Upgrading trans heat exchanger to an oil cooler

[dhirocz]

I've heard that the standard 1650 is not cooled, the 1850 has a heat exchanger and the 2050 an air cooler and some other changes like better gears on the bottom side so they don't break.

How in the hell a cooler makes that big of a difference is beyond me, unless the 1650 is more underrated than anything and they were just trying to sell more options. That's one option I would have bought without a problem.

[DUKE58]

(09-25-2017 )Pigpen 2869 Wrote:  When I did mine I used a S-1404 filter kit and it uses a Eaton 17237 filter. And I used a K-1956 cooler kit. Just disconected the oil cooker and a few new hoses now I never see over 170 degrees.

can you tell us where you got the parts???and how much??? Eaton told me I a pump to get oil up front of rad thank you

[Pigpen 2869]

Got everything thru New Hampshire Peterbilt. Filter kit was around 200.00 dont remember how much the cooler was. Filter was remote mount and no pump was needed. Disconected oil cooker and replaced it with air one. Just hafta be careful on the direction of flow coming out of tranny and into filter. Tranny is marked in and out. Only one port on filter housing was markked. Or at least thats what Captain Morgan told me.

[Hammerhead]

(09-26-2017 )Pigpen 2869 Wrote:  Got everything thru New Hampshire Peterbilt. Filter kit was around 200.00 dont remember how much the cooler was. Filter was remote mount and no pump was needed. Disconected oil cooker and replaced it with air one. Just hafta be careful on the direction of flow coming out of tranny and into filter. Tranny is marked in and out. Only one port on filter housing was markked. Or at least thats what Captain Morgan told me.

Yeah, there is a gear pump in all trannies that drives off of the input shaft and circulates the oil through the cooler, and yes all trannies are marked "In" and "Out" on the ports, some just need to be cleaned well, like mine, to be able to see it.

[dhirocz]

So there is a pump in the transmission...meaning the pump that comes with the kit is an external auxillary pump then. Any idea why there would be two needed?

The filter housing, k-3441, appears to have an inlet and outlet where it mounts to the trans case on it's mounting flange. That's expected for filtered oil. It also has what looks like an inlet and an outlet on it's sides. If that is a feed and return for the oil circulating from the case, then would the auxillary pump not be needed? Just put JIC fittings on it and run them up to the cooler or am I missing something here?

I've also seen another filter housing that looks like it was intended as an add-on for heat exchanger equipped transmissions. It mounts where the aforementioned auxillary pump would go. I don't have a part number on it, I'll see if I can find a picture.

If I can run a heavy duty cooler without having to use the auxillary pump and add a filter at the same time for half the cost of the Eaton cooler kit, that's a big win.

[dhirocz]

K-3441 on the right. Maybe the external passages are not tied in to the oil from the filter?

[Pigpen 2869]

I tried that filter housing. Couldnt use it with the pto that was on tranny. The remote mount made life alot easier. Mounted the filter where I dont have to get under truck to change.

[dhirocz]

Update. Just sharing information.

Got ahold of an Eaton engineer today and played twenty questions with him. There is alot of bullshit out there so I wanted to pass on what he told me.

A 1650 tq trans is just that. An 1850 is also just that. Torque rating doesn't change due to what cooler is installed. Common misconception from what he said.

A 1650 can be upgraded to an 1850 tq trans but requires changing out the guts, meaning it's more cost effective to just buy a new transmission.

Neither a 1650 or 1850 can be upgraded to a 2050. 2050's require a new case. A 13 speed can also not be upgraded to an 18, though some people mod their 13's to split the low side...and kill their trans life in the process, since a 13 isn't made to handle splitting the low side.

The air cooler does nothing but improve fluid life therefore improve transmission life. Also gets rid of the failure prone heat exchanger. Fine with me...my trans, an rtoc-16909a up converted to a 13, already has an oil pump installed because it came with a heat exchanger. The only thing I need to do is remove the heat exchanger, remove the coolant lines or T them together, put JIC fittings in the case where the heat exchanger was, and run hoses up front to a cooler...which works for me since I have a good cooler and hose already.

Last thing he mentioned is to use the lower port which is the outlet, an put a remote filter housing on that hose, pre-cooler. I plan on doing that and snapping a filter mag on it. I should be able to do this reliably and professionally for well under $200.

[Hammerhead]

Thank you for sharing knowledge learned from the source!