| Question on Griffin Radiator [message #355212] |
Fri, 29 May 2020 15:26  |
TR 1
Messages: 348
Registered: August 2015
Location: DFW
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So I installed a Griffin radiator on my coach a few years back, and while i did utilize the built in engine oil cooler, the PO of my coach had gone with an external trans cooler. According to my trans temp gauge, the external cooler was working fine, so rather than re-plumbing it, I just plugged the cooler on the Griffin, and left it as is.
This past spring, I towed a car on a trip for the first time, and on some of the bigger hills, I noticed the trans temp creeping up more than I would like. We have a trip planned for this summer when it will be much hotter, so I am thinking of going ahead and running the trans lines to the cooler in the radiator first, then on to the external cooler and back to the pan. I own a heavy duty Ford truck as well, and this is the same arrangement that comes on those from the factory and it works quite well. And while those systems are regulated with a thermostat, I don't really drive my coach much unloaded or in cold weather, so I'm not really too worried about over-cooling the system.
I also assumed I would pick up quite a bit of cooling capacity by adding in the radiator cooler. Over on one of the Ford Forums, one of the factory engineers who designed the 5R110 gearbox posts over there, and I remember reading a writeup he did where he mentioned that the radiator trans cooler, though much smaller, actually cooled quite a bit more than the external air to oil cooler due to the greater efficiency of a water to oil cooler.
However, while I was looking over how I was going to set this up under the coach, I noticed the Griffin is a cross-flow radiator, and that the trans cooler is seemingly on the hot side only. I don't remember anything about the Griffin being a dual pass or multi-pass radiator, so now I'm kind of debating whether to go ahead with my plan to run the 2 coolers in series, or update the existing external trans cooler to a larger one and continuing to bypass the radiator cooler.
Anyone have any thoughts on this or know if the Griffin is a multi-pass radiator or has something else in it's trans cooler design to get the oil over to the cool side of the radiator?
Mark S. '73 Painted Desert,
Manny 1 Ton Front End,
Howell Injection,
Leigh Harrison 4bag and Rear Brakes,
Fort Worth, TX
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