[jd2021]

Hello All,
Hope you guys are doing well today and had a good weekend!

This might sound like a dumb question, but I've just been thinking about it and am curious about it.

So I have an SS1LE with the A10, and since I do plan to add more power to it eventually, I plan to change out the stock transmission cooler to the ZL1 A10 transmission cooler. I'm wondering if there would be any type of cooling benefit to add the SS transmission cooler in-line somewhere else for the transmission cooling system, say from the transmission to the e-diff, or from the e-diff return to the transmission? Any thoughts on this?

[radz28]

Originally Posted by jd2021

Hello All,
Hope you guys are doing well today and had a good weekend!

This might sound like a dumb question, but I've just been thinking about it and am curious about it.

So I have an SS1LE with the A10, and since I do plan to add more power to it eventually, I plan to change out the stock transmission cooler to the ZL1 A10 transmission cooler. I'm wondering if there would be any type of cooling benefit to add the SS transmission cooler in-line somewhere else for the transmission cooling system, say from the transmission to the e-diff, or from the e-diff return to the transmission? Any thoughts on this?

I've thought about where a cooler with a fan might fit, but there's not a lot of room. If you're creative, you might be able to stack another cooler above the tranny cooler, but GM engineered that whole area for airflow already, so physically changing it much could disturb a lot of their design. Have you thought about finding a larger cooler instead of running a ZL1? Maybe that, AND divorcing the tranny cooler from the radiator side tank.

It seems like there's building evidence that controlling engine oil cooling has a strong impact on the entire cooling system. As you might already know, all of the powertrain cooling, except the supercharger (in ZL1s - duh), pass through the radiator in some fashion. As a consequence - there is a huge load on the engine radiator, with one tank having the engine oil cooler and the other side containing the tranny/differential.

Evidence is showing supplementing/replacing/divorcing the engine oil cooler from the primary radiator circuit improves track performance for ALL. One method replaced the supercharger aux. cooler with an engine oil cooler and significant coolant and engine oil temperature improvements were found. Another found considerable improvements in eliminating the aux. radiator (right cheek) with a dedicated engine oil cooler. I believe BOTH eventually divorced engine oil from the OEM engine oil cooler, but BOTH methods showed demonstrably improved TOTAL powertrain cooling, including tranny.

Not to take away from your idea at all. BUT - because you're wanted to track the car, perhaps the engine oil cooler circuit is best addressed. I will freely admit I haven't tracked my car, and may never, but I HAVE noticed that I can heat the oil up under certain driving circumstances I wouldn't think would matter (and it's repeatable, so I know it's a thing). The single thing I worry about, is foul weather driving, and driving with engine/tranny oil too cold. I wonder if GM designed the cooling as it is for COLD weather, too. I'm sure hardly anyone will beat on the car in the freezing weather, but I wondering if that's part of the design architecture that we got from them.

Let us know what you come up with!

[jd2021]

Originally Posted by radz28

I've thought about where a cooler with a fan might fit, but there's not a lot of room. If you're creative, you might be able to stack another cooler above the tranny cooler, but GM engineered that whole area for airflow already, so physically changing it much could disturb a lot of their design. Have you thought about finding a larger cooler instead of running a ZL1? Maybe that, AND divorcing the tranny cooler from the radiator side tank.

It seems like there's building evidence that controlling engine oil cooling has a strong impact on the entire cooling system. As you might already know, all of the powertrain cooling, except the supercharger (in ZL1s - duh), pass through the radiator in some fashion. As a consequence - there is a huge load on the engine radiator, with one tank having the engine oil cooler and the other side containing the tranny/differential.

Evidence is showing supplementing/replacing/divorcing the engine oil cooler from the primary radiator circuit improves track performance for ALL. One method replaced the supercharger aux. cooler with an engine oil cooler and significant coolant and engine oil temperature improvements were found. Another found considerable improvements in eliminating the aux. radiator (right cheek) with a dedicated engine oil cooler. I believe BOTH eventually divorced engine oil from the OEM engine oil cooler, but BOTH methods showed demonstrably improved TOTAL powertrain cooling, including tranny.

Not to take away from your idea at all. BUT - because you're wanted to track the car, perhaps the engine oil cooler circuit is best addressed. I will freely admit I haven't tracked my car, and may never, but I HAVE noticed that I can heat the oil up under certain driving circumstances I wouldn't think would matter (and it's repeatable, so I know it's a thing). The single thing I worry about, is foul weather driving, and driving with engine/tranny oil too cold. I wonder if GM designed the cooling as it is for COLD weather, too. I'm sure hardly anyone will beat on the car in the freezing weather, but I wondering if that's part of the design architecture that we got from them.

