MBS Extended Automatic Transmission Dipsticks now available

[Friday yet?]

I think I found a way to make it very easy. And I'll repeat the process one more time it one more time.

If you are changing your fluid for the first time park your truck on level ground. Let it sit overnight, 2 nights is even better as you'll get far more fluid out. You want to pull the fluid out cold.

Capture what you take out with 1 gallon jugs marked at quart increments with a sharpie. Use a $15 dollar transfer pump from Amazon. Put the inlet hose down the Fitzstick tube, and the outlet hose in the jug. Start the pump and stop it when you get 4 quarts. It will take a few minutes, be patient. Replace the full jug with a 2nd marked jug, and repeat. If you wait one night you'll get ~5 quarts, if you wait 2 nights you'll get ~7.5 quarts.

Fill with the amount you took out (Add LubeGard Platinum).

The easiest way to insure your fluid level is correct it to simply park your truck overnight on a flat level surface, start it the next morning, shift it through the gears - Park to sport and back to Park at 5 second intervals, then immediately hop out and check the level. It should just be showing on the tip of the dipstick, up to 1/8". If you are not seeing it you are under filled. Add a little at a time until you see the fluid on the tip of the dipstick. Don't take too long as the fluid will quickly expand.

You are done. Very easy to do.

When the fluid level reads 1/8" up the dipstick when following this procedure it will be on the diamond between 4 and 5 at 215F.

Tips

1. Install a Fitzstick and use his funnel.
2. Purchase this $15.99 transfer pump from Amazon
3. The inlet hose is the smaller diameter hose. Use the hose clamps to secure the hose to the pump ports.
4. Add a brass fitting from your local hardware store to the end of the outlet hose to add weight insuring it stays in the jug.
5. Make sure you fully insert the inlet hose to the bottom of the pan. It may hang on the fitting at the transmission when inserting it. I cut the end at a 45 degree angle to aid in insertion.
6. I sit the pump on the engine cover ~1' from the dipstick tube.

I have followed the above procedure multiple times (4 times) with great success. It has proven to be accurate. I never spill a drop of the old or new fluid. Takes between 30 and 45 minutes to complete the job.

bookmarked this. Keep me from searching later.

thx OP!

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[Blue Streak]

bookmarked this. Keep me from searching later.

thx OP!
[/QU

OK now that I bookmarked it how do I find my bookmarks?

 

[TJC]

Funny! I much prefer desktop and laptop OSes to Android or iPhone OSes. It is just easier to operate the systems. Phone OSes hide menus and options under layers a layers of screens due to lack of interface real estate.

I'm a little bit angry at Gnome and Linux standards moving to integrate to a common GUI interface for use on small screen HW. Giving up on functionality that is necessary for development platforms.

Phones / Tablets are fine for browsing, but severely lacking when doing real productive work, coding, authoring documents, building spreadsheets, and databases, etc.

Those nested hamburger menus drive me crazy. NC DMV recently redesigned their auto registration website. I used to complete the task on a single web page. Now even on large real estate HW, I must page through a dozen or so pages where a single question is asked, or single input field presented.

I much prefer a Menu bar.

This is a GIANT step backwards.

I've actually started going into the DMV office again to renew, rather than pay an additional $3 for the "privilege" to scroll through a dozen tedious screens.

Online systems are being dumbed down.

 

[Ranger_Rocks]

Online systems are being dumbed down.

Dumber than some office workers ??

 

[TJC]

Dumber than some office workers ??

In many cases , YES! Literacy levels in the US are dropping at a relatively fast pace. And software is written to the reading comprehension level of the population.

• 1930 - Adults read at an 8th grade level
• 1940-1990 - levels stationary, but 88% of adults were literate
• 2023 - Adults read at an 6th grade level and 54% are well below 6th grade reading comprehension.

Bureaucrats are like ants. Drop a leaf in the line, and chaos ensues! They never deviate from the defined routine, and are lost if they do.

The system trains workers to be just smart enough to do the job, but not smart enough to question anything.

 

[Rinn69]

@Fitzmotor Hey Mike, any update on the F-150 model with the 5.0 ? I can't believe it's been a month with no posts.....must feel like a vacation to you

 

[Fitzmotor]

Ha, not quite like a vacation, but I've been very busy, I am taking steps to be able to spend more time on other models! So no update yet, but really getting closer!

 

[5thranger]

Ha, not quite like a vacation, but I've been very busy, I am taking steps to be able to spend more time on other models! So no update yet, but really getting closer!

Waiting for the F150 stick.

 

[Stic-o]

Waiting for the F150 stick.

He was actually planning to come down and get some measurements off my F-150, but he's just been really busy. I'm sure he'll make it happen when he has time. Hang in there

 

[Chris M]

He was actually planning to come down and get some measurements off my F-150, but he's just been really busy. I'm sure he'll make it happen when he has time. Hang in there

Can't rush great engineering.

