Transmission heating and cooling

[Isaac Zackary]

I had a 200W pad heater under the oil pan once. I couldn't tell if it made any difference. I think once the oil got pumped up into the cold engine it was cold again. The nice thing about my 1,600W water heater is that it circulates that water through the engine as it heats it. I wonder if you could circulate the transmission fluid through a heater. Or maybe just cover the entire transmission in 200W pad heaters.

[me and my metro]

I work for an electric utility. The 2008 and newer small bucket trucks have a 12 volt oil heater in the hydraulic oil reservoir. The trucks also have a thermostat in the tank so my drivers just leave the switch on year round. The heater has a 30 amp breaker on the circuit. The heater looks like the one in post 9.

[oil pan 4]

I could put a bunch of 200 watt heats all over it but the transmission still needs to be able to radiate and conduct heat away from the case when its 115'F in the summer.
I am thinking if I leave the transmission fluid hot enough for long enough it will convex and radiate heat at least up into the valve body. Not really sure how well the pan heater will work, that is why I am going to test it and still add a 55,000BTU/hr 30 plate heat exchanger to warm the transmission fluid with engine coolant, just in case.

The suburban is getting a new version of my 240 volt powered coolant heater. The 5500 watt (18,000BTU/hr) version is just waiting for me to make an improved lighter weight more stainless steel housing as opposed to 15 pounds of steel water pipe I was going to use. Sounds like a lot but the coolant has always heated the engine oil and will now have to also heat the transmission, fuel and the rear compartment maybe more.

Actually I did make a hot water heater element oil pan once, got it all finished then I realized I was trying to put a non-turbo oil pan on a turbo block (the rear main bearing cap is bigger on the turbo block) and it would not fit, not even close.
So that was a waste of time.
I could do this again.
Obviously I would not run the in sump oil heater any where near 1200 watts.

[gumby79]

How about running a 150° -15f. fan control switch NC (normally closed) just above the heating element~ 1" (get it as close as the threads will alow). Like this (°.) one above the other . This would cycle As the viscosity is very high when cold. Heated fluid would trip the switch alowing the elements to cool .I'm guessing that in a thick fluid ~1"above the element @150would be @180+- down at element surface, experiments are needed to un gess this part.The residual heat would convect cooling itself and controlling sender turning the power back on. For higher viscosity diff fluid a lower temp. setting may be needed to keep from burning the fluid.
adjustable 160°-240°f -15° normally closed switch
This switch is active(closed) up to the set point then opens the circuit cooling 15°f reestablishing connection, and backand forth.
-----220°f sounds kinda hot

I used a similar chart to explain why a Trans. Cooler was "nesasary " when adding a hitch to a car ,van,or non-towing package vehicle back when I worked @U-haul as a Hitch Pro.
Sold 1 cooler out of 60 hitches ~250 hitches a year.
GM was having a lot of auto trans. Over heat failure problems when they bumped the Corvette up to a 210°f thermostat. Back in the early 2000s
-----
Would running 2 heaters in series cut the heat output in hafe?
If so ,then 2 600w heaters with more surface aera would put out 300w ea. Reducing the chances of burning the atf resulting needing a transmission service @$$$ or failure @$$$$ synthetic atf is spendy. Rebuilding is more than any possible FE savings.

Gumby stay flexible.

[gumby79]

Originally Posted by me and my metro

I work for an electric utility. The 2008 and newer small bucket trucks have a 12 volt oil heater in the hydraulic oil reservoir. The trucks also have a thermostat in the tank so my drivers just leave the switch on year round. The heater has a 30 amp breaker on the circuit. The heater looks like the one in post 9.

This sounds like a good solution for tsb 07-01-89

At ambient temperatures of -10° F or lower subject model vehicles equipped with auxiliary transmission coolers (NHB) sales code, when driven at highway speeds, may begin losing transmission fluid. This fluid loss is due to the transmission oil cooler "freezing" and restricting oil flow through the system, resulting in overheating of the fluid in the transmission case

And would alow more time in OD

[oil pan 4]

I would only use the transmission heater on cold days when not towing a trailer.

600 watt heaters are too small, even two 600 watt heaters both running at a total of 300 watts could still be too hot. I am thinking more along the lines of using a 1500 watt heater and running it at 200 to 400 watts.

[Daox]

Any progress report on this Oil Pan?

[oil pan 4]

Not a lot, I picked up some NO 110°F switches to use on this project and my home hot water recirculation project.
I also scored some new longer 1500w heating elements I plan to use specifically for oil warming.
Then I was also considering using that plate heat exchanger as an oil to coolant heat exchanger on my big block Chevy 8L build and not using it on the transmission.