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Old 05-01-2009, 09:50 PM   #1
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Transmission Temperature

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but here goes anyway. I went to the Overland Expo in Prescott last week, and on the way encountered OATs of up to 106 deg. F.
I mostly drive at 55-60MPH and on flat ground and was registering transmission temps. of about 230- 235 deg. F. as per Scan Gauge II.
On the way home, we went through Death Valley, camping there the night and leaving through the dirt road out the top. We spent the next night in Bridgeport, and crossed the Sierra early the next morning. The OAT was between 30 deg. F. and 40 deg. F., and on the long pulls, driving very conservatively, my Scan Gauge registered up to 245 deg. F. (Water temp 225 deg F. +or-. I thought that the trans temp was excessive, and went to the local Ford dealer in Seaside this AM. I was able to talk at some length with their transmission specialist, and he indicated that he too thought that 245 deg. was too hot. He said that he would e-mail the Ford Tech Line and get an idea from them about what they considered to be "too hot". He also looked at the transmission cooler and said that it was about a quarter the size of an equivalent F 350 pickup. as this is written, I have not heard back from him .
I know that there have been other discussions related to this on the board, but does anyone have anything specific to offer in this vein? The Tech guy suggested a huge trans. cooler to replace the stock one, but after paying a hundred grand for the van, I sort of feel like the SOB ought to work like it's supposed to and not have to spend a fair amount of money to get it to do what I paid for it to do. Maybe I'm being unreasonable.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts
Bill

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Old 05-01-2009, 10:44 PM   #2
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Re: Transmission Temperature

Out of curiosity were you taking the classes out in the rink?

I had a friend with me that works with Ford diesels on a daily basics. He was watching and something came to his ear and his comment was " if they keep running it like that they will burn the tranny out in no time". There was something in the way they were torquing the trans. that would cause damage??? I forwarded this to him and when I get his response I will post it.
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Old 05-02-2009, 01:06 AM   #3
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Re: Transmission Temperature

Bill,

Did you heat your cooling fan kicking onto high. The fan sound of the fan is unmistakable and can be heard clearly over the diesel. We have done some steep passes in our van with the air conditioning on and never seen temps that high. Usually when the trans temp hits about 210 or so the fan comes on until it drops back down under 200.

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Old 05-02-2009, 06:19 AM   #4
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Re: Transmission Temperature

If I recall correctly, my X-monitor trans temp alarm is set to go off at 230 degrees, and it has never gone off.

My ScanGuage is not set up to monitor trans temp, but I've had my X-monitor installed for somewhere around a year and a half, have towed 6500lbs up some very significant inclines (maybe 80-85 degrees ambient temp), and have never seen trans temps like you were seeing.

You may want to check the thermocouple and it's wire to make sure it's undamaged. If you don't see anything obvious, you should go to Ford as soon as possible.


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Old 05-02-2009, 08:09 AM   #5
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Re: Transmission Temperature

Thank you all for your replies.
Yes, I took the offroad driving class, but it was nothing. It's harder getting out of my driveway than the little bumps that they had there. Also, we were in 4 low and just idled through their "obstacle course". The trans temp never got over about 150.
Yes, my electric fan comes on when the WATER temp gets to around 215 and just typically shuts off after a few seconds after cooling the WATER back down to 213 or so.
I have been to Ford as I indicated, and the Tech said he would check with a Rep and call me back with a number that represented what they thought was "too hot". No joy yet!
Could you expand a little on the "Thermocouple"? Different from a thermostat? Does the fan come on when the trans temp gets too high? It was my impression, (probably erroneous), that the fan and it's associated jet engine sound, was a function of water temp,as opposed to transmission temp.
Again, Thanks for the response!
Bill
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Old 05-02-2009, 08:15 AM   #6
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Re: Transmission Temperature

Please let us know what you find out.

Those tranny temps do seem above normal. I thought that all of our SMBs came with large tranny coolers too?

On hot days when climbing long grades, I see tranny temps on the scangauge of max 210-215, and those temps usually only persist for a short time.