 

[TJC]

So I ordered a ScanGauge 3 and installed it yesterday. Took the truck for a 60 miles drive to see what my transmission temps were. Interesting results!

To set the baseline, It was a 65F day, and I have installed the following:

• MBS Dipstick
• PPE Deep pan that holds 1.75 qts more fluid
• New Filter and Fluid in the transmission 9K miles ago
• 16oz LubeGard Platinum Added

Started the truck from cold start, and drove 55-60 mph on a divided hwy with 2 or 3 stoplights that led me to a 40 mile stretch of I-85 where I held 75mph the entire distance. My transmission temps held steady at 180F for 50% of the way.

When I exited the interstate to reverse course I intentionally throttled up hard and exceeded 80mph to merge ahead of a 18 wheeler. My transmission temps spiked to 185F and very slowly began to drop back down. The temp settled at 181F still running 75mph.

Exited back to the 55mph divided highway at 55-60mph temps were steady at 181F. Turned off early to take a few backroads with stop and go traffic, never exceeding 45mph.

Temps started to rise and reached 189F by the time I pulled into my driveway.

I was also monitoring Torque Converter Slip.
The temperature spikes corresponded directly with high torque converter slip. Stopping and starting even at slow speeds raised the fluid temp levels much faster than cruising at 75mph (which had 0 slip)!

A few other observations
- Engine coolant temps stayed at the 198F-202F range.
- Battery SOC started out at 97%. Arrived home at 100%.
- Battery Voltage was 13V by the time the ScanGauge shut down.

I long ago raised the SOC from 75% to 95% using ForScan, and just raised it from 95% to 100% a few days ago.

The Torque Converter appears to be the major heat source for the fluid. I suspect it is not well engineered.

 

[got3fords]

So I ordered a ScanGauge 3 and installed it yesterday. Took the truck for a 60 miles drive to see what my transmission temps were. Interesting results!

To set the baseline, It was a 65F day, and I have installed the following:

• MBS Dipstick
• PPE Deep pan that holds 1.75 qts more fluid
• New Filter and Fluid in the transmission 9K miles ago
• 16oz LubeGard Platinum Added

Started the truck from cold start, and drove 55-60 mph on a divided hwy with 2 or 3 stoplights that led me to a 40 mile stretch of I-85 where I held 75mph the entire distance. My transmission temps held steady at 180F for 50% of the way.

When I exited the interstate to reverse course I intentionally throttled up hard and exceeded 80mph to merge ahead of a 18 wheeler. My transmission temps spiked to 185F and very slowly began to drop back down. The temp settled at 181F still running 75mph.

Exited back to the 55mph divided highway at 55-60mph temps were steady at 181F. Turned off early to take a few backroads with stop and go traffic, never exceeding 45mph.

Temps started to rise and reached 189F by the time I pulled into my driveway.

I was also monitoring Torque Converter Slip.
The temperature spikes corresponded directly with high torque converter slip. Stopping and starting even at slow speeds raised the fluid temp levels much faster than cruising at 75mph (which had 0 slip)!

A few other observations
- Engine coolant temps stayed at the 198F-202F range.
- Battery SOC started out at 97%. Arrived home at 100%.
- Battery Voltage was 13V by the time the ScanGauge shut down.

I long ago raised the SOC from 75% to 95% using ForScan, and just raised it from 95% to 100% a few days ago.

The Torque Converter appears to be the major heat source for the fluid. I suspect it is not well engineered.

How do you measure/quantify torque converter slip?

 

[TJC]

I don't, the ScanGauge 3 dynamically reads the sensor.

And after driving the truck a lot today I have a preliminary theory on why my transmission began acting up on me so early. I babied it going to / from my mother's home when taking care of her estate. A lot of 500 mile trips. And I was very easy on the gas with slow starts getting up to speed and slow stops, trying to see the best gas mileage I could get.. (28.5mpg BTW).

Doing so dramatically increases the TC slip, and raises the fluid temps quite fast. I drove over 60 miles on my first trip with speeds at 75mph with fluid temps in the low 180F's. Once cruising, the slip was at 0 (+-2).

Just now took a short trip to the grocery store and temp climbed higher due to stop and go traffic, but stayed lower when I throttled up faster (not aggressive, just moderately faster) due to slip settling to 0 quicker. In 10 miles temps got up to 183F. By the time I arrived home it was 185F.

This is only a hypothesis. Will wait and see if I can identify a consistent pattern.

 

[airline tech]

Related TCC PIDs

 

[TJC]

Related TCC PIDs

The ScanGuage lists it as TC SLIP, I'll add in the desired vs actual and see if there are substantial differences. The good news is that the fluid temps never exceeded 190F. But they went up a substantially faster than they came down. This may be normal behavior.

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