150 auto transmission oil cooler install - Davies Craig 678 with fan and thermo switch

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

Ribman, any pics of where you connect the hoses? I assume you did not use joiners.

[Tin175 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tin175]

Tin
How much hose did you use? In the first post you said "I also needed another metre of 3/8" oil cooler hose" so I bought 1m. But when I went to install it today (I know, super slow) it seems I need about 1m for each side - ie 2m total!

It is better to run the hose all the way back to the steel pipe coming from the tranny rather than splicing into the hose near the radiator. To do this you need the 1m hose that comes with the kit and an extra 1.5m of hose to run to the tranny pipe. Extra 2m is safer depending on how you route your hose.

[Ribman Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ribman]

Ribman, any pics of where you connect the hoses? I assume you did not use joiners.

On Tin's advice (and in reality, it was his hands), the hoses run all the way back to the steel pipe coming from the transmission.
Tin was actually taking photos so he should be able to upload them (when he gets a spare breath btn work, home and people like me).
We ran the fan to a dash switch (air on board switch when it arrives, thanks Aus Post).

[Caveman Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Caveman]

Hi forum,

Just did my install on the weekend, cheers tin for the mounts, for lack of a better word precision champ. "Thanks" easy clean and has made a noticeable difference. Haven't installed the thermo fan yet but have a little electronic circuit, cheers Michael, that will switch the relay for the fan. Pictures to come. 3/8th tee one leg blocked and thermo coupling glued in, pictures to come, installing this weekend, pending daddy day care duties.

Caveman

[evltoy Member Find all posts View Profile Close evltoy]

Well I have now been running the cooler for a week and I'm very impress with the outcome.

installed the DC 678 cooler with Tins brackets on my 150 serise facelift model. Only issues I found was one of my 3/8 tubes coming out of the cooler was rubbing on Tins bracket as the tube was wedged betwenn the cooler bracket and air-con bracket. I fixed this by splitting some tube to cover the edge on the cooler bracket. From there the tubes run on top of all the coolers to the cold trans outlet on the radiator.

I was lucky enough to get 400mls of toyota tranny oil for free and just added most of it to the cooler and tubes. As my car has 20k on the clock with about 5 of it towing a boat, the tranny oil was still cherry red.

I have had my scan guage pretty much since new and have seen my auto sitting most days around the 80 mark. In heavy traffic I can get to 90. Now lm seeing it going no more then 65 and it take pretty the whole trip in traffic to reach it. The last few nighs on the open hwy it didnt get over 45. Shift changning is a lot smoother and cleaner and the tc slip doesnt feel so laggy.. Yet to tow the boat, but from the results already l knowits going to be a positive... cant wait.

this is a must do even if not towing

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

I've finally got the bracket/cooler on and enough pipe & oil to plumb it in. But reading all this I've got some questions:

- Is there anything "bad" in joining the return pipe up the top (where it came off the radiator) rather than taking it all the way down to the steel return pipe? I took off the bash plates and looked "up" where the rubber hose goes - I can't see how I'd be able to get a replacement pipe to fit up through the same clamps/etc. Joining it up the top seems a heap easier!

- how critical is the transmission oil level? Reading the instructions here it seems rather involved to do it "properly". Have other people checked the level afterwards or just made sure the hoses & radiator are all full before joining them up? If the cooler was full of oil and the hoses were full when put on I can't imagine it would be more than 50ml of oil "short" which doesn't seem like much to me!

- I need to use some sealing tape for my temperature switch - is "plumbers tape" the right stuff to use? It's pretty inert and good for 250C (according to the label). Or do the fittings need something more exotic?

[Mattfunk 120 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mattfunk 120]

Hi peter, the cooler should go between the return from radiator to the transmission. I ran from the output of radiator , through the cooler then back to the metal transmission return pipe . (Not sure if that answers that one?)
You will need another 1500mm of hose.
Matt

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

Hi peter, the cooler should go between the return from radiator to the transmission. I ran from the output of radiator , through the cooler then back to the metal transmission return pipe . (Not sure if that answers that one?)

Thanks - that's what I was planning to do. How hard was it to get the hose down to the metal return pipe? It looks like it goes down a fairly small space and through a bracket.

[Mattfunk 120 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mattfunk 120]

Thanks - that's what I was planning to do. How hard was it to get the hose down to the metal return pipe? It looks like it goes down a fairly small space and through a bracket.

No problems with a bit of wrestling. Plumbed my old mans 1kz no worries . My 1kd was plumbed for me while the fluid was changed as it was brown & I was not sure how to check the at level . Was tight but ok

[evltoy Member Find all posts View Profile Close evltoy]

2 things to thinks about.

warranty. If you still have it its best to use the factory tranny cooler on the radiator.
Read the dc 678 manual. They recommend to use the factory tranny cooler.

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

2 things to thinks about.

warranty. If you still have it its best to use the factory tranny cooler on the radiator.
Read the dc 678 manual. They recommend to use the factory tranny cooler.

Tin's "instructions" have it installed after the factory cooler - ie oil goes through the factory cooler then through the extra one.

[evltoy Member Find all posts View Profile Close evltoy]

Tin's "instructions" have it installed after the factory cooler - ie oil goes through the factory cooler then through the extra one.

Oh yes. Tins instruction says it too

[Hollywood Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hollywood]

For anyone interested I saw the Davies Craig 678 oil cooler in Supacheap Auto yesterday for $139.

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

The top hose of the side of the radiator near the second battery was the return line that I need to connect to. One hose goes from the outlet to the cooler and the return from the cooler connects to the transmission return with a 3/8" brass hosetail connector.

I've installed my cooler, but haven't plumbed it in yet. I'm just curious, why is the return ATF line at the top of the radiator. I'd have thought a cooler would be more efficient if the hot stuff went in the top and the cool stuff was drawn out the bottom. Is there something i'm missing here?

Mike

[evltoy Member Find all posts View Profile Close evltoy]

I've installed my cooler, but haven't plumbed it in yet. I'm just curious, why is the return ATF line at the top of the radiator. I'd have thought a cooler would be more efficient if the hot stuff went in the top and the cool stuff was drawn out the bottom. Is there something i'm missing here?

Mike

Funny you say that. Myself and someone I know who works as a mech for toyota was thinking the same.