Coolers (No...Not for beer!)

[Rampage]

As everbody knows, the radiator in a '87 GN has 3 cooling functions; engine, Transmission and oil. Now the big engineering question, would there be any advantage in removing the the oil and transmission cooling function from the radiator and re-routing it to seperate radiators for each? Right now I have 3 heat exchangers mounted in the front of my GN. An old Eastern performance front mount, the AC condenser, and the radiator which has the oil and tranny cooler built-in.

What is the optimum operating temp for each fluid?

Engine.

Oil.

Transmission.

I've read 180 degrees is best for all 3 fluids. If that's the case, then the combination radiator is the best option. Has anybody installed temp probes and data-logged the fluid temps during normal driving with a stock setup?

Post your opinion...

 

[Red C5]

I think it would vary on application but am interested in peoples thoughs as well.

 

[ngnowner]

For a turbo motor you have to keep the oil temp down, unless you like premature turbo wear. Same goes for trans, especially if you add power and use the power. I've always thought that since the oil is routed through the radiator it would never get cooler than 180-190. So that's the temp your sending it back to the trans/engine. Trans life drops drastically when oil temps reach over 270, to me that's not a very big margin for error. I have towed a number of RV's and always disconnected the radiator trans cooler and gone with an external only. It only takes one $1800 rebuild as a wake up call that this needs to be done when you tow or race.