Best Trans Temp Sensor Location, What’s Your Two Cents?

[beanious]

Good morning all! I’m going to spark a question this morning about the best place to install a transmission temperature sensor. With today’s aftermarket you can pretty much put them anywhere, pan, trans cooler out port, trans cooler in port, line pressure test port, in the cooler and more. Please refrain from: This is the only way to do it, stock is… and I’ve always.

This is a question of where you think the optimal location is it and WHY, it is a discussion and not an argument. I really look forward to all of the insight from the gurus out there!

[72_swb]

I put mine in the line going to the trans cooler. Figured that would be the hottest temp readings and give me an idea of what's going on in the trans.

[Andy4639]

I have the ECU in the 71 reading mine. Which is inside the tans. Not sure where it's mounted but think it's in the pan area.

On my 64 SS Impala I installed it in the pan drain hole of the power glide.I have to take it out any way to drain the fluid so I just used it to plug it up.
Chevy puts their's in the pan that's good enough for me I don't race them so it's a general reading anyway.

[beanious]

So, do you guys think it is better to know the temperature of the fluid in the pan or the peak temp coming out of the transmission? ?? ???

[Bigdav160]

The factory puts the temp sender in the pan. Hopefully their engineers know best.

It would be nice to know the temp of the outlet of the cooler. That fluid is going back to the trans to lubricate the gearset before it falls in the pan.

[HO455]

Put mine in the return from the cooler along with a filter. I wanted to know what the temperature of the returning fluid was. This was on my GTO which was my daily driver/ Bracket race car. The theory was I could see how well temperature from being hard up on the convertor was being controlled. It didn't take long after I installed it to change how I used the convertor and how I did my burnouts in the water box.

[Andy4639]

Originally Posted by beanious

So, do you guys think it is better to know the temperature of the fluid in the pan or the peak temp coming out of the transmission? ?? ???

If your racing the vehicle then you may need to know the outgoing temperature though.

The return line supplies the fluid back to the transmission and to the pan. The fluid is in the pan to be pumped back through to the transmission so if the fluid in the pan is the cooliest spot then I think it's the best place to read temp for it.

Oil Pump

The transmission oil pump (not to be confused with the pump element inside the torque converter) is responsible for producing all the oil pressure that is required in the transmission. The oil pump is mounted to the front of the transmission case and is directly connected to a flange on the torque converter housing. Since the torque converter housing is directly connected to the engine crankshaft, the pump will produce pressure whenever the engine is running as long as there is a sufficient amount of transmission fluid available. The oil enters the pump through a filter that is located at the bottom of the transmission oil pan and travels up a pickup tube directly to the oil pump. The oil is then sent, under pressure to the pressure regulator, the valve body and the rest of the components, as required.

In order to keep the transmission at normal operating temperature, a portion of the fluid is sent through one of two steel tubes to a special chamber that is submerged in anti-freeze in the radiator. Fluid passing through this chamber is cooled and then returned to the transmission through the other steel tube. A typical transmission has an average of ten quarts of fluid between the transmission, torque converter, and cooler tank. In fact, most of the components of a transmission are constantly submerged in fluid including the clutch packs and bands. The friction surfaces on these parts are designed to operate properly only when they are submerged in oil.

[Bigdav160]

Cooler return is also the lubrication circuit. The fluid doesn't go from the cooler to the pan.