2008 Trailblazer SS

[Fred32v]

Enjoyed your comparison between Ruby and Smoke.
Similiar machines, but 2 years and 2 cylinders different.
Obviously, Smoke is superior in most aspects,
but I'm thinking the MPG is not that far apart since
that 6 cylinder had to work a little harder.

Me thinks you can hardly wait to run errands with the SS!

[Basement Paul]

How about putting a gauge on it to see if it's really a problem before you go through all that headache?

There's also a bigger aluminum pan with cooling fins and synthetic fluid that would be easier and more reliable than an external cooler.

I think you're making a bigger deal out of this than it really is. That SS has been tested and tested and punished much more than you ever will do to it. This is a 14 second pass, not a road course. IMO, if you don't touch it, you'll be fine.

-BP

[wxo]

but I'm thinking the MPG is not that far apart since
that 6 cylinder had to work a little harder.

Me thinks you can hardly wait to run errands with the SS!

I haven't been able to get accurate gas mileage comparisons, but it seems that Smoke is doing slightly better around town. As far as running errands, I do it in a heartbeat now.

As far as the trans cooler is concerned, the comments from TS help alleviate my anxiety some. Reading posts on forums sometimes has to be put in perspective. The 4L70 seems to have some durability problems for sure, but there are things (again according to the so-called experts) that can be done to avoid them. One thing I learned today is to ALWAYS use 3rd gear when romping on it. Using the OD selection can cause premature problems. I'm still going to install a trans cooler just for extra insurance, but probably not in time for Thursday night. I looked at the deep tranmission pan, but I didn't really like the idea of adding parts inside for compensating for the depth. Too much room for problems and GM might not like it from a warranty point of view (I still have two years on the powertrain for what it's worth). As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, a trans cooler might also be suspect from the GM point of view.

[wxo]

Well, I guess I'm ready for the track tomorrow night. I made a major improvement to performance last night. No. It wasn't the tranny cooler, although that's coming soon. This modification should get me into the 13's for sure:
http://snipurl.com/12wo9x [ss-shootout_com]

I was thinking maybe I should stuff a bag of ice behind the grill near this area, too.
It will probably be around 90 degrees when we run.

[wxo]

Here are some pics and timeslips for our June 30th racing:







Maverick studies his timeslips with our friendly pit crew/photographer/technical consultant.

[Fred32v]

The pictures certainly add to the fun.

[oldvettedad]

As long as you guys had fun...and were able to DRIVE home it was successful. Those 4 runs were certainly done in a short period of time. Did you guys have to get home before dark

[wxo]

Nope. We were just practicing our launches while we had the track to ourselves. I'm really bad getting all my ducks in a row and then trying to time the countdown all at the same time. Four runs is hardly enough for me to even get started working the tree. About 7pm the cars started filing in and we didn't want to sit around in the heat waiting for a long time to run again. That's about the time that Maverick decided that he didn't want to punish his tranny any more and we decided to leave.

[wxo]

Ok, I'm back on my transmission cooler thing. I ordered a B&M SuperCooler and a filter kit from Advance Auto when they had the 20% off deal this weekend. This was after searching around for a deep pan with temperature sender bung and having no success. As I stated earlier, in response to BP's suggestion for a deep pan, I was a bit concerned about adding parts to lengthen the stock pickup. Anyway, I continued looking at pans and I believe I have found the answer. The Derale 14204 pan has all the right stuff...cooling tubes, extra capacity, temp sender bung, and works without extending anything. I also believe it will fit the 4L70 in my truck as I am reasoning that the 700R4, 4L60 and the 4L70 all have the same pans. I need to verify that before I order it. I found it on Amazon for a good price and free shipping.
If you guys are not looking at Amazon for auto parts, you may be missing out on some good deals. When I look for online parts I always check Amazon before buying anywhere else. It works for me.

[oldvettedad]

Ok, I'm back on my transmission cooler thing. I ordered a B&M SuperCooler and a filter kit from Advance Auto when they had the 20% off deal this weekend. This was after searching around for a deep pan with temperature sender bung and having no success. As I stated earlier, in response to BP's suggestion for a deep pan, I was a bit concerned about adding parts to lengthen the stock pickup. Anyway, I continued looking at pans and I believe I have found the answer. The Derale 14204 pan has all the right stuff...cooling tubes, extra capacity, temp sender bung, and works without extending anything. I also believe it will fit the 4L70 in my truck as I am reasoning that the 700R4, 4L60 and the 4L70 all have the same pans. I need to verify that before I order it. I found it on Amazon for a good price and free shipping.
If you guys are not looking at Amazon for auto parts, you may be missing out on some good deals. When I look for online parts I always check Amazon before buying anywhere else. It works for me.

Also check out EBAY. There are quite a few EBAY stores selling new items at a discount.

[wxo]

I ordered the Derale pan from Amazon. It was $130 shipped to me. On Ebay, the same pan was $121 plus $18.57 shipping = $139.57. It's worth a look.

[Basement Paul]

I put a Derale pan in my Trans Am for the same reasons. It seemed to fit well and didn't leak. I also liked the drain plug with magnet.

Good luck.

-BP

[wxo]

I had an interesting, but frustrating afternoon working on Smoke today. I had received the Derale transmission cooling pan from Amazon and finally found some time to swap the pans. We all know how this goes. Something that looks like a simple task ends up in a frustrating mess.
First, I checked to make sure that the new gasket that came with the Derale Pan matched the original pan and it did. So I went about getting the old pan off. Of course I tried my best to contain the spilling of fluid, but the more I tried, the worse things got. As usual, fluid up my arms and all over the driveway. Getting the old pan off turned out to be a bit trickier that I expected because of an exhaust crossover pipe that blocks the rear of the pan. Once I got it out, I eyeballed the new pan in place and realized that this will never fly. There is not enough room due to the shape of the new pan to get it in place because of the exhaust pipes routing...right under the rear of the pan. So I resigned myself to cleaning out the old pan and putting it back in. The magnet inside the pan was covered with hairy metallic mud, but the pan was otherwise clean. I put in a new filter and let it go at that.

The interesting part was thinking about the exhaust pipe so near the tranny pan. It has got to be adding a whole lot of extra heat to the tranny fluid. No wonder the people on the TBSS forum are saying to add a tranny cooler to these things. It's to compensate for the heat of the exhaust pipe. It seems like some poor thinking in the design department, but I'm not sure if they had a lot of options. The underside of this truck looks like it was meant for single exhaust routing and it probably was. I'll have to spend some time checking out what other owners have done about this.

[wxo]

The good part is Amazon accepted a return on the Derale pan costing me only about $10 for shipping. The bad part is that I accidently sent back my B&M temperature sending unit back with the pan. The good part is that I emailed Amazon explaining what I had done. They graciously agreed to let me order a replacement sending unit for at charge. Unbelievable! Aparently they decided that it was too difficult to find my returned shipment and to send my part back to me. I guess they thought it would be better for customer satisfaction to just give me one. I'm satisfied.

For the next step, I'm planning to fabricate a heat shield for the cross-over pipe. I'm also considering welding two bungs into my stock pan, one for the temp sender and one for a drain drain plug. I might just install the temp sender and using it as a drain port and forget about the drain plug. For as often as the pan is pulled for maintenance it might do just fine.

[Fred32v]

I must be honest and say that I never really considered transmission oil temperatures before now.
However, my car has transmission temperature as one of the readouts.
I plan to drive to Wheeling, WV (140 miles) tomorrow in 90 degree plus weather
and I'll try to make some observations. I don't even know what normal should be,
but I bet the vehicle would complain if it was in trouble.