Ford Transmission Drain and Fill w/ TC Drain

[DoubleWasp]

I recently got myself into another Lincoln Mark VIII, years after owning my last one. I bought it from the original owner, who had no record of ever servicing the transmission, and gave me his assurance that it in fact was never done.

Looking under the car, I noticed that there was an access plug for the torque converter's drain plug, so I decided to do a pan drop and drain and fill, as opposed to a cooler line flush.

The pan was disgusting. The magnet had long ago overloaded, and the entire bottom of the pan had a thin coat of metallic particles. Fluid looked kind of bad, but was not blackened or burnt. Just old.

Great thing was that transmission capacity is listed as 13.5 quarts, and opening the torque converter drain and dropping the pan netted me 12.5 quarts. Very effective drain, overall.

I refilled with MaxLife, and the transmission feels great. It didn't have any problems in the first place, so no surprise there. I added a Parker 3-micron hydraulic filter to the cooling circuit (20 GPM flow), since I know that there's more trash that's going to come loose that needs to be taken out of circulation. I slapped 2 filter magnets on the exterior for good measure.

I'm still not a believer in changing only the pan's capacity, but this does quite nicely as a simple alternative to a cooler line flush.

 

[SZR48207]

You got lucky that your TC had the drain. They discontinued those around 2001 or 2002.

You could toss some Lubegard Red into there for good measure.

 

[blupupher]

Yes, the TC drain plug is nice, wish they had kept it.

I did a pan drop/filter change and refill @ 170,000 when I got my truck (still had the bobber in it). I then drained and filled @ 500 miles, 1000 miles and then 10,000 miles (and will be a 10,000 mile interval after that). I did put a drain plug in the pan to make it easier.
The truck had the occasional 3rd/OD thud starting up when I got it; after the 2nd drain it was gone completely.
I have debated doing an inline filter too, just have not got around to it, not sure on what size I need or which line and direction to install it in, may need to look into that.

 

[Falcon_LS]

MY2001 was the last year for torque converter drain plugs. They're an incredibly convenient feature.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Oh yeah. That was indeed the dead giveaway. The plastic bobber in the pan. I had never seen one before. I thought I busted something.

The filter was really bad. When I popped the filter loose, a load of fluid came down. It was like taking off a filter with an ADBV. I know that thing was very restricted.