2001 Ford Explorer Transmission Swap - Seeking Fluid Recs

[batook]

Originally Posted by ka9mnx
Pulled transmission with 125k miles and unknown history. Fill with SuperTech Mercon V and run for 100 miles or so. Drain fluid. If it comes out nice and red and smell ok, refill with Mercon V. If not repeat. Mervon V is a hard spec to meet and is usually full or part synthetic. SuperTech would be my choice (or whatever is cheaper) for that vehicle.

Transfer case. Mercon was the original spec but is no longer available. Ford DOES NOT want Mercon V in the transfer case. I went online and purchased the MotorCraft transfer case fluid (XL-12).


Thanks for the replies. I ended up following your advice ka9mnx and flushed with Mercon V. The viscosity of Mercon V is so different from Maxlife that I didn't want to steer that far from manufacturer's specs. Auto Zone has the Castrol Transmax on 2 for $10 sale, so I picked up a bunch of that. Drained it after 100 miles and replaced the filter, cleaned the pan and magnet, and replaced the pan with the Dorman drain plug version, along with a new Needaparts drain plug, since the one that comes with the Dorman is powder-coated and doesn't seal well. The 100-mile fluid drained out red but still a little dark, so I pumped out and replaced about 8 more quarts.

The new transmission is shifting smooth and working great. Although it was a really hard job and took me over a week, I'm very happy with the outcome, and for $140 pick-n-pull transmission, totally worth it.

I wound up putting Castrol Transmax Dex/Merc in the transfer case. The original Mercon fluid drained clean and red and smelled fine at 177k, so it did it's job fine. No reason to deviate from that either.

 

[batook]

Anyone know how effective the filters are in the 5R55E transmission? The reason I'm asking is because I have to pull the pan again, because after several attempts to get the OEM pan gasket, I was forced to use a $6 Felpro, which is now starting to leak a little already. Apparently the Ford OEM gasket ran into production troubles and there is no new stock forthcoming for the foreseeable future. I was finally able to source an old stock OEM pan gasket online, but since I now have to drop the pan again, I was thinking of replacing the filter again. Although I flushed the fluid fairly well at the swap, it was very contaminated from the bad transmission, and even with mostly new fluid in there, it got darker than I would have liked. Also, the exhaust is kind of in the way, but still cut at the moment so I can kind of push it around for better clearance, so before I go ahead and replace the pan gasket and weld the exhaust, I was thinking it may be a good idea to change the filter again. I'm just not sure how quickly it could have filled up with particulates from the semi-old fluid, but now that it's run for ~500 miles, I'm thinking it may need replacing again. My main reason for doing so would be because I'm not sure when I'll drop the pan again, but not likely very soon, especially since the new pan I put on now has a drain plug. Thanks for any advice or opinions on this.

Also, I'm leaning towards going with Amsoil OE ATF fluid (OTF) on this next fill up instead of the Mercon V. They have the same V100 of 7.5, and the Amsoil VI of 180 is much closer to the 205 VI of Mercon V than the Maxlife of 156. Amsoil lists it as suitable for Mercon and Mercon V applications, and at $7.45/qt PC price, not terribly expensive for a full synthetic. Any thoughts or experience on this choice?

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Try the Mazda dealer. Mazda part number ZZM0-19-835

Transmission filters aren't really that effective or efficient. They are just rock catchers.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Amsoil would be a decent choice. If I could source it locally for a decent price, I would use it, but shipping fluids does get pretty costly.

I've been using Motorcraft Mercon V in my 5R55E with half a quart of LubeGard Red. Granted, I got an aftermarket pan on and do a drain and refill on the unit every 10,000 miles.

 

[batook]

Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Try the Mazda dealer. Mazda part number ZZM0-19-835

Transmission filters aren't really that effective or efficient. They are just rock catchers.


Good call on the Mazda option, hadn't even considered that. And yeah, usually transmission filters aren't much more than a screen but in this case with the plastic container I could see that filling up with debris at some point and then needing changing, but the magnets seemed to catch most of the wear metals anyhow.

Originally Posted by Falcon_LS
Amsoil would be a decent choice. If I could source it locally for a decent price, I would use it, but shipping fluids does get pretty costly.

I've been using Motorcraft Mercon V in my 5R55E with half a quart of LubeGard Red. Granted, I got an aftermarket pan on and do a drain and refill on the unit every 10,000 miles.


Amsoil has free shipping over $100 so I'll just order 4 gallons. I can use it in other vehicles that are under my care as well, and it's close enough to the $5/qt I was paying for the Mercon V that I think it's worth it. I have the Dorman pan on there too so I can do drain and fills more frequently, but this isn't my vehicle, so it will probably go for longer service intervals than if it were one of mine, so the Amsoil gives me more peace of mind in that regard.

 

[exranger06]

Go to Napa and buy part # 17588. It comes with a filter and a gasket. This is the exact part # I use on my Ranger and I never had a problem with the gasket leaking using this kit.

 

[bdcardinal]

Mazda gasket is on backorder as well. ETA off is 26Feb.

 

[bdcardinal]

So this finally came in today direct from Ford's vendor. Our order date was 21Jun2018 and it showed up today. Of course they forgot to put the part number label on it, probably would have been on a longer backorder, so I had to write the number on the bag.

 

[01rangerxl]

Nice. At least it's not folded in half.

My 02 Ranger has a roughly 6 year old Felpro that is still leak free. About 82k miles on it.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted by 01rangerxl
Nice. At least it's not folded in half.

My 02 Ranger has a roughly 6 year old Felpro that is still leak free. About 82k miles on it.


It came in a huge box too, obviously from a vendor and not from Ford. If it was from Ford they would have either folded it up into a regular letter envelope or shipped it in an engine crate on Conway with the rest of the crate filled with popcorn.