Powerboost Overheated while Towing

[Snakebitten]

All 10r80 transmissions have a transmission cooler. It doesn't matter if MaxTow or not. Doesn't matter which motor.

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[cleanbiker]

All 10r80 transmissions have a transmission cooler. It doesn't matter if MaxTow or not. Doesn't matter which motor.

Thanks, that would make sense to me. So I guess it's just
not enough of a trans cooler to keep up with this very taxing
situation, given the weight/altitude/speed and fully loaded
9000# TT. I guess it's not that big of a deal if I'm ok with slowing
down to 45 mph at the steepest parts occasionally. Having to pull off the side of the road to cool down is not always convenient or safe given the particular road conditions, though. I guess I'm hoping for an easy fix like adding extra fans or something...
Thanks again for your replies. JD in COlorado

 

[Snakebitten]

It would be an issue if I were towing those grades with that load often.
But if I only have to slow down to 45mph a few minutes a few times per year?

245F, according to the experts, doesn't cook Mercon ULV.
That's probably true, but I know me, and I'd probably have to at least pull the dipstick when I get home and chech smell/color.

 

[turbopilot]

All 10r80 transmissions have a transmission cooler. It doesn't matter if MaxTow or not. Doesn't matter which motor.

That makes sense. I have the max tow package. I pulled my 7,300 lb Airstream through all the heat domes in the West and Midwest this Summer with temperatures up to 110F. Coolant temperature and transmission temperatures always within a few degrees of each other. Here is a screenshoot pulling the grade on the continental divide East of Gallup, NM at my normal speed of 62 mph. Outside air temperature 95F, yet coolant and transmission number always within a narrow band 210F to 220F. Never saw a transmission temperature above 222F.

 

[Snakebitten]

Airstreams are Air-streaming compared to most of the parachutes we RV'ers are dragging up those grades. ?

I admit that the weight/Payload might be similar, but that torque sapping wind resistance at 55-70mph is huge impact.

 

[cleanbiker]

That makes sense. I have the max tow package. I pulled my 7,300 lb Airstream through all the heat domes in the West and Midwest this Summer with temperatures up to 110F. Coolant temperature and transmission temperatures always within a few degrees of each other. Here is a screenshoot pulling the grade on the continental divide East of Gallup, NM at my normal speed of 62 mph. Outside air temperature 95F, yet coolant and transmission number always within a narrow band 210F to 220F. Never saw a transmission temperature above 222F.

Wow, that sounds pretty good. I'm thinking I might be a bit shy
of the actual weight I'm hauling--
7300# DRY trailer, add a 900# ATV, 100 gallons fresh water, 2 propane tanks, 2 AGM batteries to run the trailer electrical/electronics, all the things my wife likes to duplicate from home items...
could be as high as 10,000#, possibly more.
I would have gotten an F250 if the Powerboost and Pro Power had
been available on them.
JD

 

[Snakebitten]

It just kills you that thousands of Powerboost owners are enjoying their truck towing and boondocking all over the Northern hemisphere.

Of course it has its limits. Not everyone is going to exceed those limits.

 

[cleanbiker]

It just kills you that thousands of Powerboost owners are enjoying their truck towing and boondocking all over the Northern hemisphere.

Of course it has its limits. Not everyone is going to exceed those limits.

Oh, I'm still enjoying it, to be sure. But, like me (I just turned 69yo)
I have to accept some limitations. NBD (no big deal). Leave it
to me to be one of those peeps who has to push the limits from time to time.
Thanks again for all of your replies.
JD in Colorado

 

[amschind]

Did this thread ever evolve into something useful? I slogged through 5 pages and all I got for my trouble is a near certainty that the F150 Powerboost is in fact NOT a 1-ton Superduty.

That said, heat management appears to be the big issue. I live in Texas, and while it gets hot here, we have very few opportunities to drive 1000' ASL. I did just visit Ruidoso NM for the first time, and suddenly I want to go back with my Airstream, which involves more heat and altitude than I'd previously planned on. With regard to heat management, there appear to be a few opportunities for improvement.

