A friend's kid has a new (to him) 2003 Cavalier. There's no documented maintenance history, besides the fact that it went 23K on its last oil change (and had 2.5 qts of oil in the sump). Before anyone points out that I need better friends, let me just say that I realize that...
Anyway, the engine seems strong (doing a couple of short OCI's with some free Nextgen oil to clean things up). I want to help him change the transmission fluid, teach a kid to fish and all that... I see there's a pan that I have to drop and a rock-catcher filter. A couple of questions for those familiar with this transmission:
-fluid: I'm assuming Maxlife Dex/Merc will work fine?
-pan gasket: does it matter what brand? What material are these, and will I need some sorta gasket sealer? From the pics, all the gaskets look like cork-including the Delco one?
-pan: is it worth it to upgrade the pan to one with a drain bolt?
-lastly, is there an easy way to pump out the torque converter through a cooler line on this car? It looks like a pan drop gets out 7 of 10 qts. I'm pretty sure the fluid is original, so I'd like to get it all out of there.
Thanks!
Anyway, the engine seems strong (doing a couple of short OCI's with some free Nextgen oil to clean things up). I want to help him change the transmission fluid, teach a kid to fish and all that... I see there's a pan that I have to drop and a rock-catcher filter. A couple of questions for those familiar with this transmission:
-fluid: I'm assuming Maxlife Dex/Merc will work fine?
-pan gasket: does it matter what brand? What material are these, and will I need some sorta gasket sealer? From the pics, all the gaskets look like cork-including the Delco one?
-pan: is it worth it to upgrade the pan to one with a drain bolt?
-lastly, is there an easy way to pump out the torque converter through a cooler line on this car? It looks like a pan drop gets out 7 of 10 qts. I'm pretty sure the fluid is original, so I'd like to get it all out of there.
Thanks!