30K GVW oil cooler install for under $125

[nydiver]

I wanted to upgrade my 01 350 7.3 4x4 dually's trans fluid cooler, I researched and saw how popular the 6.0 swap was, but I couldn't get one cheap, and NOW, so I researched Summit and picked their biggest house brand oil cooler (the SUM-G4969) its like 10 high by 21 long by 1 1/2 thick with 6 loops and 3/8" ports, not a huge piece but its big enough, and they say its for 30K GVW, that I don't doubt. See the pic of it outside the box.

So I thought when I ordered it I would mount it to the condenser core, but once I put it in place I got a surprise, it was like Summit and Ford worked together on this install. It fit perfect on the fiberglass uprights exposed after I took the grill off and that would keep the cooler off anything that might convey heat to it.

Measure 2 3/4" up each side from the bottom rail and put a 3/16" hole tight to the inside edge, then measure 9 3/4" up each side(7" between holes) and make another set of holes tight to the inside edge. See the pic to see the holes

[nydiver]

The kit comes with these long plastic "bolts" Cut 2 at 3" for the top 2 holes, and 2 7/8" for the bottom 2 holes. I plan to go back and replace the plastic bolts with #8 or #6 metal bolts if these plastic ones fail. Note I screwed up and trimmed the lower right too short and had to leave off the washer, there's room between the cooler and the condensor to put on the plastic nut, but not much more so these 2 lower screws have to be pretty exact to prevent them going right into the condensor core. See the attached core to the uprights pic, the holes are already in the cooler to make this install SOOOO easy.

So the cooler is mounted, now I needed to get trans fluid into it, I got under and looked at the tranny lines and found this one that came from the stock cooler and looked like the return to the tranny (the rusty looking one in the pic), maybe I'm an idiot and I picked the feed to the cooler, anyways I used it cause it was easy. See the pic of the pre install to see which one I used.

[SJB]

Are you running it in series with your stock cooler? Besides the 6.0 swap, I've heard of others running two coolers in series (OEM and aftermarket). Dieselsite.com game me that as one recommendation. That looks pretty nice. Like you said, almost like it was made for it. What was the price?

[nydiver]

So once the pinch clamp was pulled back I pulled the rubber hose off the metal line and attached the hose summit provided in the kit from the cooler to the metal line. I then put a 3/8" to 3/8" hose barbed elbow into the rubber line I removed and added about 3' of 3/8" bulk hose from the AP store to it to get to the other cooler port. See the pic to get the idea of what I'm talking about here. The elbow worked great as the hose came down in a nice spot then it 90's and goes right tight against my plow frame, looks like Ford meant for me to be doing this.

The next pic is what it looked like after all the hose hook up was done and mounted.

[nydiver]

So finally here is what it looks like thru the grill, the pic stinks (thanks Blackberry Curve, POS) but to me it looks pretty mean how it fills in the entire center grill with the bright cooler. Course I am the one who did it, and who calls their baby ugly?

SOOOO, real question, How much? the cooler is/was 95.95, add say 10 for shipping, we're at 106, $5 for 3' of bulk 3/8" hose ($111), and say $5 for a brass 3/8 to 3/8 elbow at HD or Lowes ($116), and $3 for a couple of hose clamps (I needed only 1 extra beyond what summit provided) so I have it as $120 would get you a nice, Brand new tranny cooler, install takes under an hour if you follow what I did. And yes it is in series, and not parallel, parallel is possible by teeing the line I grabbed and the other line that was next to it, that was like work and I wanted to make an easy install for people, no need to get all crazy adding in cutting hardlines and using compression fittings or flaring lines.

Coming soon, a full Transgo Tugger install with all the trimings, LU valve, steel valves in the accumulator body, 3 clutch billet convertor, show how to manage the valve body plate and balls with the trans in the truck. Maybe we'll even show how to over stack the clutch plates to beef it up even further.