Transmission flush

Ordered a Scangage today

 

Got it. Thanks for the clarification. I'm due for this so it's nice to read through these threads and understand it.

 

saw the light on, decided to pull in....


ok, here's how I do it:

<take off the damn valhalla cat plates>

truck has been sitting in garage, so everything is cool. the thermostat pin is RIGHT NEXT to the exhaust!

pin the thermostat

open the drain...usually 3.5qts-ish comes out. I have a clear tub that has measurements.

i put whatever came out & an extra quart back in*

I warm it up. I have a Scanguage.

while truck is at temp & running - I crawl back under and open the check valve.

wait for the dribble.

close it all up.

bam, your done.


*this is recommended to make sure you were not low in fluid before you drained.

 

What stage does the pin come out - final step?

 

final step, yes.

but I leave mine pinned open , as it's damn hot in Houston. and I run a S/C.

 

Did you add a transmission cooler?

 

Yes. the genuine cooling unit.

 

Is that why you can pin your thermostat?

 

yes.

my incorrect assumption was that everyone has the trans cooler.

 

notice I left out the WS fluid I use.

I didn't want to lather up the Amsoil boys.

 

I am a card carrying Amsoil member. Now lathered up.

 

damn it.

I was trying to tip toe by you guys.

 

You need tip toe classes. Not making a specific post to highlight what you're not trying to do is tiptoe 101

 

@nobodyintexas which fluid do you use, since, ya know, we're tip toe-ing

 

Pull the pin and you won't see any difference in the trans temp. When the thermostat is open, it's open. The thermostat regulates the temperature and allow for a quicker warm up but after around 195° it's fully open so there is no point in leaving it pinned.

 

Valvoline Maxlife.

Super Duper WS.

 

not my experience.

My trans used to remain @195 unpinned

pinned open - now it stays around 155-175.

crazy, right?


combine those facts with the illegal use of Valvoline Maxlife and my transmission is doomed.

 

You really suck at tip toe-ing

 

It's suppose to run at 195. There are consequences to running the trans colder than it was designed for.

There is nothing wrong with running Maxife.

 

agreed Maxlife is Good ju-ju.

I was just fanning the flames of internet forum discussions. I'm feeling frisky today.



and I agree on the 195 temp. I recently pinned it open. just to see what it would do.

interesting that it would stay that cool.

in this recent cool damp Houston weather, it takes a while but it will stabilize ~170

I wonder what temp I'll see in the hot summer?

 

Hot summer and with your cooler, 195-210.

 

I was coming back from my Dad's for NY and ran about 85ish in some areas - noticed trans got up to 204. Not towing. I think that's still ok

 

on the hottest Houston days last year, unpinned, I was usually around 195. which, as you say, in the thermostat temp.

sitting in traffic, it would bump to 204. these are pan temps, not TC.

knowing what I know now...I'll wager you a new nickel that I top out around 185 in the summer.

 

If you're not getting past the 195 temp it's because you're pinned. There is nothing wrong with running at 204.

 

Same here. Drain the pan. Put exactly the same amount back in. Done. It's WAY too complicated for most people, but I am a genius.

Side note: Last night I emptied the pan into a graduated pitcher while the engine was still very warm. I got exactly 110.5 ounces of very warm, almost-hot fluid in the pitcher.

I left the pitcher outside all night. This morning it was 38 degrees outside.

The pitcher now held 110 ounces. For any non-geniuses in the room, that means the fluid in the pitcher shrank by less than one half of one percent, while the fluid temperature cooled by roughly 100 degrees.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

we are simpatico.

I tried to address the insignificant thermodynamic expansion variances in another thread and folks started clutching their pearls.

for years I never used a temp gauge when changing the fluid, I just let it warm up "a tad".
but since I was tip toeing, I left that part out.

 

Since I tend to overcomplicate things even though I'm a simple minded (dumb and lazy) person.

Drain fluid.

Measure fluid.

Add fluid.

And if I want to get technical:

Pin T-Stat

Start truck and let idle for 10mins

Open check port and see if it dribbles out and call it done?

 

It's just way to easy to do it the right way.

 

It's also a pain in the rear and takes to much time to accomplish the same thing. I don't have the time in my life to insert pins and jiggle the handle and wait for half an hour and crawl under a hot truck and oops missed the appropriate window and gotta wait for it to cool and take cooler lines off and run hoses. Engineers always over complicating simple tasks. Same with the ZF in my durango. Same stupid process.

 

Based the correct way of checking the ATF level, three Tundras I did the initial change on were overfilled by about a quart from the factory. My conclusion is they aren’t sensitive to slight overfilling (don’t kill yourself waiting for the perfect dribble or temp).