Heat Exchanger Delete

Hi All
I’m reading and researching the viability of deleting the heat exchanger from the system on my 2001 Modena. I understand it’s not actually a cooler but it’s job is to get the transmission to operating temperature and keep it there. I actually did look for upgraded heat exchangers and looked for a couple that were recommended in older threads, one company doesn’t make them anymore and the other company doesn’t seem to exist. I would actually feel much more confident removing the potential for fluid cross contamination by using an air over oil cooler running a thermostat. I have previously set this up on a race/road car and had no problems with it running outside optimum temps. I really like the idea of setting up a cooler and never having that little worry about the integrity of the heat exchangers insides falling apart.
I do have a couple of questions
1. Is there a perfect temperature for the transmission because there are options regarding the thermostat temp you can purchase.
2. Does the trans use an oil pump for circulation?
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The big question: Why?

Are you using a non-yellow metal safe transaxle oil? No? Then your heat exchanger is safe.

If you're paranoid about the heat exchanger rotting out on you, then just buy a stock model and have it chemically nickel plated on the oil side. That will solve the problem and keep your car OEM.

 

Replacing a heat exchanger isn't a big job. Cleaning up the mess once one fails is a big job.

Just consider it a maintenance item, replace it every few years, and drive the car like you stole it. No muss, no fuss lol.

 

Question 1. I would assume the perfect temperature for the trans-cooler thermostat is around 180-190 F because that's what the coolant in the stock heat exchanger will be the majority of the time. That is the temperature that Ferrari is trying to keep the transmission at.

I'm also planning to do this same job, and will probably err a bit on the side of hotter as I'd rather have the gear oil a little too hot rather than too cold. Keep in mind most manual transmissions out there do NOT have coolers at all.

Q2. I assume it does, otherwise there would be no flow through the exchanger, but thats an assumption.

 

I haven’t heard of this nickel plating process. Is it common.

 

The heat exchanger doesn't suddenly explode. You can see oil in the coolant early. Change fluids regularly and you'll see it. Change it then and don't wait. One dude kept driving his when my mechanic told him not to because of leakage... killed the transmission. Do it early and you'll be OK. Enjoy the car...

 

If you have the time I don't think it'd take much to put a makeshift temp sensor inline with the trans oil hoses to establish a baseline, then bypass the heat exchanger by joining the hoses and check the new temperature. Decide from there whether to reattach the hoses or modify.

 

Another thing that be done is pull a vacuum on the cooling system. If it holds for five minutes without dropping, the heat exchanger is most likely fine.

 

I don't understand why everyone is trying to bypass the heat exchanger all of a sudden as opposed to doing basic maintenance and monitoring fluids.

 

What they don't get is it was done on the challenge cars for a reason. Those cars run with higher viscosity oils at higher temps for longer periods than the street cars do. The CS uses a water intercooler as well. I suspect that the colder transmission oil temps at startup in converted cars is going to kill syncros faster, esp for second gear.

 

If you have some mechanical sympathy, I don't see appreciable extra wear from shifting when the gearbox is not yet up to temp.

And most cars on the road don't have a gearbox fluid warming system and the synchros work well with good service life. They work in all sorts of climactic conditions.

The only argument I see for keeping the heat exchanger is that the 360 gearbox has twice the fluid capacity of a normal car's manual transmission and is larger physically also, with correspondingly larger thermal capacity. In that respect it will take longer to warm up to operating temp than a normal car.

However the cats and muffler are enclosing it which will speed up the process.

I just dont see any overwhelming necessity to keep the exchanger if you want to avoid the possibility of total gearbox failure.

Because a failure is silent and catastrophic and will cost you $20,000.

Also, even if you're lucky enough to catch the failure early, you will still have some degradation of the gearbox fluid from coolant contamination which will start damaging gearbox internals immediately.


Obviously you should do whatever makes you happy on own car
For me, deleting it will give me peace of mind.

 

A heat exchanger failure has so many obvious symptoms that an owner should discover the failure quickly.

Here's the test. Before you drive your car, check the coolant level. If it's low, that's a warning that something is wrong. Fill it back up and look for an oil sheen. If you see oil, that's bad.

Get one of those inexpensive vacuum coolant systems and pull a vacuum once a year. If it holds for five minutes without dropping, then your coolant system is intact and your heat exchanger isn't leaking.

It should never get to the point that you only wonder if something is wrong when the car can't shift anymore. That's an owner failure, not the car. Be sure to talk with your tech on the next major service about transaxle oil. If it is yellow metal safe, then your heat exchanger, and synchros, are going to be fine. If you don't know, change your transaxle oil now to one you know is yellow metal safe.

 

Few people outside of this Forum actually know what that means.
It also came out of several discussions over a few years involving some of the gurus here (Rifledriver, Taz, Flash etc), so not a wildly known fact.