8 speed in line thermostat and engine oil filter relocation

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crazykid1994

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Finally getting around to doing my thermostat after deleting the trans heater. I’ll do a full write up after finished. Waiting on a couple more fittings and some more hose. I have since changed my mind from the original plan to mount the thermostat on the transmission. I will now be mounting it by the radiator. Factory uses a -10orb to 1/2” quick connect fitting on the radiator same as on the transmission. I have 2 -10 orb to -8 an adapters, 1 -8an u-fitting female threads, 1 -8an 90° fitting female threads, 4 -8 an straights female threads, hard tube nuts for -8 an, tube nut adapters, 2 -8 an fittings male thread, the thermostat I ordered with -10 orb to -8 an adapters, and 10’ of -8 an tubing. It’s a 145° thermostat. Here is a rough location of the thermostat. I will be mounting a flat plate so I can better locate the thermostat when it comes time to actually do this. I will also be redoing my remote filter mount with new filter adapter and mounts from improved racing. I will post that up after the parts arrive. the reason I am redoing the filter relocation I currently have is to redo my lines for future plans to add a winch and the current filter orientation will be in the way of my winch cradle. I will be swapping back to the factory 22x1.5 filter thread style as well instead of the 3/4-16 filter thread style.
Link to thermostat
Link to filter adapter
Link to filter mount
 

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Wild one

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Finally getting around to doing my thermostat after deleting the trans heater. I’ll do a full write up after finished. Waiting on a couple more fittings and some more hose. I have since changed my mind from the original plan to mount the thermostat on the transmission. I will now be mounting it by the radiator. Factory uses a -10orb to 1/2” quick connect fitting on the radiator same as on the transmission. I have 2 -10 orb to -8 an adapters, 1 -8an u-fitting female threads, 1 -8an 90° fitting female threads, 4 -8 an straights female threads, hard tube nuts for -8 an, tube nut adapters, 2 -8 an fittings male thread, the thermostat I ordered with -10 orb to -8 an adapters, and 10’ of -8 an tubing. It’s a 145° thermostat. Here is a rough location of the thermostat. I will be mounting a flat plate so I can better locate the thermostat when it comes time to actually do this. I will also be redoing my remote filter mount with new filter adapter and mounts from improved racing. I will post that up after the parts arrive. the reason I am redoing the filter relocation I currently have is to redo my lines for future plans to add a winch and the current filter orientation will be in the way of my winch cradle. I will be swapping back to the factory 22x1.5 filter thread style as well instead of the 3/4-16 filter thread style.
Link to thermostat
Link to filter adapter
Link to filter mount
About damn time,lol. I'm looking forward to your thoughts and write up on the thermostat Khris.
 
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crazykid1994

crazykid1994

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Remind me again what you're up to.....you have the ZF trans, yeah?
Has both an oil heater and a stat?
My heater assembly has been removed and the ports blocked off. The factory thermostat is 176° for the heater assembly and the trans runs 186° or higher. I did not like that very much because on long drives it could get hotter as coolant temp rose due to the heater. So after removing the heater assembly and thermostat I have found the trans likes being above 140° but my truck hardly ever gets above 136° trans temp even on longer drives. so I’m installing an inline thermostat to bring temps back up above 140°. This should regulate around 145° to 150°. When it’s cooler out my transmission won’t even go above 120° so this should help substantially especially in cooler weather. It’s a fail safe thermostat that if it fails it never loses flow. If the factory thermostat fails it goes full flow through the heater assembly and will overheat and burn the trans.
 

HEMIMANN

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Excellent! Good luck!

I figured it had something to do with the arctic region. I just let my trans oil run luke warm in winter like the old days.
 
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crazykid1994

crazykid1994

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Excellent! Good luck!

I figured it had something to do with the arctic region. I just let my trans oil run luke warm in winter like the old days.
If it wasn’t for the fact this trans actually feels like it shifts better above 140° I wouldn’t have even cared about installing the thermostat.
 

Wild one

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Oh, I agree - they clearly shift better above 120F.
This is what both Khris and i did to combat the heat issues the 8 speeds seem to have,but we might of went a bit overboard.In hindsight, i'd do Caulk04's bypass and leave the thermal unit attached,but at the time Jesse wasn't building his bypass yet.

