Just a note to fellow Ford truck owners. If you ever smell hot tranny oil, especially when you come to a stop after highway speeds, check the O-ring on the dipstick yellow plastic handle. After changing the tranny fluid and filter(I have the expensive $85 external filter) I noticed that tell tale smell. Thought it might be the fittings on the external filter and yes the conventional connectors were seeping so I retorqued them and no more leaks. The smell persisted, so to test I wrapped a clean white cotton cloth around the dipstick handle and pressed it firmly in the tube. No more smell. I will be replacing the O-ring tonight. BTW, I did have the TSB performed that addressed the corrosion on the dipstick tube, which installed a new designed tube.

 

your paying too much for that external filter, ou can get the NTZ filter ( they make the ford one to) on diesel filters online for like 15 bucks.

 

Unfortunately, that price is not true, wish it was. I bought the filter from DieselFilterOnline, and it was $85.00, which is about the best price to be found. You may be confused by the external filter fitted to the 6.0/Torqueshift 2003-2007 trucks, which was located up besides the radiator. The FT-176 is a large cannister located right under the transmission bellhousing with 4 line connections. I will be converting my transmission filter to the later setup next filter/fluid changeover.