The cooling fan in my van never fails to kick on when my coolant temp hits 215deg. I'm not aware of any direct link to tranny temps, but I could certainly be mistaken. The fan usually reduces my coolant temp by 5-15deg immediately, even on hot days.

Good luck.
Rob
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Old 05-02-2009, 09:45 AM   #7
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Re: Transmission Temperature

The only time I've ever seen my tranny temps get upto 225 was climbing a long grade in 4-Lo at about 2-3 mph. The only airflow was from the fan, and there was a lot of slippage in the torque convertor (slippage=heat).

At speed, coming up out of DV, the trans temp tracks the water temp.

Mike
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Old 05-02-2009, 10:31 AM   #8
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Re: Transmission Temperature

We had the transmission in our SMB go out last May and Ford reported the smell of burnt transmission oil during the teardown. I e-mailed a friend of mine who was the tech editor for Trailer Life and their companion RV magazine before becoming a free-lancer about my problem and he wrote back:

“In a nutshell, here's the reply from my other tech guy. He wants to use your letter in the RV Clinic column in Trailer Life, so here's his reply:

"Based on the number of complaints I’ve received from readers over the years, these transmissions are fairly trouble prone, especially the converter clutches (the aftermarket makes a lot of H-D replacements) and the overdrive clutch packs. Burnt fluid and brittle seals are indications of slippage and excessive heat. You probably do a lot of mountain driving in the steep Sierra Nevada range. I’m thinking that the fluid has gotten quite hot a number of times. I recommend flushing the system and using synthetic fluid, install a fluid temperature gauge and monitor it carefully, keeping temps below 275 degrees on grades.”

My friend went on to write:

“In short, you did nothing wrong, per se, it's more like a problem with the transmission, in our experience. As you observed the tranny is designed for use in much larger rigs with huge trailers tacked behind, resulting in much higher GCWRs, so overloading isn't a problem.
One thing to consider: As soon as you hit the uphill grades and start prowling in the mountains, shift out of overdrive. Frequent hunting back and forth between OD and DIR gears will heat up and damage transmission parts as fast as overloading it. OD isn't made for the hills. The little extra fuel you burn is still, at today's rates, cheaper than another rebuild. I seem to recall that you have somewhat taller than stock tires, and that effectively reduces your final drive ratio, and that's also contrary to OD use in hills. If you install the trans temperature gauge and keep an eye on it in the mountains, you can probably see temp differences based on what gear you select. It's a good diagnostic tool.”

Based on my friend's transmission expert, I talked to a Ford tech about replacing the transmission fluid with a synthetic but he recommended against it so I haven't done that.

Before spending money to have a transmission temperature gauge installed, I found out that I could have our Scan Gauge reprogrammed. I did that and now monitor the Trans Temp. Since then, limited trips haven't included any long uphill grades except a couple of climbs up the backside of Tioga Pass...I don't recall how hot the transmission got on that climb but it wasn't anywhere close to the 275 degrees mentioned above.

Bill...you mention that the Ford transmission specialist noted that the transmission cooler was much smaller than that on a Ford F350. On the advice of Alan Feld, we bought the Ford Tow Package which included a transmission cooler or a larger one. Do you know if your transmission cooler is a stock unit or tow package unit?
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Old 05-02-2009, 11:21 AM   #9
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Re: Transmission Temperature

I am going to try to program my SGII to show tranny temp today, but I was wondering what kind of engine temps should start to be a concern. I have only seen my V10 over 195 a couple of times on hot days going uphill at 7,000 feet or higher.

Steve
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Old 05-02-2009, 11:49 AM   #10
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Re: Transmission Temperature

Well, the tranny temp worked OK, but I had to use the Ford CAN table. The Ford PWM didn't work. I also set up the instantaneous HP guage and it seems to work also. I tried to create the barometric pressure, but it didn't work. Does that require an enigne with turbo to have that information? My V10 gasser doesn't have one of course.
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