IVAN

[Navi]

Cross posted:

The mishimoto 6.4 kit worked great for my 6.0 van. Their brackets bottom 2 bolts need just a little finesse to mount up to the stock water/fuel seperator under the drivers door. I tied it into the rear heat hose under the dog house and then up to the degas bottle. I had to buy a 90° brass elbow to mount one of the ball valves for clearance reasons.
I'll change the filter next week sometime and cut it open.

 

[Navi]

Things are slowly getting more interesting.
After a lot of research I decided to flush the old coolant out and switch to an ELC.

These Fumoto valves make this job so much easier!

Some Restore and Restore+ to aid in the flushing.

Lots of distilled water!

Zerex ELC

Red Rum

And a new thermostat while I was at it.

 

[Navi]

I didnt care for the high transmission temps while towing. So I ordered a TruCool Max 40k

Stock next to new

Mocking it up to see what needs to be cut out

The fitting needed to go from 3/8 male inverted flare to 1/2 hose barb is pretty rare apparently. I found a place to get them but they want a $100 minimum purchase for the custom order. I have some friends that order from them in bulk a few times a year so Im going to get them to tag it into theirs when they make their next purchase.
Until then i found this barb reducer 1/2"x3/8". It was kinda rare too, I had to order it from mettleair.

The cooler comes with 3/8 barb fittings and 4ft of hose.

I'll take more pics once it is installed completely.

 

[Navi]

Innovative Diesel Performance had a sale last weekend on their tunes. I ordered their Tow/Street/Aggravated Street
I loaded the Tow tune first. Felt similar to the Gearhead Tow Tune. I haven't actually towed with them yet though.
The Street tune is insane. The one legged van will roast the tire if you launch from a dig. I only launched it twice then went back to babying it. I'll try the Aggravated Street tune in a month ;-)

 

[Navi]

I know no one is keeping up with this too much as of yet lol. But I'm still going to post this stuff for future reference. IMHO it's nothing but preventative maintenance on a 6.0 to get them up to par. I decided a solid foundation was more important than lifting and/or converting it for now.

You have to cut the passenger side brace to make room. This is after being cut down.

Also this top mounting tab. A dremel made quick work of it.

Final test fit.

All buttoned up

I also cut some spare 1/2" line down the middle and wrapped the new line for protection.
Now hopefully I'll have some drastically lower tranny temps while towing in this TX heat!

 

[Bbasso]

Doesn't your van have the 5R110?
When I had the 5R110 behind my V10 I couldn't get the transmission temps past 205 towing my 31ft TT in south Florida in summer.
The only thing I did was the 5Star tune with 3.55 gears. (No trans cooler)

 

[stormlover]

6.0 here with a 40K Tru-cool. The 3/8" inverted flare to a 1/2" hose barb is indeed a PIA. I'll be interested what you came up with for that. My jury-rigged effort brazing two pieces together leaked but got it right the 2nd time around. For now but now it's a rare day that TFT get's over 200F. Prior to adding the bigger tranny cooler it wasn't unusual to hit 240F and I maxed at 275F going over Imogene Pass. In my case, air flow is partially blocked by an aluminess bumper but this is one of the best mods I've done to my rig.

As for custom tunes I've tried Gearhead, TSD, Innovative, and PHP. I also sent off my FICM for a re-build and an Atlas40 FICM tune. The Innovative and PHP tunes have the best shifting. The Gearhead tunes didn't work well with the the FICM tune and even with several revisions were still too smokey and had wonky shifting. TSD ended up not being able to tune for the vans (no speedo, odometer, or overdrive function). The Innovative tunes are great and shift well but have the light bulb effect. The PHP 80HP daily driver tune pairs best with the FICM tuning. The power is linear and there is very little smoke or turbo lag. Probably making close to 400HP. The Gearhead SRL and IDP Extreme Street tunes are a bit too aggressive for a van and run hot.

Anyway, my 2 cents if you're enjoying SCT tuning is watch the heat. The vans have a smaller intercooler and you don't want to cook the pistons/valves/turbo by pushing the HP too high. I watch my EGTs like a hawk.

 

[Navi]

Doesn't your van have the 5R110?
When I had the 5R110 behind my V10 I couldn't get the transmission temps past 205 towing my 31ft TT in south Florida in summer.
The only thing I did was the 5Star tune with 3.55 gears. (No trans cooler)

The temps go up quick on the 100° days cruising through hill country. On flat ground there are no issues.
I have $150 into this cooler. The 5r110 has an internal bypass thermostat to prevent it from running too cool. I can't think of a reason to not do this mod.

