05 Flame Red TJ Build

JMT said:
On order
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If you use 1/8" flat bar to weld across the V bar, then I have the small 5mm flange head screws for the mounting bosses. After that, I have the -6 AN to 22mm ORB adapters, -6 AN fittings in pushlock to get to the transmission rubber line and then the good one is the special stainless steel bent tube fitting that gets the lower port on the right side out of the grill which while not impossible is painful to accomplish otherwise.
 
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mrblaine said:
If you use 1/8" flat bar to weld across the V bar, then I have the small 5mm flange head screws for the mounting bosses. After that, I have the -6 AN to 22mm ORB adapters, -6 AN fittings in pushlock to get to the transmission rubber line and then the good one is the special stainless steel bent tube fitting that gets the lower port on the right side out of the grill which while not impossible is painful to accomplish otherwise.
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When the cooler arrives I’ll get the flat bar welded up to the Vbar. I’ll DM you about the rest. Thanks! After spending thousands on the auto transmission it is a small price to pay to protect it with a great cooler and all the fittings to make it right.
 
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mrblaine said:
If only there were someone who had done this 50 times and made fittings that make life easier, if only.
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When I redid my entire auxiliary cooling system after rolling the rig last year, there was some dude on the forum who gave me great advice, and some very helpful custom parts. He was spot on, and the system works flawlessly.

Can’t remember his name off the top of my head, but I’ll look back and see if I can find it…

🙂
 
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JMT said:
When the cooler arrives I’ll get the flat bar welded up to the Vbar. I’ll DM you about the rest. Thanks! After spending thousands on the auto transmission it is a small price to pay to protect it with a great cooler and all the fittings to make it right.
Click to expand...

The easiest way is to drill 1 1/4" x 1/8" flat bar for the mounting bosses so that one face of the cooler is off of the V bar by a small amount. Too little and when you do slight notches for the V bar, the cooler hits, too much and it hits the inside of the grill. Bolt the flat bars up to the cooler, set it on the V bar, mark the notches taking care to center the cooler off of the grill or it looks like crap after you're done. Tack the bars, remove the cooler, lightly weld around the outsides first or it will close up on you and the cooler won't fit. Weld the insides last.

When the cooler installs, the lower port is on the right side which is the out from the radiator, into the cooler. Top port is on the left side, it goes out to return to the trans. Out has to be on top to prevent an air lock. We drill the air dam with a hole saw for the exit. If you set it low enough, you can add a steering cooler over it later.

1710042055741.png
 
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NashvilleTJ said:
When I redid my entire auxiliary cooling system after rolling the rig last year, there was some dude on the forum who gave me great advice, and some very helpful custom parts. He was spot on, and the system works flawlessly.

Can’t remember his name off the top of my head, but I’ll look back and see if I can find it…

🙂
Click to expand...

One would think it would be easy enough to make a template for the mounts, get them laser cut, and then put together a little kit. We have made a few samples, the stupid V bars are off enough that we have to rework the notches each time to get the cooler square with the grill.
 
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JMT said:
When the cooler arrives I’ll get the flat bar welded up to the Vbar. I’ll DM you about the rest. Thanks! After spending thousands on the auto transmission it is a small price to pay to protect it with a great cooler and all the fittings to make it right.
Click to expand...

A few things I would be remiss in not mentioning. This is a very high performance cooler. You may not need that much in your region which would make less expensive offerings an option. You don't need AN stuff to hook up a cooler, there are lots of push on barbed fittings that will screw into NPT ports found on run of the mill coolers.

This cooler was found and used by us here in SoCal due to the heat we run into and the need for a lower full width option that allowed the use of our steering cooler over the top of it.

That said, we've done many of them, we have never had a single issue with any of them. I would caution to be very careful with the threaded bosses. The aluminum is pretty soft and they are pretty small threads. Be delicate and deliberate or you can mess them up.
 
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mrblaine said:
A few things I would be remiss in not mentioning. This is a very high performance cooler. You may not need that much in your region which would make less expensive offerings an option. You don't need AN stuff to hook up a cooler, there are lots of push on barbed fittings that will screw into NPT ports found on run of the mill coolers.

This cooler was found and used by us here in SoCal due to the heat we run into and the need for a lower full width option that allowed the use of our steering cooler over the top of it.

