I have a 2000 F-250 PSD with only 41,000 mi. The truck's been awesome. No problems except warped rotors, and a small oil leak around the turbo. Anyway, I want to make the trans last as long as possible. I regularly (nearly every weekend) tow a 25 foot toy hauler at 8000lbs. Besides being easy on the pedal, what can I do to make the trans last? I run Amsoil too. thanks for the advice.
If it's an auto, keeping it cool is key, install a tranny temp gauge so you can back off if it gets to hot, install bigger cooler, change filter/fluid on a regular basis.
steve is right i installed this unit in my truck is is a goog fit it can mount on the plastic down post and i tow a 4x4 blazer a good 7000 lbs with trailer and gear http://www.dieselsite.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=205
thanks guys. excuse my ignorace , but does this cooler replace the existing cooler? is it easy to install? how about a guage? can you guys recommend a good one? thanks again!
Large inline cooler with your factory cooler. Trust me. My brother-inlaw towed me to Tellico in April with his 2000 4x4 crewcab dually F350. Coming down around the mountains the tranny got super hot and blew the front pump seal. Luckily it got us to crawfords camp and they had a super nice resident mechanic. He pulled the tranny and fixed it for an awsome price and installed a large cooler. The truck was ready in just two days, while we rode the trails. Then we towed my K5 on the 30ft gooseneck 7 hours back home with no problems.
I would first probably get a guage, who knows, maybe the stock cooler is doing a fine job.?. Then from there you could add a second cooler if it gets warm. Keeping it out of OD when pulling any kind of hill will make it happier too. As far as their longevity, I have been fairly impressed with the Ford autos. My grandpa has 285K on his '95 Power stroke with the original auto. A hot shotter that I recently talked to said he only runs Fords and just sold an F450 with 500,000 miles. It had gone through two trannies, thats about 200K per trans and thats in a hotshot almost always fully loaded. They seem like decent boxes to me.
X2 What Bobby said. If you have a tow package from the factory it should have a external cooler along with the one in the radiator. So hook a gauge up and find out how hot it's getting. Remember you can over cool the trans too. It needs to get hot enough to let any moisture steam off and out the vent. waytogo
Try the Sonnax/tri it firms up the shifts and increases the line pressure to reduce slippage for about $50 install in very easy just alittle messy. You could also step-up to the FTVB a little easier install but cost about $200. Check out blackclouddiesel.com or dieselsite.com.
A friend of mine had a 2000 F-350 CC DRW 4x4 and he got about 40k miles out of the first two trannys. Of course he had a TTS chip and towed alot...but still thats pretty weak. He sold the truck and got a 2004 K4500 crew cab 4x4 kodiak with the duramax/allison and an Edge Chip.
Run full synthetic fluids oil and trans fluid that will help lower the operating temp and grain some gas mileage
Most Superduties have a thermostatic valve on the side of the case where the cooler lines bolt on. When it's cool, the valve is closed bypassing the cooler altogether. When trans fluid reaches a certain temp, the valve opens up and allows the fluid to be cooled by the cooler. I would definately upgrade to a larger cooler to start with. The Sonnax /Tricumulator is a good mod too. But the stock torque converter is still the weakest point (and a large generator of heat). I would then upgrade to a billet triple disk torque converter. The extra clutches in the billet converter will not slip as easily as a stockers single disk will.
