It appears that my trans temp gauge is off. The car has yet to make it to the road so it hasn't been driven.

Overnight my garage was 72 degrees. When I turn the car on my gauge says that the trans temp is 86 degrees. Do I have a bad sender or could there possibly be a grounding issue?

Mine's plumbed into the return line. It's all hard line.

 

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?P...&PARTPG=INLMK3

One of the most useful pieces of test equipment you can own; right behind a digital caliper and a multimeter.

Don't bother with what it reads when cold. It's entirely possible that it's not even SLIGHTLY calibrated at that temperature. I'd be alot more concerned with its accuracy around operating temp.

I'd also recommend that the sending unit be located in the transmission case somewhere, like a pressure port or a bolt hole or something; as opposed to the pan. Temp in the pan can be 30° or more cooler than the real trans temp, since it's full of fluid that just came back from the cooler. Kind of a "rose colored glasses" situation.

 

Hey sofa
I put it in the return line because Dana at ProBuilt suggests that as the best spot. Apparently the return line and pan are the temps of that fluid that the trans WILL use so that's the number you'd want to see.
I'll have to borrow my IR thermometer. What would I shoot though? The pan?

 

Yeah, the place you put it kind of depends on what it is you want to see the temp of. Like Dana said, the fluid in the pan or the return line, tells you what's going INTO the trans, and so, tells you how effective your cooling is (which is certainly an important thing); but doesn't tell you much about the trans itself.

The hottest place in one, where the heat is mostly actually generated in a correctly working trans, is the converter. On the other hand, if clutches are slipping or the trans is partway in 2 gears at the same time (clutches stacked up too tight or internal leaks), then the trans itself can generate a fair amount of heat as well.

I think I'd want the probe in the case, myself, since that would tell me the most about the overall condition of the transmission.

That's the beauty of the infrared pyrometer: you can check each and every part individually. Every externally visible part, anyway.

 

I want to see actual fluid temp that's sitting in the pan mixing with the "cooled oil" coming from the trans cooler AND the oil sitting in the pan that's allowed to cool from ambient air blowing over the pan....I want the "concoction" temp of overall fluid being used...I could care less to monitor what the cooler is doing since it's all getting mixed into a oil stem as soon as it's pumped into the pan and ready for sucking through the trans again...but that's just me.

Either way, dont get too excited about inital temp after sitting overnight....all meaningless, and actually I'm suprised your guage goes that low, almost everyone I see at the track or in cars starts at 100* and goes from there. And for that matter, if you drove your car, parked it and let it sit overnight, then checked them in the morning, maybe there's enough fluid in the system it's just not disappating heat quickly and is retaining a bit and your seeing a bit higher temp the next morning. that's the one downfall of too much fluid....if you have a resivour holding say another 3-4 qts over a standard system...you get all that fluid hot hot..it's that much more fluid you have to cool down too.

 

I don't even know if i'm full yet. I put in 10 quarts and have yet to drive it. 9.5" converter and completely empty trans system. I figure 10 quarts is a good place to start.
The lowest i've ever seen it (first time I fired it up) was 84F.