sp33d
04-15-2005, 12:35 AM
I figure since Mike's gonna start shipping these on Monday I might as well post the info I have. Mike was kinda enough to sell me his first production cooler kit while I was down in LA last weekend! I had to watch him install the one off of his truck on Nick's truck so there was no way I was going home without one :D We got the brackets hot off the press and Mike even installed it while I took pics.
This is literally as easy as it gets. It took Mike about 15 minutes and the average do it yourselfer could do it in one beer (?) ):h
The install involves removing the cover over the coolers. Remove the grill (a couple clips and/or bolts depending on year). Remove four bolts holding old cooler on. Remove clips on incoming and outgoing fluid lines and unscrew. Tap them out of the old cooler and remove it. Install supplied fittings on the new cooler and mount it to the brackets with supplied hardware (6 nuts and bolts if I remember correctly). Install it on the truck with the four supplied bolts. Level it up and tighten it up. Reinstall the two lines. They only have to come apart about 1/2" more than they were so they still stay in the clips holding them in place. Tighten the nuts on the fittings and reinstall clips. Start truck and make sure it doesn't leak. Reinstall grill and cover. Finish beer. That's it!
This really is as good as a kit can get. Mike and Steve put a lot of thought into making sure this kit was an easy bolt on. Fit and finish couldn't be better. Thanks also to Trippin for testing.
I don't have a lot of data in regards to performance since my truck is new and so many things changed on the truck over the last week but Nick should be able to give some better numbers. His truck had less changes and he should have some good before and after data.
I can't get the trans temp to go above 160* under normal driving. That was even in stop and go LA traffic with very high trans line pressures. With the transmission upgrades I expected the transmission to run hotter and I'm sure it is but with the cooler that change is no longer apparent. I beat on the truck pretty hard on the way home forcing it to shift a lot for numerous reasons and I could not get the temp above 160*. Once I got home and started making a lot of WOT runs with boosted launches I watched the trans temps increase but the cooler did a very good job of getting rid of the heat. According to the tech 2 the temps were decreasing at a rate of about 12* per minute.
In my opinion this kit was money well spent.
Some pics of the cooler and install can be found here: http://www.simpersupply.com/chad/2005%20Truck/Trans%20Cooler/ (sorry about the bugs)
This is literally as easy as it gets. It took Mike about 15 minutes and the average do it yourselfer could do it in one beer (?) ):h
The install involves removing the cover over the coolers. Remove the grill (a couple clips and/or bolts depending on year). Remove four bolts holding old cooler on. Remove clips on incoming and outgoing fluid lines and unscrew. Tap them out of the old cooler and remove it. Install supplied fittings on the new cooler and mount it to the brackets with supplied hardware (6 nuts and bolts if I remember correctly). Install it on the truck with the four supplied bolts. Level it up and tighten it up. Reinstall the two lines. They only have to come apart about 1/2" more than they were so they still stay in the clips holding them in place. Tighten the nuts on the fittings and reinstall clips. Start truck and make sure it doesn't leak. Reinstall grill and cover. Finish beer. That's it!
This really is as good as a kit can get. Mike and Steve put a lot of thought into making sure this kit was an easy bolt on. Fit and finish couldn't be better. Thanks also to Trippin for testing.
I don't have a lot of data in regards to performance since my truck is new and so many things changed on the truck over the last week but Nick should be able to give some better numbers. His truck had less changes and he should have some good before and after data.
I can't get the trans temp to go above 160* under normal driving. That was even in stop and go LA traffic with very high trans line pressures. With the transmission upgrades I expected the transmission to run hotter and I'm sure it is but with the cooler that change is no longer apparent. I beat on the truck pretty hard on the way home forcing it to shift a lot for numerous reasons and I could not get the temp above 160*. Once I got home and started making a lot of WOT runs with boosted launches I watched the trans temps increase but the cooler did a very good job of getting rid of the heat. According to the tech 2 the temps were decreasing at a rate of about 12* per minute.
In my opinion this kit was money well spent.
Some pics of the cooler and install can be found here: http://www.simpersupply.com/chad/2005%20Truck/Trans%20Cooler/ (sorry about the bugs)