Installed a transmission cooler on my 1995 Lincoln Towncar 12 years ago (other 2 vehicles are manual transmissions) that came with a fan. Totally bypassed the radiator and have an adjustable fan thermostat in place. 99% of the time, the fluid never gets hotter than 140F. Zero problems. I only had the fan come on twice when I was stuck in traffic for hours with outside ambient temps over 100F with the a/c running. I think I have the fan set to 160F.
I noticed an immediate and significant change on how the transmission shifts with the cooler in place. When the engine would get up to normal operating temp, the fluid would hoover around around 205f and the trans would shift rougher from the fluid thinning out due to heat. With the cooler in place, the trans always shifts butter smooth regardless. At 30K miles, the fluid still looked brand new which was not the case before the cooler.
Installing the cooler also relived the engine of additional heat. If I'm going down a hill, I can watch the engine temperature drop down, even during the summer. Before the cooler, that never happened, even going down the Donner Pass in the middle of winter.
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