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.
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.