That said, we've done many of them, we have never had a single issue with any of them. I would caution to be very careful with the threaded bosses. The aluminum is pretty soft and they are pretty small threads. Be delicate and deliberate or you can mess them up.
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Delicate and deliberate, Jeremy's middles names...

Moab 2023 (151).jpg


(Sorry brother, couldn't resist :))
 
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mrblaine said:
A few things I would be remiss in not mentioning. This is a very high performance cooler. You may not need that much in your region which would make less expensive offerings an option. You don't need AN stuff to hook up a cooler, there are lots of push on barbed fittings that will screw into NPT ports found on run of the mill coolers.

This cooler was found and used by us here in SoCal due to the heat we run into and the need for a lower full width option that allowed the use of our steering cooler over the top of it.

That said, we've done many of them, we have never had a single issue with any of them. I would caution to be very careful with the threaded bosses. The aluminum is pretty soft and they are pretty small threads. Be delicate and deliberate or you can mess them up.
Click to expand...

To Add to Blaine's Comments. I have a bypass ready to be installed...but I haven't done it yet. In the dead of winter, the trans runs a bit cooler than I'd like it to...but I don't drive it that much in the winter so I haven't opened the system up yet to install it. Once the outside temps get above about 50, the trans runs around 120-150 degrees.
 
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Mike_H said:
To Add to Blaine's Comments. I have a bypass ready to be installed...but I haven't done it yet. In the dead of winter, the trans runs a bit cooler than I'd like it to...but I don't drive it that much in the winter so I haven't opened the system up yet to install it. Once the outside temps get above about 50, the trans runs around 120-150 degrees.
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Is your bypass a manually triggered or automatic based on some temp setpoint? Asking because I am curious as to what the "ideal" temp for the trans would be. I understand that the ATF lubrication properties are not ideal if it's always run too cold and that it quicky degrades if run too hot for too long,
 
Mike_H said:
To Add to Blaine's Comments. I have a bypass ready to be installed...but I haven't done it yet. In the dead of winter, the trans runs a bit cooler than I'd like it to...but I don't drive it that much in the winter so I haven't opened the system up yet to install it. Once the outside temps get above about 50, the trans runs around 120-150 degrees.
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Let me know what bypass you have.
 
psrivats said:
Is your bypass a manually triggered or automatic based on some temp setpoint? Asking because I am curious as to what the "ideal" temp for the trans would be. I understand that the ATF lubrication properties are not ideal if it's always run too cold and that it quicky degrades if run too hot for too long,
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Its a thermostat. Its full open at 180 degrees. Talking with Blaine about it, I'll have to replumb the cooling loop on my transmission to go to the Radiator first, then to the Setrab. This is from Derale's site:

1710183694002.png


@JMT I bought the Derale 25791.

I really should get this thing installed....
 
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I know this has been beat to death but why is the cooler after the radiator? It seems like having it before would reduce heat load on the radiator and allow the radiator to warm up the fluid before going to the trans when its cold out?
 
Would it work to send the ATF from the transmission straight to the Setrab cooler and straight back to the transmission (avoid the radiator altogether)? Would that provide adequate temperatures and serve as a "middle ground" for those not wheeling in hot environments?
 
Rickyd said:
I know this has been beat to death but why is the cooler after the radiator? It seems like having it before would reduce heat load on the radiator and allow the radiator to warm up the fluid before going to the trans when its cold out?
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My logic, flawed as it may be, is due to it being an auxiliary cooler, not a primary cooler. The radiator is the primary. If you cool it and then the radiator warms it back up, that doesn't do a lot of good. The thermostatic bypass will deal with overcooling when it is cold out. That and the OEM radiator has more than ample capacity to handle the trans cooling.

All that said, we don't have the perfect answer for these. The under tub fan driven versions are loud, not that efficient and don't work nearly as well as one in the air flow in the grill at street speeds. The one is the grill doesn't work as well as a fan driven at trail speeds. We do however, see much higher temps on the highway and going up hills than we do on the trails with a few exceptions.
 
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mrblaine said:
My logic, flawed as it may be, is due to it being an auxiliary cooler, not a primary cooler. The radiator is the primary. If you cool it and then the radiator warms it back up, that doesn't do a lot of good. The thermostatic bypass will deal with overcooling when it is cold out. That and the OEM radiator has more than ample capacity to handle the trans cooling.