 

HEMIMANN

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Oh yeah, I saw the bypass for the ZF 8's. That trans has crazy stuff on it.
 

emjohn4

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I put the improved racing thermostat on mine when I did the 8-spd swap. It runs consistently now at 156*F; whereas without a thermostat, it would take a long time to break 100*F in the winter; and would rarely get above 120*F.
 
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crazykid1994

crazykid1994

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I took a file and a grinding stone and cleaned up some of the hard edges after taking these pictures. Pretty decent construction. @Wild one does your truck have the factory oil heat exchanger on the engine? I bought the threaded nipple to remove the heat exchanger. Thinking removing it may remove some restriction in oil flow as well. I know it’s there to warm the oil faster and keep it warmer with the coolant. If anything I can add a thermostatic mount and a small power steering type cooler to keep restriction down in the future. I don’t think the oil will get to hot without the factory heat exchanger though.
 

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emjohn4

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Do you use your truck for towing or hauling or any off-roading? Or is it strictly a street truck.

When the truck was young (<20k miles), I did some very light towing of ~2,500-lbs for maybe 10% of it's mileage (old pics below). Since then, it's been pretty much a 100% street, no towing, highway vehicle (my commute is 70 miles/day (round-trip), all highway).
 

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Wild one

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I took a file and a grinding stone and cleaned up some of the hard edges after taking these pictures. Pretty decent construction. @Wild one does your truck have the factory oil heat exchanger on the engine? I bought the threaded nipple to remove the heat exchanger. Thinking removing it may remove some restriction in oil flow as well. I know it’s there to warm the oil faster and keep it warmer with the coolant. If anything I can add a thermostatic mount and a small power steering type cooler to keep restriction down in the future. I don’t think the oil will get to hot without the factory heat exchanger though.
My 14 doesn't have the oil cooler Khris,i think they started adding it to the later trucks either around 16 or 17. If it's easy to delete,i'd get rid of the factory oil cooler,as i think it's a flow restriction too. Remember to keep track of the in and out,as "out" from the engine adapter should go to "in" on the remote mount and vice versus "out" from the remote mount goes to "in" on the engine adapter,if you get them wrong,the engine won't build any oil pressure,if that happens reverse the hoses,lol.
 
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crazykid1994

crazykid1994

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My 14 doesn't have the oil cooler Khris,i think they started adding it to the later trucks either around 16 or 17. If it's easy to delete,i'd get rid of the factory oil cooler,as i think it's a flow restriction too. Remember to keep track of the in and out,as "out" from the engine adapter should go to "in" on the remote mount and vice versus "out" from the remote mount goes to "in" on the engine adapter,if you get them wrong,the engine won't build any oil pressure,if that happens reverse the hoses,lol.
Yea. It looks really easy. I’ll just have to cap the cooler lines.
 

Wild one

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Yea. It looks really easy. I’ll just have to cap the cooler lines.
Does the cooler tie into the thermostat housing Khris,if so,i'd look at replacing it with the earlier thermostat housing,as it only has one rad hose outlet
 
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crazykid1994

crazykid1994

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Does the cooler tie into the thermostat housing Khris,if so,i'd look at replacing it with the earlier thermostat housing,as it only has one rad hose outlet
I have to double check if it’s the thermostat housing or the water pump. Can’t remember off the top of my head but I think it’s actually part of the water pump. I think the thermostat housing went to the trans heater on my truck. Not a bad idea to swap that though. 1 less failure point.
 

danielmid

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My 14 doesn't have the oil cooler Khris,i think they started adding it to the later trucks either around 16 or 17. If it's easy to delete,i'd get rid of the factory oil cooler,as i think it's a flow restriction too. Remember to keep track of the in and out,as "out" from the engine adapter should go to "in" on the remote mount and vice versus "out" from the remote mount goes to "in" on the engine adapter,if you get them wrong,the engine won't build any oil pressure,if that happens reverse the hoses,lol.
My '15 did not have the heater either. I've been really impressed with the IR parts, although I didn't want to hit them with the grinder so they're stock.
 
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