Some more insight and proof I'm not totally off track.
Thermal management improves Ram 1500 fuel economy and earns EPA off-cycle credits - SAE International
Quote:
The Ram features an active transmission warm-up system with an oil-coolant heat exchanger on the transmission. The hoses are connected to the engine cooling system. Although this is one of the items eligible for the EPA-proposed off-cycle CAFE carbon credits (corporate average fuel economy), Chrysler integration engineer Jamie Standring said it was in the original engineering plan for the Ram program to provide best-in-class fuel economy.
The engine cooling circuit has both a three-way valve for coolant and a bypass valve in the transmission oil cooling circuit so the transmission oil can be warmed up more quickly from a cold start, which reduces parasitic loss from the drag of the spinning gears. If the transmission oil is getting too hot, such as during towing, the bypass valve setup directs oil from the heat exchanger and into the transmission cooler in the front-end cooling module.
|
