This is going to be a great test by Gale Banks!

Rickf1985 · August 20, 2018, 09:48 PM

I cannot wait to see the results of this testing. I hope he follows this up with transmission pan testing! There are very few people with more knowledge about power trains than this man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4DQ-jzKQRw

fasteddie313 · August 21, 2018, 02:57 PM

I like him, he said "bum-end"..

300 something degrees? That's hotter than I thought..

I think the heat sync fins will work to some extent but as he said they are in the worst place, dead air behind the diff..

If you really wanted to you could run an oil cooler to it..
My car's diff is in the same case with the gearbox and at the Le Mons races they ran an oil cooler on them..

I bet you could design a diff cover pan with like a catch tray near to top to catch flying oil to put into your upper oil cooler line, and then have it go through the cooler and return to the bottom of the pan, and not need a pump..

My car also has heat sync fins like that on the bottom of the aluminum engine oil pan and it is reported that changing the underbody aero can be seen in oil temp despite it also having an engine oil cooler too..
So the theory does work, but the oilpan has much better airflow than the rear of the diff..

You might be able to just make a bunch of strips of steel about 2"X4" 1/8" thick and weld them like fins all around your diff case and get a better cooling effect than trying to do it on the cover.. It's all about surface area and airflow.. Add surface area where their is good airflow..

OR.. Genius idea.. (ha not really)
Put a little spoiler like air deflector over your diff like a shroud to catch the air from in front of/above it and direct it right over your pan with the heat sync on it..

Rickf1985 · August 21, 2018, 05:53 PM

You probably don't want to know what the temps on your diff is with 4.56 gears and a full load at 65 MPH.

Rickf1985 · September 14, 2018, 05:19 PM

Here is part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09JsDorR6tw

fasteddie313 · September 14, 2018, 07:19 PM

Youtube fed it to me the other day and I watched it..

Something interesting to me is the point he made about the shape of the inside of the pan cover. How the OEM pan's shape makes for an efficient climb up the inside of the pan for the oil when the ring gear is sloshing it that way, into the pan, while the aftermarket pans have a deadspot that the oil gets slammed into when the bottom of the gear is throwing it that direction..

I could see that fascet making up for something especially if the oil level is deeper, but I don't really know how high the oil level is supposed to be..

I would imagine the oil level being just high enough to dip the bottom of the ring gear would be sufficient and the most efficient, as a running level after the quantity of oil thrown all over the place in there is taken into account..

Waiting until "mid september" for the final conclusion..

Rickf1985 · September 15, 2018, 06:40 PM

Keep in mind that on the full floaters the oil from the diff also needs to lubricate the axle bearings so it has to be at least close to the centerline.
I get a kick out of all the people saying he is just doing this so he can come up with a better diff cover. I seriously doubt that Gale Banks is interested in making diff covers even if he did design a better one. I am pretty sure he is convinced that the factory has the right idea. And even if he does use this research to make a better cover? So what?! How many thousands of dollars is he spending on time and material to do these tests? And he is putting all the data out there for all to see. for free!

Rickf1985 · September 18, 2018, 08:12 PM

Next installment. Some of you may find this boring or ridiculous but I find it fascinating and very informative. I think he is going to piss off a lot of aftermarket dealers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-yG3D3JBRs

rustyzman · September 19, 2018, 09:22 PM

I am looking forward to the results. The rear axle is a very misunderstood item and often completely overlooked in terms of performance, function and maintenance until there is an issue. The fluid dynamics of that device are completely different from almost anything else in the vehicle other than perhaps a manual transmission. Even then we are talking about a much larger rotating mass and perhaps much more hydraulic drag in the rear end. Nice to see that someone with the means and knowledge is willing to do some real empirical testing and get that info out there.

Rickf1985 · October 05, 2018, 08:12 PM

Next installment, You certainly cannot say he isn't checking everything! That is a serious amount of work on that diff cover for a one off test!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PMvVcsU3PE

fasteddie313 · November 12, 2018, 04:01 AM

Quote from: fasteddie313 on August 21, 2018, 02:57 PM
OR.. Genius idea.. (ha not really)
Put a little spoiler like air deflector over your diff like a shroud to catch the air from in front of/above it and direct it right over your pan with the heat sync on it..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Jamg2gpgk

Banks is making a diff cover with a "ram-air" aspect to the cooling fins, to catch the air from infront and run it through the sync..
"We're going to ram air cool the diff cover"
heh

Fins on the inside too to pull more heat out of the fluid..

Rickf1985 · November 12, 2018, 09:40 AM

This video link is a little off the subject but it will give you an idea of just how smart this man is. He has been doing this stuff for 60 years and he has always been on or in front of the curve. This video shows why. He analyses every single detail and now with todays computers he is in his full glory, the more data the better.
And for you mechanics out there out there, Look behind Gale and tell me what you see that is out of place in that high end shop that tells a lot about the man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PUlwhy51i4

BrandonMc · December 08, 2018, 10:27 AM

Quote from: Rickf1985 on November 12, 2018, 09:40 AM
This video link is a little off the subject but it will give you an idea of just how smart this man is. He has been doing this stuff for 60 years and he has always been on or in front of the curve. This video shows why. He analyses every single detail and now with todays computers he is in his full glory, the more data the better.
And for you mechanics out there out there, Look behind Gale and tell me what you see that is out of place in that high end shop that tells a lot about the man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PUlwhy51i4

After the diff cover experiment, I've gone and viewed a lot of his other content. I finally can understand the man behind the brand name. An awesome company for sure!