All that said, we don't have the perfect answer for these. The under tub fan driven versions are load, not that efficient and don't work nearly as well as one in the air flow in the grill at street speeds. The one is the grill doesn't work as well as a fan driven at trail speeds. We do however, see much higher temps on the highway and going up hills than we do on the trails with a few exceptions.
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Ok that makes sense. With trans heat removal as a priority it is better after the radiator.
 
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Mike_H said:
Its a thermostat. Its full open at 180 degrees. Talking with Blaine about it, I'll have to replumb the cooling loop on my transmission to go to the Radiator first, then to the Setrab. This is from Derale's site:

View attachment 508637

@JMT I bought the Derale 25791.

I really should get this thing installed....
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. Did not know something like this existed.
 
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Rickyd said:
I know this has been beat to death but why is the cooler after the radiator? It seems like having it before would reduce heat load on the radiator and allow the radiator to warm up the fluid before going to the trans when its cold out?
Click to expand...
A liquid to liquid cooler is typically more effective as scrubbing BTUs than a air to liquid cooler. So you let the radiator do the heavy lifting and let the add on do the rest.

JMT said:
Would it work to send the ATF from the transmission straight to the Setrab cooler and straight back to the transmission (avoid the radiator altogether)? Would that provide adequate temperatures and serve as a "middle ground" for those not wheeling in hot environments?
Click to expand...
I would not take the radiator out of the loop as it will significantly increase warm up times in cooler weather and force the Setrab to try and do more work.

mrblaine said:
My logic, flawed as it may be, is due to it being an auxiliary cooler, not a primary cooler. The radiator is the primary. If you cool it and then the radiator warms it back up, that doesn't do a lot of good. The thermostatic bypass will deal with overcooling when it is cold out. That and the OEM radiator has more than ample capacity to handle the trans cooling.

All that said, we don't have the perfect answer for these. The under tub fan driven versions are loud, not that efficient and don't work nearly as well as one in the air flow in the grill at street speeds. The one is the grill doesn't work as well as a fan driven at trail speeds. We do however, see much higher temps on the highway and going up hills than we do on the trails with a few exceptions.
Click to expand...

And Blaine spells it out right here and I will run it the same way if I ever get to running a slushbox.
 
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After reading this thread I paid attention to my trans temp on my drive to work. I saw it get up to 110° when I got to the office. Coolant was just under 210°. Ambient temp was a balmy 39°.

I do not have a Setrab. I have the Derale under the tub.
 
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In the meantime I’ve been plotting my demise into the never-ending abyss…

My wife got me Raceline Monster 232 Beadlocks for Christmas. 😍 I was ready to go to a 17” wheel. I’ve been at 4.25 BS with my current Mamba MR1X’s, and wanted a bit wider. I’d looked at Hutchinson, Trail Ready, KMC, et al. I really liked the idea of 3.75” BS, stock bolt pattern. so here we are.
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Tires were my next project. I knew I was adding weight with the Beadlocks on the order of 14-15lb/corner, so I really wanted to find a tire that was lower weight, especially because rotational mass farther from a hub has the greatest negative impact on performance. The first 7” of radius out from the hub is nothing compared to the next 10.5”. I have KM3 35x12.5r15 that weigh 64lb. I found a lot of 35x12.5r17’s in the 77-79lb range, which was unacceptable. I love Coopers and Mickey Thompson, Maxxis Razr’s, and finally found a tire that I really love made right here in the good ole’ USA that weighs 65.25lb, Load D; Mickey Thompson Baja Legend MTZ. 34.8”. I remembered that @Irun had run these and he shot me a pic of his. They’re a classic tire with improved compound over the past.

At the encouragement of @Alex01 I decided to set these up myself. My tire shop is a 2.5hr drive and no telling how much I’d pay in labor. I watched a video, read the instructions, and talked and texted with @NashvilleTJ. I didn’t have enough bolts except for one wheel. The rest are coming Monday.
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They weigh in at 105lb, and I suspect my current set weighs about 90lb, so a 15lb weight gain. 😐

IMG_3070.jpeg
 
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