diff --git a/packages/grpc-js/package.json b/packages/grpc-js/package.json
index bb8adff8..9fab8d83 100644
--- a/packages/grpc-js/package.json
+++ b/packages/grpc-js/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@grpc/grpc-js",
-  "version": "1.6.2",
+  "version": "1.6.3",
   "description": "gRPC Library for Node - pure JS implementation",
   "homepage": "https://grpc.io/",
   "repository": "https://github.com/grpc/grpc-node/tree/master/packages/grpc-js",
diff --git a/packages/grpc-js/src/subchannel.ts b/packages/grpc-js/src/subchannel.ts
index 61d20900..5880f3f9 100644
--- a/packages/grpc-js/src/subchannel.ts
+++ b/packages/grpc-js/src/subchannel.ts
@@ -406,6 +406,12 @@ export class Subchannel {
       connectionOptions.maxSessionMemory = this.options[
         'grpc-node.max_session_memory'
       ];
+    } else {
+      /* By default, set a very large max session memory limit, to effectively
+       * disable enforcement of the limit. Some testing indicates that Node's
+       * behavior degrades badly when this limit is reached, so we solve that
+       * by disabling the check entirely. */
+      connectionOptions.maxSessionMemory = Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER;
     }
     let addressScheme = 'http://';
     if ('secureContext' in connectionOptions) {