This maybe more of a tech question for a transmission guru, but was wondering if anyone would know this from this board?

I just return from a weekend camping in Okalahoma with my son. It's about 120 miles North of Dallas. Anyway, on the way home this morning while driving against the wind (wind was about 20-30mph), and through some hills in Oklahoma, the transmission converter was locking/unlocking itself for some time just to keep the truck going at 65mph. As a result, I saw my A/T Temp light up for the very first time. I quickly pull the truck over and let it cool for about 20 min and continue on. within 1/2 hour, it happened again. This time, I just decided to slow the truck down to no more than 60mph and was OK the rest of the way home to Dallas.

Knowing I was going against the wind, along with my lift (less aerodynamic), 35" tires(stock gears), and hills, I guess I shouldn't be too surprise to see the tranny temp go up. I know I'll need a larger cooler, which I'll do this winter.

Questions:
If that happens again, and I were to pull to the side of the road, should I do the following:

A...stop the truck, but keep the engine on and tranny in Park, so to circulate the oil, which helps cool the oil faster?

B...stop the truck, and just shut the engine down to let it cool naturally over time?

In addition to a larger cooler, which of the following cause more heat in the tranny:

C...turn off the O/D switch and just drive it in 3rd gear, eventhough the engine is spinning at a higher RPM?

D...allow converter to continue to lock and unlock itself (while in OverDrive) as needed to keep up the speed of the vehicle?

Thanks for any info.

E. install tranny cooler and synthetic fluid.

in addition to surlyn's suggestions, I keep OD off any time I am going to be below 50 for long periods, and in NYC, thats often. I have a perma cool rail cooler and I am thinking about upgrading to an even larger cooler, because my trans will still get warm 180 (but not over 180) in long stop and go traffic.
If I turn on my A/C (it turns on my electric fan) I can cool it off quickly

q.1 - A + heater on (and windows down, if ya know what's good for you <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />)... Hadn't thought of turning on the a/c as well; Makes sense...

q.2 - You mean 4th gear, right? IIRC, OD just stops the torque converter from unlocking... Doesn't keep it out of 4th. And yeah, keeping it off definitely helps it from overheating the tranny. Good idea to turn off on any long grade or high headwind, especially with 35's & stock gears.

Anybody have recommendations on a good, h/d tranny cooler? Something I've been considering for a while too... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

The reason I fire up the A/C is I have my flex-a-lite electric fans wired to come on as soon as the A/C comes on. Otherwise the fans fire up based on coolant temp. The amount of hot air that gets pulled out of the engine compartment when the fans come on is pretty amazing.

In my old subaru though, I always used the heater as an auxilary radiator.... almost passed out one august though!

That is still definitely on the projects list... Someday, someday. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I did however find a place tha bends up custom aluminum radiator shrouds... Think that may be a cool addition to it all. (pun intended)

Got an inexpensive cooler from summit racing, easy to install and helps with summer heat, slow rock crawling, and just having an auto tranny.

C- Turn off the overdrive, and E- put in an aux tranny cooler.

Turning the OD off will keep it in 3rd and will keep the torque converter locked up longer than it does in "normal" mode. TC lockup means less heat.

The higher RPM's are no big deal, these engines love to rev. You may even get better gas milage too since less is wasted as heat and the higher RPM's are more efficient. Its just noisier.

Thanks guys for the suggestion. Yes, I'll be installing the tranny cooler before the end of this year.

After figuring the mileage, it was the worst ever. I measured about 11mpg, and that's suppose to be mostly highway mileage (my normal commute to work is mostly city traffic). Well, it's been bugging me all day and after work, I decided to check the A/T fluid to make sure it was not burnt. Thankfully, it was still red, and no burnt smell. While my hood was up, I thought I would check all other stuff. Surprisingly as I open my air filter box, the filter looked fine, but there was a large unfolded napkin that was covering the whole air filter.

Indirectly, I think I might have just solve my stupid problem. I normally like to tuck in some paper towels or napkins in the corner of the engine compartment so that I can check the oil level and have something to wipe on other than my shirt. well, this particular napkin somehow had made itself into the air intake box (I've removed the air intake elbow from the fender) and was covering the whole air filter. I think that was the main reason why I was having such a hard time in keeping at 60mph as my engine was starving for air. Since I was running short on horsepower, the transmission was working overtime shifting up and down the whole time. Well, now that my air intake box is napkin free, it's like having an extra 20% improvement in horsepower. The only positive side to this story is that my air filter from about 6 months ago still looks very clean. Of course, I more than paid for it with the bad gas mileage @ close to $2/gallon of gas.

Again, I know I'll be installing a larger cooler anyway as an insurance.

Thought I would share my stupid experience so that others can learn from it. Moral of the story is to always check everything, especially before a long out of town trip.

Thats why I always stuff a rag in the engine compartment somewhere for use on the dipsticks. Paper flys around too much <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/nana.gif" alt="" />