Bluebird TC2000 Need Trans Cooler Advice

[Jsneeb]

Hi folks,

I am looking to give my bus a little more cooling on the trans.
Reason being is that I will be adding a toad and often pull mountain grades.

Im not sure what transmission my bus has but it does have a lockup torque converter, so that's nice.

What I'm having some trouble with is deciding how to plumb in the trans cooler, and also understanding how the existing water to water trans cooler is functioning.

Here are some pictures of what is under my bus. If someone experienced can answer a few of these questions for me I would be really grateful and you would help me understand how the existing system is working.

Here are picture I took of the water to water cooler.
I dont understand the "flow" through the system.
I also don't understand why there are two filters. One on the cooler, a large filter, and another on the trans, a small one.
Which should I replace or service?
I labeled the lines red for those that carry transmission fluid, and blue for those that carry coolant. If somone could tell me which way trans fluid and coolant are flowing through the system that would help a lot.
Blue line numbered 1 is connected to the bottom of the radiator on the front of the bus. I dont know where blue line 2 goes, but it has a valve on it?







This is the bottom of the trans unit. I actually didint see that there is a marking that reads " from CLR " on the bottom until I looked at the picture with the flash. I will have to trace that hose and see where it is coming from.


This is the trans cooler I would like to install. It's a little small but I have two of them and could install both.


My question is how should i plumb it?
The fitting on it are rather small, ( I think 8mm? ) So I am worried it would be too restrictive to run all the trans fluid through this unit in series. I am considering T-ing it in as a bypass around the water to water cooler and filter. That way part of the trans fluid will go through the W-W and part through the air cooler.


This would hopefully also reduce demand on the primary radiator and let the engine run a few degrees cooler on grades.

Thanks for the help in advance!

[Booyah45828]

Alright that's a lot to unpack.

First off. Every allison comes with the filter you circled in yellow. That is allison oem and filters the fluid that is used for lubrication and inside the valve body. We put a new one of them on every other year. The filter near your cooler, looks to be an add on part. I don't think it was from bluebird, and if it is, it was optional because I've never seen one. Honestly I'd probably change that every other year as well.

What don't you understand about cooler flow? Water wise, it should flow from the bottom of the radiator, into the cooler, out of the cooler, and into the engine water pump. What you have labeled as a blue 1 is the inlet to the cooler, there should be another hose above that. You're missing a picture of the outlet hose on the front of the cooler. What you have labeled as blue 2 should come from the heater circuit to heat the fluid up in the winter.

Transmission fluid flow is simple as well. You can see in your 2nd to last picture "FROM CLR". That would be the end of the cooler circuit, so trace that hose through the system and you'll find the routing your looking for.

As far as you adding a cooler. Turf added one to his here, It sucks though because the photobucket bs kinda screwed it up.
http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f33/ad...545-14363.html

What's your trans temp at now? If you have no idea, then you're creating a solution for a problem you don't know if you even have. Don't bother with what you're thinking of doing with that little cooler. You need to run the coolers in series for them to work, and that little cooler isn't large enough to flow enough fluid.

[peteg59]

Looks like there's a loose fitting in the pic with the yellow ?.
Doesn't look like a bad hose, probably a simple retorque of the fittings will cure it?
Agree on the aux coolers you're looking to incorporate. They're more for automotive/light truck use.

x2 on: What are your current trans. running temps?

[Jsneeb]

Ok,

Thanks Booyah and Pete,

So you are saying there should be a third blue hose carrying coolant out of this unit?
I Will retorque the fittings
Should I close this second valve that you say is running from the heater circuit?
I cant report on current trans tems as there is not a factory guage.

[Booyah45828]

Should be a 3rd hose, the same size as the hose you have labeled with a blue 1, above the blue 1 hose.

Don't shut off that valve, it's supposed to be open.

Clean off everything and see where your leak is actually coming from before you re-torque anything.

If you want to perform upgrades, you need to know the temps. Your allison transmission should have one in there already for the computer to operate correctly. You might be able to get a simple scangauge reader on your j1939 port to read the temps. I know the data is sent over the wires, but I'm not familiar with scangauge operation to know if it can read it or not. You'll have to talk with someone more familiar.