1) Keep the heat in the exhaust. This option may be the biggest benefit and also the most challenging, but don't worry because I volunteer as tribute! I'm doing all that I can to assist MegaOhm with a heat exchanger delete kit (though I haven't contributed much of anything, it's the effort that counts, right?), which paves the way for a full exhaust replacement and removes a heat-related failure point from the exhaust. It also allows for wrapping the exhaust near the electronics and battery to keep the heat away from those. Further, I bought a set of used exhaust manifolds to get PTP to design exhaust manifold blankets. They already make turbo blankets, and you can wrap the parts of the exhaust near the transmission with exhaust wrap. It is my (untested and will remain untested) opinion that wrapping the exhaust with the heat exchanger in place could overheat the electronics in the heat exchanger, kill it at random and get you stuck in limp mode at the worst possible time. Therefore, I have done exactly zero of these mods due to the proposed progression of Heat Exchanger Delete=>Custom Exhaust with High flow Cats and straight through muffler=>manifold/turbo/proximal exhaust pipe wrap. I also have gold-foil cloth to spray-adhesive to the heat shields near the transmission and battery, with the idea of keeping radiated heat away from things that are killed by heat. Exhaust wrapping cats is noted to be a bad idea as most cats WILL tolerate it but the ones that can't alert you to their failure by catching on fire......"Fail With Fire" is more or less the opposite of "Fail Safe", and is thus best avoided.

2) Aluminum Transmission pan. I have no idea what if any benefit this would have vs the plastic pan WRT heat, as I have a full skid plate package and thus airflow is horrible in that area. At least it's not plastic.

3)CAI and Intercooler Upgrade. This is also theoretical, but has a decent idea behind it. The PB in the TFL test was at WOT. The factory intake is sufficient for most conditions, but high load at high temp and high altitude is NOT "most conditions". I am concerned that the truck will respond to high commanded acceleration under high load at WOT by making the mixture more rich, which is backed up by the absolutely awful mileage. I do not believe that this would provide any benefit in isolation, but when paired with a free flowing exhaust it could show up in terms of the truck maintaining the usual lean mixture even under high load in thin air. The intercooler upgrade is a part of this, and requires that the intercooler be both bigger AND exposed to incoming air. The factory intercooler intake is fine unless blocked by the factory license plate holder. I went a rather extreme route and ground a square hole in my front bumper (a Black Steel Elite from Fab Fours) and fashioned a duct to the intercooler. This is also related to the exhaust upgrades as heat soak from the exhaust manifold and turbo into the engine compartment will heat the charge air and thus reduce mass air flow, such that everything is more or less related.

Ultimately, all of these upgrades should be off-the-shelf bolt-on affairs. When that day comes, there may be a relatively straightforward upgrade path for folks who want to take their TTs up into the mountains. My other big mod, and one that I can't force on others, is an Airstream. My '78 25' Tradwind is NOT a small object, but it's absolutely tiny compared to most of the travel trailers that I see.

 

[Snakebitten]

Never said anything about a Powerboost being infallible.
But admittedly haven't had any issues with mine. (yet)
And I'm far from the only member who has reported as being very happy with theirs.

I'm not on an island here.

 

[JExpedition07]

The Achilles heel of the 10R80 is the crappy coolant heat exchanger. Not thermally efficient trying to cool your 200 degree transmission with 190 degree coolant going uphill. 6R80 has much more cooling capacity with the direct air to trans fluid cooler in front of the condenser. We’ve established that on the Expedition forum, these 10R80s get too hot, the 6R80 never gets too hot.

 

[LD50]

Never said anything about a Powerboost being infallible.
But admittedly haven't had any issues with mine. (yet)
And I'm far from the only member who has reported as being very happy with theirs.

I'm not on an island here.

Add me to your list. Only problems I've had was a squeak in the driver's side door that I figured out and a mix up with the activation process that caused blue cruise not to work for a while due to expired maps. Very happy with mine, It's logged about half of its miles pulling an 8200# boat or a 33' camper and it does a great job with both.

 

[ReverendQ]

Today I took BEGINER for a bit of off-roading to check out the various features and modes, see did great. There was one thing that bugged me, see attached. The Transmission Temp did get over 220F. The worst I saw was 127F. I was a bit busy in a technical drive to stop, etc. so I went on. Later when I got back to watching, the Transmission seemed to cool under 220F, I put on my AC and it even got cooler yet, lowest observed was 212F. Can anybody confirm running AC appears to help cool the Transmission a bit?

@amschind , I do have the cat cover/trans skid and wonder if it contains a bit of heat. Thoughts?

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