so, the major downside to that would be keeping them cleaned out. They could get plugged with mud pretty easy.

Yes.

Yes.

And true - but most of the pans I've seen like that for street cars use smaller tubing - down around 3/16" or 1/4" ID. That's why I suggested something larger - makes it easier to clean them out.

And I'll grant that there's an exhaust crossover right in front of the thing - but that's there anyhow, and you'd have the increased heat capacity of the deeper sump, coupled with greater airflow over/through the fluid to offset that. So, there should still be a net cooling effect.

If you're overly worried about mud and such, how difficult would it be to screen the forward ends (or both ends?) of the tubes?

 

[XJEEPER]

Sounds like a micro-engineering project gone awry.......any screen with small enough mesh to block mud would likely not hold up to pressure of mud being forced against it.

Here's a Derale unit for a GM TH350. Pan is deeper to allow room for the tubes, plus accepts 1.8 qts. more fluid, which actually helps the tranny run cooler too. Tubes have a spiral fin inside to twist the air, theory is that this assists heat extraction.

http://www.derale.com/pans.html

My theory is that the added fluid capacity of these aftermarket pans (1-3 extra quarts in most cases) does more to lower the overall fluid temps than the cooling tubes alone. If this theory is correct, and using Marcus' modded pan as an example, a deeper pan with armor would be easier (less $$) to fab and meet both needs.

 

[5-90]

Sounds like a micro-engineering project gone awry.......any screen with small enough mesh to block mud would likely not hold up to pressure of mud being forced against it.

Here's a Derale unit for a GM TH350. Pan is deeper to allow room for the tubes, plus accepts 1.8 qts. more fluid, which actually helps the tranny run cooler too. Tubes have a spiral fin inside to twist the air, theory is that this assists heat extraction.

http://www.derale.com/pans.html

My theory is that the added fluid capacity of these aftermarket pans (1-3 extra quarts in most cases) does more to lower the overall fluid temps than the cooling tubes alone. If this theory is correct, and using Marcus' modded pan as an example, a deeper pan with armor would be easier (less $$) to fab and meet both needs.

That's what I originally had in mind, and probably where I got the idea. They're just not made for the AW4 (yet...)

 

[bigalpha]

Neat idea, I hadn't thought of that. Seems like it'd work pretty well. I don't suppose it's possible to over cool a transmission is it?

We should get someone to test the deeper pan vs. pan with tubes and see which one is best.

 

[muddyrocks]

I know I'm making one when ever I get a couple of extra pans in my hands.

 

[eflores]

I don't suppose it's possible to over cool a transmission is it?

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yes it is possible to over cool a transmission.....few years back few guys ran ac condenser as tranny coolers....they were huge and every thing stayed cool the whole race......3 races in.......they all went boom