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I remember a few members saying they have got their transmissions fairly warm while towing, think the highest was 225? I also believe I remember the number 250 degree's and below being thrown around on one of our threads as "safe" for the 6L50.
I got to researching and seeing if there are any upgrades to the trans (after posing my truck pulling thread) and came across this article:
http://etereman.com/blog/general-motors-transmission/performance-upgrades-for-the-6l50-transmission-in-your-2010-camaro
It just gives you somethings that you can do to the trans to help it. It's for Camaro applications, but I figured they might work for us since we use the same trans, right? Found a shift kit and some other mods when I searched TransGo.
Anyways, if you read the bottom of this article, it says that if you operate the trans above 200 degrees for very long, you will shorten the life of it considerably....so I tried searching for another article, say a spec sheet from GM on the 6L50 to see what they said the max temp was for our model year trucks, thinking that maybe they updated the trans or increased the cooling ability since they attached this trans to a truck that has the ability to tow a decent amount and very well could get fairly warm. I haven't had any luck finding such an article yet.
I did find some other info on it though, from another forum. It gave various info, but the part that caught my attention was the Service Interval section. It states that; "Replace transmission fluid and filter at 45,000 mile intervals if operation falls under 'severe' service category.'" Below, it defines severe service as being; "vehicles that have been used to tow frequently, have been driven primarily in heavy city traffic during hot weather, or that have been driven primarily in hilly/ mountainous terrain."
This transmission reminds me of the Allison 1000 transmission that the full size Duramax's have, in that they are meant to have the fluid and filter changed on a regular basis like engine oil. You could get by with longer intervals on the Allison if you didn't tow as much and used Transynd (or one of the other Allison approved oils) Synthetic trans oil and go 50,000-100,000 miles between changes. If I have to do that with this transmission, that's fine. But what isn't fine is if that statement about the 200 degree max temp, is actually true.
Does anyone know any differently on this? Can you add a transmission cooler (I have read that they exist for the trans/ truck combo) as well. Thanks for the input.
I got to researching and seeing if there are any upgrades to the trans (after posing my truck pulling thread) and came across this article:
http://etereman.com/blog/general-motors-transmission/performance-upgrades-for-the-6l50-transmission-in-your-2010-camaro
It just gives you somethings that you can do to the trans to help it. It's for Camaro applications, but I figured they might work for us since we use the same trans, right? Found a shift kit and some other mods when I searched TransGo.
Anyways, if you read the bottom of this article, it says that if you operate the trans above 200 degrees for very long, you will shorten the life of it considerably....so I tried searching for another article, say a spec sheet from GM on the 6L50 to see what they said the max temp was for our model year trucks, thinking that maybe they updated the trans or increased the cooling ability since they attached this trans to a truck that has the ability to tow a decent amount and very well could get fairly warm. I haven't had any luck finding such an article yet.
I did find some other info on it though, from another forum. It gave various info, but the part that caught my attention was the Service Interval section. It states that; "Replace transmission fluid and filter at 45,000 mile intervals if operation falls under 'severe' service category.'" Below, it defines severe service as being; "vehicles that have been used to tow frequently, have been driven primarily in heavy city traffic during hot weather, or that have been driven primarily in hilly/ mountainous terrain."
This transmission reminds me of the Allison 1000 transmission that the full size Duramax's have, in that they are meant to have the fluid and filter changed on a regular basis like engine oil. You could get by with longer intervals on the Allison if you didn't tow as much and used Transynd (or one of the other Allison approved oils) Synthetic trans oil and go 50,000-100,000 miles between changes. If I have to do that with this transmission, that's fine. But what isn't fine is if that statement about the 200 degree max temp, is actually true.
Does anyone know any differently on this? Can you add a transmission cooler (I have read that they exist for the trans/ truck combo) as well. Thanks for the input.
That is good to know though. It does seem warm but like you said, maybe this is normal for these trucks.
