Active grill shutters, possibly not opening correctly

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JHoward

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So today it's 75*F outside.. I drove to the next town over and back so a round trip of about 10 miles. For whatever reason I had left the gauge on the coolant/oil/transmission temp screen. Noticed on the way home coolant reached a max of 217* and oil 222*. But the analog gauge never really left the dead middle peg.

So surely that's not a normal operating temp for an ambient of 75* right?

As soon as I get home, without shutting the engine off I jump out and look in the grill and I see that the shutters are closed. So.. perhaps a smoking gun? Except the MIL light never came on and I have no codes.

Looking for advice.

Can I manually operate the shutters to verify they have the movement they should without damaging anything?
View attachment 554023

Fwiw, I'd be more concerned of the tranny temp.
 
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As many on our forum can attest, me included (I've purchased about 8 of them in the last 2 years or so for me, friends & family), this is a fantastic upgrade that does exactly what it was designed to do, and does it flawlessly, too.
I just came across a thread about the transmission stat bypass, thoughts on how that compares to valve upgrade?
 

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I just came across a thread about the transmission stat bypass, thoughts on how that compares to valve upgrade?
More work and more expensive, and in my opinion only, not near as effective.

One of our Senior Members (@caulk04) designed his version to be exceptionally easy to install and flawless in its design and execution of function.

As said, there are so many of our Members here that have his device in use and the results speak for themselves ;)
 
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Kraken

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More work and more expensive, and in my opinion only, not near as effective.

One of our Senior Members (@caulk04) designed his version to be exceptionally easy to install and flawless in its design and execution of function.

As said, there are so many of our Members here that have his device in use and the results speak for themselves ;)
Understood. I'm digging thru the big ass thread learning about these trans and how they are heated/cooled. My 15 has the 3-way because I've seen it.. I'm going to pull the thermal valve spring/plunger either today or this weekend and do some testing. Also going to have to dig into how to correctly bypass that 3-way.
 

Wild one

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Understood. I'm digging thru the big ass thread learning about these trans and how they are heated/cooled. My 15 has the 3-way because I've seen it.. I'm going to pull the thermal valve spring/plunger either today or this weekend and do some testing. Also going to have to dig into how to correctly bypass that 3-way.
Dig around you'll find my thread on the RevMax kit "Avoid" it,and just get Jesse Caulks bypass valve instead.
Khris/CrazyKid and i both started with Revmaxes piece of crap overpriced kit,before Jesse had his bypass available,and trust me,you don't want it. Leave the 3 way plugged in,but get the earlier 5/6 molded heater hoses and you can bypass the 3 valve easily,but you'll want to leave the valve in place and connected electrically otherwise you'll get a code.
Switching to the earlier molded heater hoses is a good time to flush/back flush your heater core while you have it disconnected.


About here is where you'll start to find pics of what i did to completely eliminate the thermal unit on the side of the transmission,but now i'd just do Jesse Caulks bypass and leave it in place.

 
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Dig around you'll find my thread on the RevMax kit "Avoid" it,and just get Jesse Caulks bypass valve instead.
Khris/CrazyKid and i both started with Revmaxes piece of crap overpriced kit,before Jesse had his bypass available,and trust me,you don't want it. Leave the 3 way plugged in,but get the earlier 5/6 molded heater hoses and you can bypass the 3 valve easily,but you'll want to leave the valve in place and connected electrically otherwise you'll get a code.
Switching to the earlier molded heater hoses is a good time to flush/back flush your heater core while you have it disconnected.


About here is where you'll start to find pics of what i did to completely eliminate the thermal unit on the side of the transmission,but now i'd just do Jesse Caulks bypass and leave it in place.

Just to be sure, the upgraded valve is a 'better' option than no valve?
 
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I certainly like the idea of eliminating that thermal unit entirely.. but I bought a 3rd party warranty so probably best to leave it on there for now. Mad props for the work on that though man!

Tell me if I just did not get to the correct page but any chance there's pics of that 3-way being bypassed? Or.. it it really what I'm picturing in my head? The valve sitting there without any hoses being routed thru it but still wired in.. yeah?
 

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They practically advertise themselves

Remember that the 3-way valve is a separate animal to the thermal unit on the trans. I know nothing about the 3-way valve as I don't have one.

My valve, or eliminator if you will, forces trans fluid to follow the cooler circuit and never through the heater circuit. Simply removing the stock thermostat allows fluid to flow through both circuits, but the heater circuit is much MUCH shorter so it will follow that path primarily.
 

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I certainly like the idea of eliminating that thermal unit entirely.. but I bought a 3rd party warranty so probably best to leave it on there for now. Mad props for the work on that though man!

Tell me if I just did not get to the correct page but any chance there's pics of that 3-way being bypassed? Or.. it it really what I'm picturing in my head? The valve sitting there without any hoses being routed thru it but still wired in.. yeah?
I never took any pics of the valve,but you basically nailed it,i pulled all the hoses off it,and just left it sitting in place and plugged in
 
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Sorry for the continued questions on this.. it's just a new topic for me.

So the 3-way controls engine coolant flow to both the heater core and... the transmission heater block correct? So that the 3-way was just some like additional method of throttling the flow correct? Then a year later they removed it, lol.
 

Wild one

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Sorry for the continued questions on this.. it's just a new topic for me.

So the 3-way controls engine coolant flow to both the heater core and... the transmission heater block correct? So that the 3-way was just some like additional method of throttling the flow correct? Then a year later they removed it, lol.
Bypassing the 3 way valve and switching to the older molded heater hoses also made my heater output better. My theory on bypassing the valve goes back to the cars and HD trucks,they don't heat the transmission fluid,only the 1500's with the 8 speed use coolant to heat the transmission fluid,and my philosphy is if the cars and HD trucks don't need to heat the tranny fluid,neither do the 1500's ;) If my wifes 1320 Challenger which is Dodges most high performance application of the 8HP70,with a factory high stall convertor / factory transmission brake and totally differant shift mapping from any other 8HP70 doesn't need a transmission heater,neither did my truck,lol.
On a cool day right around 0C/32F if i kept the speed down to about 55 mph,the transmission in it would take well over 50 miles to get above 115F,and it usually took at least one full throttle blast to even get it above 115F. Normally it ran right around 160/165 at 80mph on 90+ days,which kind of leads me to think the 1320's and the HD trucks might have used the same transmission thermostat,as normal Scatpack 6.4's with the 8HP70 usually ran at least 20 degrees hotter on transmission temps then my wifes 1320 did
 

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ts27330

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Fwiw, I'd be more concerned of the tranny temp.
Temp looks normal, I agree oil temp looks a little high. Here is a pic from my 2014 8 speed (i have the 3.6) but ambient temp was also 75.
 

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JHoward

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Temp looks normal, I agree oil temp looks a little high. Here is a pic from my 2014 8 speed (i have the 3.6) but ambient temp was also 75.

Well, all those might be normal, but IMHO, they are on the hot side compared to my 2017 8 speed (I the have the 5.7 HEMI) and the outside ambient temp was 79°.
 

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Mtvrwe03

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Only the 8 speed trucks have the shutters,and not all 8 speed 1500's have them ,Warlocks and i think the Rebels don't have the shutters. Not positive about the Rebels,but the Warlocks don't have them
My 19 Rebel has them!
 

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