How's the sway bar QD coming along??
If you are planning to drop the pan, I highly recommend swapping in an aftermarket pan with a drain plug. I installed the extra capacity pan from PPE, and it's been amazing. It adds both extra capacity for the fluid as well as extra cooling fins on the body of the trans pan. Being able to drain with a proper drain plug is also a huge bonus. They do run around $300, though there may be other less expensive options.
I totally agree with giving credit. I've had my Fitzstick for a while on my 2019 XLT FX4. In fact I was one of Mike's early adopters, my stick is #7. Just recently installed my deep PPE Pan and a new filter at 40K miles. Added the Lubeguard Platinum to the fresh fill.
My rough shifts have vanished, even at first start. No warm ups for me, just start it up and drive. I do keep the truck garaged. Lowest temps in winter in the garage is high 40's. I have a good feeling now about long term reliability. We'll see if that feeling is warranted over the next few years.
Geez, you've got me looking at the PPE pans now. That's all I need, someone else spending my money ?
I've got the standard depth PPE trans pan. I live in a mild climate and rarely tow anything over 1k lbs, so I'm not worried about overheating the the trans. The deep pan's extra 1.75 qts capacity certainly isn't going to hurt anything, but I've found with the stock depth PPE pan the trans runs about 185° on average, which is about 10°f cooler than with the stock plastic pan.
I think that is where I purchased my PPE Deep pan several years ago.
That is going to make a mess. If it were me I would get the factory cap & dipstick out & pump as much as I could before dropping the pan.
Those are great links, thank you. I ordered 8 quarts of ULV because I hadn't seen an example where someone used more than 7 for the deep pan. Plus, I'm adding 10oz of LubeGard. I didn't realize that you can get more fluid by waiting 24-48 hours. I will definitely do that and pick up another quart or two of ULV if I need it.I think you will find this link useful when installing the PPE pan and a great help in achieving a proper fill level.
I would also order this inexpensive transfer pump to use after you install the FitzStick. Pump the fluid out through the dipstick tube right into your oil jug. I don't spill a drop and don't need to crawl under the truck to do the job. If you let your truck sit overnight, you'll get ~5qts out. Let it sit 2 nights and you'll get ~7 qts.
I weighted the outlet hose end with a brass fitting to insure the hose stays in the jug. It has a tendency to coil up... the last thing you need when pumping out the fluid.
Pump the fluid out when engine and transmission cold, as in overnight cold. Be sure that your truck is level as well. Then go to the first link to see a lot of good info on the PPE pan , and fill levels to be seen on the dipstick at different fluid temps.
It is easiest to get the fluid level correct when using the cold fill method. Assuming you are replacing the filter when you install the PPE deep pan, follow this procedure:
Do not waste time when doing this procedure as the fluid expands as it heats up. Each mark on the dipstick below is where the fluid level should be at each temperature level.
- Add 7.75 qts on your initial fill (I think I read that you had 8 qts- You may want to pick up a few more quarts of fluid. I think you are going to be short)
- Start truck and shift through the gears from Park to Sport and back to Park in 5 second intervals (Do not Drive the truck)
- Check your fluid level (pull the disptick, wipe, reinsert, then check.
- Fill until you just see fluid on the tip of the dipstick 1/8" - 3/16". No More than 1/4" (Do not over fill)
If you follow this procedure you will be dead center in the fill window between 4 and 5 at 215F.
You can validate my findings (if you have the tools to measure fluid temps) by power braking your engine at 2K rpm until you reach 215F, then checking the fluid level.
I actually measured the time required to meet each of the temp benchmarks that I labelled on the dipstick(engine idling in park). The information can be found in the first link. All you'll need is a stop watch to check. This will work up to 190F. You'll need to power brake to get to the higher temps. I did just that to get my original fill level correct, then as the fluid cooled I checked the fluid levels in 10F increments down to 190F. To obtain the lower temps I let the truck sit overnight and monitored the temps going up, measuring the initial cold level the way I outlined above, then at 10F degree increments to 190F.
I believe the measurements and reading to be accurate. I used my bidirectional xTools D8 Diagnostic tool to report transmission temps.
One last thing, too much fluid is just as bad as too little - both will overheat your transmission.
Best of luck.
