Quote Originally Posted by BBM715 View Post
Keep the questions coming - at least they are new and interesting and not the usual "where can I buy wheels" or "who has lockers?"
When it comes to cooling you want to set yourself up for success. Never too much radiator IMO. I didn't want to swap out the radiator support either (lazy, not cheap ) so I unbolted & turned around the pass side support and used that as a guide to trim out the sheet metal. Gets you about 4" wider in 1/2 hr. Still a lot of room in front of it for an intercooler too - routing the hoses might be a pain, but not too bad. Add a Rhino grill no one would know it's there.
I'd go with a trans cooler in the radiator for the winter when you want to warm up the fluid quicker - I would add an aux cooler though because heat is the main killer for an auto trans.
That is a good tip for the Rad support. I have several old Jeeps so I just swapped out the support. Either will work fine.

I will comment on the idea of cooling the tranny thru the radiator, and again, people can take it for what it is worth.

According to Allison, and their specs and documents, preheating of the fluid(assuming Dexron III is used) is not necessesary above -13*F. Even running 15/40 in the transmission will allow temperatures down to 5*F without preheating. Unless you are running straight weight oil, heavier than 30wt, then there is no need to preheat the oil in TN. I didn't just pull it out of my arse, I have the paperwork and documentation to back up everything. Additionally, Allison calls for a maximum pressure drop across the external coolers/filters, of 35PSI. Now, I don't know what the drop would be, using the tiny diameter cooler in the radiator, but I know that added to an external, and a pair of external filters, it is going to be more that if it was plumbed as it was designed to be plumbed. Personally, my choice would be to minimize the restriction, using the largest filters and coolers possible.

FWIW, the data I quoted is real, it is free, and it is available on Allison's site.