Heat sink on trans

Does anyone run a heat sink on trans ??did it work ok. Compared to a cooler and fan race only. Thanks

Not on my transmission butt on my 6.4 engine in my 2011 ram 1500 the oil temp would creep up pulling a trailer up big hills and I glued several old computer heat sinks to the pan and it helped quite a bit. Kept the temp from spiking as high and cooled back down much faster after hitting the top of the hill.

Only "heat sink" for a trans is the finned/tubed pans.

I used the old Russell heat sink cooler, Mounted under the car close to the trans. Worked fine. No hoses strung all over the car. Able to be taken apart and cleaned. Moroso and some others sell heatsink style coolers.

Not for use on a street car. Drag race only. A car that regularly gets hot lapped may want to go to one of the units with it's own fan.

I run a Morroso finned heat sink cooler on my bracket car. Been using it for about 25 years. I mounted mine near the transmission tunnel, just in front of the rear axle, and run strato-flex lines(#5) to it. Never had any issue with it or transmission over heating. 440, 727, Turbo Action "J" converter, running 10.50 1/4 miles times. I used to run two classes at the same events, but now just double enter same class sometimes, no problems.

Brian

It wont work as good as a cooler/fan unit naturally but if you do try it I would run a trans temp gauge to keep track of it.

The main thing I am always concerned with is temp consistency for bracket racing. I tried a heat sink on my dragster years ago and didnt like the trans temp climbing every pass like it did, especially when hot lapping. Put a cooler on it to keep the temp more consistent.

The terms are confusing.

In electronics, a "heat sink" is a device that attaches directly to a component with a temperature problem. Heat transfers from the hot component to the sink by conduction (based on the shared surface area and thermal characteristics). The sink has fins from which the temperature is lost by radiation. There is no liquid exchange.

The devices sold as heat sinks appear to be remote radiators which receive hot ATF from (and return to) the transmission, and cool mostly by convection (air movement due to vehicle speed) and less by radiation. Since many do not have fans and are not located in an air path with a pressure differential, they are less effective.
Some locations may place the sink in hot air from the engine bay, exhaust, water radiator, etc. and do very little. If you're going to use one, I suggest placing a temperature probe in a few places and compare.

Mostly true. The heat sink has fins (i.e. surface area) internally as well as externally. Heat will transfer from the oil into the cooler sink. Heat is then transferred from the sink to air. Very effective at "pulling" heat from the fluid, even if there is no airflow - until it reaches near or the same temp as the oil. However, airflow will help, obviously, so a fan is a plus. I put them under the car away from exhaust/engine heat as much as possible. Being able to take it apart and clean it is a big plus for me using one.

Again, not for a street car, tow truck, etc.

And unless you put an electric pump in the system, a radiator type cooler with a fan, will do very little to cool the trans fluid when the engine is not running, except for the fluid that is in the cooler itself. The rest of the fluid will sit there hot until the engine is started again.

Brian

After using really big tranny cooler on many drag race cars I finally put a tranny temp gauge in one and found out that tranny fluid never got above 160 F, way to cool for most tranny fluids to work well
No tranny coolers on my drag cars only now
I do put bigger tranny pans on them now
The cast aluminum finned pans work as a heat sink also

Every try that with a loose converter and a glide Cab? The best way to watch trans temp is with a temp gauge in the outlet line to the cooler. Tells you exactly what temp the fluid in the converter is. You would be surprised how fast the converter heats the fluid in some setups. Anyways you always want the trans temp the same every pass if possible for more consistent RTs. Least that is what I found over the years.

Loose converter, glide, pro tree racing with no 2 step. Just stage it, set the brake and mat it. Never a temp issue with my little heat sink. Very few class cars run a cooler.

And temp should be taken in the pan.

You won't have the luxury of having the fluid the same temp every pass most of the time. Especially hot lapping in late rounds. Just have to know your car and use the trans temp to help dial it. I knew what mine would pick up if it didn't cool for at least an hour or so.

My S/P bracket car has a glide with a B&M heat sink plate type tranny cooler mounted under the floor behind the tranny a little bit, it does have room (maybe 3/4 to 1 1/4 inch) for air to circulate over the top.
I run it at a local 1/8 mile track and have never seen the tranny temp above 170F after a run leaving at 5200 RPM for 1.01 seconds before the tranny brake releases
I do heat it up before making a run against the tranny brake in the staging lanes to above 100 F to make sure it has some heat in it before racing it also
The sender is in the left rear corner of the cast aluminum deep tranny pan

I've never used a heat sink but do use a cooler on my 727s. I have the deep pans on my cars and run the temp gauge sensor in the front right side of the pan. With the tub and fin style cooler I would see temps north of 220 degree when going rounds. I have since switched to plate style coolers and haven't seen temps above 190. I have a CSR shield on the one car and it does warm up a little quicker than the car without, but still doesn't go north of 190. The coolers with fans are great if your street driving, but with a drag car that you try to cool in between rounds only the fluid in the cooler is being cooled when the car isn't running. I know some of the fancy ones have thermostats that turn the fan on automatically. I'm a little particular with trying to do the same every run so last thing I'd want is for the fan on the cooler to turn on mid run and possibly change the E.T. ever so slightly.