 

[Navi]

6.0 here with a 40K Tru-cool. The 3/8" inverted flare to a 1/2" hose barb is indeed a PIA. I'll be interested what you came up with for that. My jury-rigged effort brazing two pieces together leaked but got it right the 2nd time around. For now but now it's a rare day that TFT get's over 200F. Prior to adding the bigger tranny cooler it wasn't unusual to hit 240F and I maxed at 275F going over Imogene Pass. In my case, air flow is partially blocked by an aluminess bumper but this is one of the best mods I've done .........................

I havent driven it yet to check for leaks, but the 1/2x3/8 barb reducer made it pretty simple. Im not sure how much reducing it to the 3/8 hose will reduce flow but it would probably be ok. Either way it will have the restriction going into the cooler.

The setup I found that requires a large minimum purchase is 3/8x3/8 inverted flare nipple, 3/8 female inverted flare to 3/8 npt. 3/8npt x 1/2barb. So it's still too many connections and now it's in there i realize it would require a few more modifications to the header panel to work.

The IDP Street tune feels pretty solid. I'll install my EGT gauge in the next few days and watch it closely.
I drove around town on the Gearhead Tow Tune for a few weeks and its plenty of power for daily driving.
Im looking forward to towing with it after all this and trying out the Gearhead and IDP tow tunes more.

 

[stormlover]

Yeah, I also was worried about the restriction and potential drop in pressure.

Similar to the 4R100 the procedure is to check the flow by disconnecting the cooler return tube and measuring the rate of flow in a graduated cylinder or something similar while running the engine at idle with the transmission in neutral. Unlike the 4R100 mated to the 7.3 psd, the 5R110 has a temperature valve in the pump so flow rate will vary as a function of temperature. Thus, the flow specs are different that those for the 4R100 tranny which I believe was the intended use when the Tru-cool came out. And before Ford offered some 6.0 cooler options that fit the 7.3. Anyhow, as per Ford:

44°C (112°F) 236.6 ml (8 oz) 15 sec
78°C (172°F) 473.2 ml (16 oz) 15 sec
82°C (180°F) and up 1893 ml (52 oz) 15 sec

My results were 10 oz. at 110F and 19 oz. at 176F, respectively. Didn't attempt the test at anything hotter. These results suggest that flow rate is comparable or even slightly increased with the low pressure drop 40k Tru-Cool cooler! It would appear that the 3/8” fittings do not impose a restriction and the return flow is the same or even better than with the stock cooler. Exactly what I had hoped for.

 

[Bbasso]

Interesting to hear how the diesel matched with the 5R110 has more heat...
Do you think it has to do with more torque?

 

[stormlover]

Interesting to hear how the diesel matched with the 5R110 has more heat...
Do you think it has to do with more torque?

As compared to when it's paired to a gasser? What size is the V10 cooler?

I can only guess but besides the tiny OEM cooler doing little at idle the tranny fluid does go through the bottom of the radiator on a 6.0 before going to the tranny cooler. I suspect this does very little to cool the oil as the 6.0 in a van already runs hot because of the cramped engine bay. Not sure if the OEM is tube and fin or what is in the gassers but I presume they have different fans as well. At any rate, the fin and plate design of Tru-Cool Max has less restriction and more cooling. I also think it let's more air through to the radiator but just speculating.

 

[Navi]

Is the fan clutch in the v10 the same as the 6.0? I know my fan kicks in oddball as can be.

 

[Navi]

I never use this top 12v plug anyways.

Plenty of room behind it

Some quick work with the dremel

Drill and tap the drivers side exhaust manifold

And there we go. Easy to see.

I dont know why I ordered the 2k gauge. You're pretty screwed if you see that high and now I know that this one only reads down to 400. Not that big a deal really, that's low enough. I might eventually buy the 1500, change the gauge out, then throw this one onto craigslist. You hear some bad and some good with this brand but I really liked the number readout and dial combo.

I got on it full throttle from a 10mph roll with the IDP "Street" tune just up to 55mph and the highest I saw was 1050. I'll probably take it out onto the loop to try highway speeds tomorrow.

 

[Navi]

The stock fan clutch on the 6.0 drives me insane. I always feel it kicks in way too late. Temps rise quick. You can have it kick in earlier with a custom tune and I requested it but haven't towed since getting the tunes.
I did add a grounded switch to the blue wire to kick it in myself and it worked great. But I dont want to have to kick it in myself everytime Im about to pull a grade. Luckily theres a fix.

Bullet Proof Diesel 7.3 to 6.0 fan clutch adapter.

Brand new Hayden HD "RV" 1997 7.3 fan clutch.

It comes on when the clutch "feels" 185° ambient temp. So I fully expect to hear the sometimes annoying jet of a fan a lot more often. But supposedly this is a great mod to keep the temps down.

It'll be installed at the same time as some other mods in a few weeks.