[drrice]

Did you guys just delete your return lines and attach the cooler straight to the nipple on the radiator? Or did you just connect the new line to the old one?

 

[James]

I (and most people who have done this) just connect the new line to the old one. So essentially I have two coolers in series (the stock and the Aux). It is probably easier this way too.

 

[AJ711]

Best bet would be installing in the following sequence. Transmission --> stock cooler in radiator --> extra cooler in front of radiator --> return line to transmission.

If you are even more anal, put an oil stat between the stock cooler and the new cooler so it won't allow the ATF to flow to the secondary cooler until it reaches 180F. Overcooling fluids is just as bad as overheating them, so allowing things to come up to normal operating temperature would be beneficial, especially for those that live in colder climates.

 

[Tuned200]

I purchased mine a while ago from
VDO Gauges from egauges.com




The water temp gauge reads tranny temp. I chose it because it had a more useful read out range.

this cubbypod is sweet!!!

 

[usando]

B&M Transmission Cooler 2005 XT

Did a recent install. The installation instructions posted earlier are very good. Excellent pics. Thought I'd share a couple of points to clarify:

1) Need to remove the cover under the engine.

This will expose the hoses sitting next to the radiator. I didn't realize this and thought I needed to route to the hoses sitting next to the transmission. This means running much longer hoses and the 4' of hose supplied in the B&M kits is not enough. I ended up buying another 4' of hose to realize that I didn't need it. I dropped something under the car and needed to take off the engine cover to retrieve it. That's when I saw the hoses close to the radiator. Doh! Oh well, guess I have some extra trans cooler hose.

2) When putting the zip ties through your rad, try to be gentle. It will tear some of the fins. Maybe a gentle twisting motion back and forth would help pierce the gap between the fins without tearing them out like I did.

3) Not a lot of fluid comes out when you remove the tube from the hard line. I don't think a top up of fluid is really necessary as mentioned in some other places but I guess it depends on how low you were to begin with.

4) Be really careful with the clips that hold the front grill. I snapped part of when putting the grill back on. Not really a great design there. The angle is awkward so easy to break the lower clips. You slide the bottom of the grill up/down over the bottom 2 clips. However, in order to clear the top 2 clips you need to tilt the top of the grill towards you. This makes it easy to break the bottom 2 clips.

5) Some people mention needing an extra hose clamp. I don't think you really need one. The 4 with the kit should be enough. The spring clamps on the existing hoses can be reused.

6) The extra 3/8" bard splicer is probably a good idea. You can just put 2 of the 3/8" fittings that came with the kit together but it's just a flare joint between the 2 pieces. Just another joint for a potential leak. Spend the $2 and get the splicer so you have a solid brass connector.

7) The hose towards the front of the car is the return line. This is drawn in the diagram but if you're not sure about the orientation, feel for the hose the runs across the width of the radiator, not the one that runs a short length and connects to the radiator after 6 inches or so. Some documentation says the return line in a forester is the one near the rear. They mean the hoses at the transmission. In that case it is the rear line that is the return line.

8) No need to remove the fan. When you use the ties, you can reach in between the fan blades to place the tie locks on.

 

[peabo]

My install

Hi All,

Since purchasing a new radiator (Koyo) without automatic transmission cooler lines, I knew I needed to install a remote cooler. This thread sure helped me alot, so I thought I would share my experiences. Like the OP, I purchased B&M's model 70268. I have a 4EAT.

Here are the cooler lines:

Here I am, making SURE which line is the supply line (preparing to flush, and knowing which line to attach the new temperature sensor):

Now that I know which is the return line, I am pushing all of the oil back into the transmission.

Here I installed the supplied metal brackets. I couldn't bring myself to use the plastic zip ties and risk piercing my A/C condenser.

Top view:

Bottom view. For me, mounting the cooler with the lines at the bottom resulted in fewer bends of the oil hoses, with less stress on them.

My homemade temperature manifold. I couldn't bring myself to pay $40 for the one at Egauges.com which didn't even have the barb splices I needed for the hoses, so I built my own. The parts I bought at Lowes were:

1. Brass Tee $5.64
2. Brass Elbow $4.23
3. Barb x MIP adapter $2.61 x 2 = $5.22
Total $15.09 x 9% tax = $16.45

Fully assembled manifold ready for installation (I used SubaJew's idea of reusing some of the old transmission line to reduce the chance of kinks):

Manifold installed on car with wiring completed:

I used a water temp gauge to measure the trans temp, because my local auto parts store only had this in stock:

Thank you all for your help on this!

Peabo

 

[McLovin the forester XT]

Thanks for the write up guys very helpful!


Sent from my iPhone using Autoguide

 

[yamsta]

n/m.

 

[joshmikesad]

I had a trans cooler mounted in my when I purchased it used.
It is mounted such that the inlet and outlet barbs are both on the bottom.
Is that fine or would it be better to mount it 90 deg such that inlet is on top and out is on bottom donkey seen in some pics in this thread?

 

[Noey]

The trans oil return line is the same for an SH ('09+) as well.

If there is any doubt try this:

The best way to determine which line on a transmission cooler is the return line from the radiator is to use the following procedure:

1. Start engine while engine is cold
2. Place transmission shift lever in drive for no more than 10 seconds
3. Place in Park, stop engine, and remove keys
4. Identify the oil return line by feeling both oil lines. The coolest line is the oil return line.

 

[TriniGT]

Nice writeups but I have a question, in the illustration from peabo wouldn't it have been better to mount the cooler vertically having both the in and out to the side rather than to the bottom. At the bottom it wouldn't matter what line goes where as both are feeding from underneath and can this also catch air pockets in the cooler? I am thinking the vertical installation with the IN being to the bottom where it has to fill the entire cooler with oil before it comes out the top cooler exit.

