I can aim my infrared gun at the Torque Converter since I drilled a small hole in the plastic flywheel cover. After the 1st Auto-Rx cleaning in the transmission the temp at the converter was about 158 degrees, after the 2nd transmission cleaning the temp is now 145 degrees. The oil temp measured by aiming the gun at the middle of the oil pan is 200 degrees and the coolant temp is at 180 degrees. I am running a 180 thermostat for the spring, summer, and fall, and I plan on putting a 195 thermostat for the winter time. The only emissions device is the PCV and on Thursday I plan on getting my historic tags. When I changed the trans fluid after the 2nd cleaning it was definetly a little bit of a dark burgundy color. The shifting characteristics of this Turbo 350 at 362,500 miles are better than the trans on my Marauder with 24,000 miles. I think the Marauder's transmission is controled by the computer which explains why it shifts the way it does. I do not take a temp of the trans pan because it has cooling tubes on the bottom of it which can be misleading.
I went ahead and put in the 195 thermostat and I still have a 145 degree temperature at the torque converter, when I get home tonite I will take another temperature check. The oil temp as measured by the middle of the oil pan is still at 200 degrees, that last rinse must have gotten a lot of stuff out.
I took a longer drive tonite and the torque converter temp was 155 degrees and the middle of the oil pan was 216 degrees, I guess my 3 mile drive this afternoon after putting in the new 195 thermostat was not as accurate as a 20 mile drive. I will say this, a 155 degree temperature at the torque converter is pretty good since most automatic transmissions like temperatures below 200 degrees, preferably a temperature between 160-180 is ideal. The 180 degree thermostat was bad, it took 10 miles to come up to operating temperature, whereas now with the new 195 stat it comes up to temp within 2-3 miles. the 180 stat would come up to temp and then go way down, this 195 thermostat comes up to temp and just stays there. I feel my lower oil and trans temps before were a result of a malfunctioning thermostat. I also feel that an oil temp of 216 is good because any harmful vapors will be burned off, if water boils at 212 degrees and there is any kind of water vapor in the engine it will be burned off. Who knows what will happen with the oil temp when I go onto the Maintenance Dose. The thermostat that went bad was a Robertshaw ( another name is a Mr. Gasket) high flow thermostat, this time I just put in a regular thermostat that I got from CarQuest which is an auto parts store like NAPA.