Let us know what you come up with!

Yeah, this is all brainstorming for when I decide to address the cooling, so thanks for the thoughts! As we all know, being car guys, we love to daydream about the, "what if's" of our cars. I've tracked the car a couple times, and the temperatures definitely get up there, but since my car is stock for now, I haven't seen any reduction in power since my lap times stay pretty consistent (consistently bad ). I plan to address cooling though before adding more power so this will probably happen sooner rather than later, maybe sometime this year but I will definitely data log this when it happens.

My thought about adding the ZL1 cooler was that it's pretty OEM already and it's an easy swap, so that's why I was looking at that avenue. I plan to address the oil cooling as well by adding the C&R coolers up front, as those seem like they've been proven to actually work.

[radz28]

Originally Posted by jd2021

Yeah, this is all brainstorming for when I decide to address the cooling, so thanks for the thoughts! As we all know, being car guys, we love to daydream about the, "what if's" of our cars. I've tracked the car a couple times, and the temperatures definitely get up there, but since my car is stock for now, I haven't seen any reduction in power since my lap times stay pretty consistent (consistently bad ). I plan to address cooling though before adding more power so this will probably happen sooner rather than later, maybe sometime this year but I will definitely data log this when it happens.

My thought about adding the ZL1 cooler was that it's pretty OEM already and it's an easy swap, so that's why I was looking at that avenue. I plan to address the oil cooling as well by adding the C&R coolers up front, as those seem like they've been proven to actually work.

I like how you think. I consider how the OEM upgrades, like you, too. Pretty much any additional capacity is likely going to improve cooling, as you probably already thought about, so I think I'm reasoning along the same logic as you. Just make sure the line diameters aren't different between the two, too.

I know there's a point of diminishing returns, too, as far as core design goes. Sometimes too thick starts restricting flow to the cores behind it and I've often wondered if my thicker HE helps or hurts, but it's face isn't any bigger than stock, so I'm crossing my fingers at least that's okay. Who knows?... LOL.

[ZLElvira]

Let me drop these two videos so everyone can get a sense of where I am going with my ZLE... first, here is a short I shot at Nine Lives Racing where Johnny C. is building some killer aero stuff and doing the full CFD of my Camaro so all can benefit from his work.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nm0aON7IzQw

This video should answer a LOT of questions and if you have any, I am happy to share what I have learned.

[jd2021]

Originally Posted by ZLElvira

Let me drop these two videos so everyone can get a sense of where I am going with my ZLE... first, here is a short I shot at Nine Lives Racing where Johnny C. is building some killer aero stuff and doing the full CFD of my Camaro so all can benefit from his work.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nm0aON7IzQw

This video should answer a LOT of questions and if you have any, I am happy to share what I have learned.

I literally just saw you post on the crash bar thread about the path you're taking, and ended up watching a couple of your vids, good content for sure. Very interested to see the temperature data you collect.

If you don't mind me asking, what new radiator are you using for the transmission? Definitely seems like something I want to do eventually while working on the cooling.

[ZLElvira]

Originally Posted by jd2021

I literally just saw you post on the crash bar thread about the path you're taking, and ended up watching a couple of your vids, good content for sure. Very interested to see the temperature data you collect.

If you don't mind me asking, what new radiator are you using for the transmission? Definitely seems like something I want to do eventually while working on the cooling.

Its a custom CSF Dual pass bar & plate heat exchanger (HX) which is far superior to a 14-tube crossflow heat exchanger. As you can imagine, the fluid comes from the transmission, goes through the engine radiator and then into the driver's side of the flat HX, crossing through to the other side in the most direct path which does not always equal to full saturation to reduce BTUs. From the passenger side, the fluid leaves the HX and via 3/8" aluminum tube, passes next to the catalytic converter and exhaust system all the way to the eLSD and back the same way to the transmission. Does this sound like a great engineering design?

I plan to have a kit available for just the flat HX and adding the driver's side Aux HX to this system and another means of separating the eLSD to use a pump through a cooler of its own.

[Kamero6]

The system is designed also for cold temperatures. Hence the flow of oil through the coolant. Heating up the oils is important for gas mileage and reduced wear.

The coolant temp is bein read from the engine block, not the radiator. The radiator is usually cooler, unless the thermostat is fully open.

If you don't want to loose factory functionality, just add a bigger Transmission cooler. The A10 has a bypass at 145F. Under that temp, it would internally bypass the flow of the radiators.

[ZLElvira]

Just an update... here is the cooler setup finally. I will have an in-depth video once everything is back together and complete.