Does anyone know offhand which one of the hard lines on the tranny is the in and which is the out. I am now putting back in the tranny and not sure which hard line is which.

 

[joshmikesad]

I agree with you here. Mine was mounted by someone else such that both are on bottom and I was thinking the same thing about the air pocket at the top.

Although, if im not mistaken, our radiator lets coolant in the top and out of the bottom. But that is quite different as you have a thermostat at the bottom controlling the flow.

 

[Nuwanda]

Just wanted to give a big thanks for the great thread. Installed my tranny cooler and Koyo by following the advice given and everything worked swell. Looks swell as well!

 

[ciper]

I think that an aftermarket transmission cooler which doesn't have a thermostatic bypass should be installed before the factory "cooler" in terms of fluid flow. I put "cooler" in quotes because it also keeps the fluid from getting too cold.

The transmission does monitor its fluid temp and depending on the year will do things like prevent shifting into fourth gear and preventing torque converter lockup when too cold.

 

[peruvian]

Hi All,

Since purchasing a new radiator (Koyo) without automatic transmission cooler lines, I knew I needed to install a remote cooler. This thread sure helped me alot, so I thought I would share my experiences. Like the OP, I purchased B&M's model 70268. I have a 4EAT.

Hello PEABO, I do have the same problem, as to the need for much better cooling and a Mishimoto Radiator would be nice, I just can't have it, so the next best thing was to get a Radiator and an oil cooler, just like your set up, BUT.... most of other guys that added a ATF OIL COOLER mod, still use the transmition cooler and then the after market one... and advise against running it any other way.
Seems to me, if you are not moving (traffic)no one is cooling the ATF when you need it the most... but in the other hand the extra capacity of ATF and the fan shroud kicking in, should be enought to keep it from over heating the ATF....
Now, my question is, now that you have a ATF temp gauge, How is it? where does it heat up?, does the temp go above the normal? in what situation if so.

Where I live, i drive in heavy stop and go traffic, and in summer I go to the beach and at least I drive in the sand 2 hours....
My previous car was a Mitsubishi 4x4 automatic, and it would overheat rather fast, could only drive for short periods of time over sand....
i would really appreciate your input over this matter, I have not purchase the radiator yet, but I know I need one, mine is cracked and glued untill the new one arrives.
Thanks,
Fernando.

 

[peabo]

Update on my cooler

Hi Fernando,

After I did this installation, I too was curious on how it would cool my AT during these hot Alabama summers. I was very pleased actually, I stays around the 125 (+/- 10) degree mark 95 percent of the time, climbing to 180 degrees going up a long hill (all in 95 degree heat). Never has gone above 180 degrees.

I think two of the negatives of having just one air cooled ATF cooler is (1) the temperature swings of the the ATF are larger than that of the water cooled version. I think sending the ATF through the radiator causes the temperature of the ATF to stay in a narrow range, and (2) In the winter, there is no preheating of the ATF, so I think my ATF will stay below 125 degrees most of the time. I am not sure that is a bad thing, but if I lived in the north where it is near zero alot of the time, I think the air cooled option would cause sluggish gear changes (all my opinion).

Peabo

P.S. to the poster who was wondering why I mounted the cooler with the in/out pipes at the bottom: the mounting brackets are only on two sides of the cooler, so if I turned it 90 degrees to make the in/out pipes on the side, I couldn't figure out a good way to attach it to my frame.

 

[wtdash]

Doing this in the spring once it gets above 40°. Also, I've read you 'may' want to remove/disconnect an AT cooler in the snow belt since as stated, 'over-cooling' can be bad too, but not sure that's necessary??

See attachment from B&M's installation guide. They recommend after the radiator and mount w/the fittings on top or on the side - not down.

Temperature and its effects on ATF per B&M (not recommending them, just using as a reference):

A good operating temperature of an automatic transmission is 160ºto 200º F as the fluid exits the cooler.
If you can maintain fluid temperature below 175º F the fluid should last for as much as 100,000 miles.
At 195ºF the fluid life should be 50,000 miles.
At 240º the fluid life is only 5,000 miles. Higher fluid temperature drastically reduces the life of the
fluid. Cooler temperature equals longer fluid life.

Thanks for the info,
Td

 

[Forester sti chile]

I have installed a Hayden oil cooler, without the oem cooler, because i changed to mishimoto radiator MT.

Im wondering wich are the normal and max safe tranny oil temps read from the oil drain plug? (because the real temps must to be higger in the OEM inside temp sensor.)

At wich OEM sensor temp the over temp light in the dash Blinks?

 

[WABaru]

This is the fluid line I tapped into for the cooler. It is the oil return line from the stock radiator cooler/heater to the tranny. There is a rubber hose to metal pipe connection by the arrow. I took the connection apart and attached one B&M hose to the metal line and used a barbed hose adapter to connect the other B&M hose to the radiator hose.

I just installed my B&M SuperCooler (Model:70264). The 2012 return line is the same as above.

 

[SeanSean1]

I'd suggest using a drain plug rather than a regular bolt. It has the flange for the gasket. BTW, the oil pan and tranny drain plugs are the same.

SuberRu - i know this is an old post im referenceing... but is the thread size on a 2013 trans plug M20x1.5?? and same for engine oil??

Dealers seem to be oblivious, and only know the part number - #31325K080 - im pretty sure this is the number, he sighed and spoke very fast when i inquired - and he had no answer at the local desk here.....