A little background info...up until about 6 months ago my 01 Ex V10 was a grocery getter for the wife; only got a few thousand miles a year for the most part. Since we moved from Washington state to Texas it has turned into my daily driver (after a 2500 mile drive towing 8k trailer).

A couple of weeks ago we were running errands and after we got home there was smoke coming from under the hood, but I couldn't pin point it. I let it be because I figure it would let me know when something was really wrong. A few days later it did it again but this time I found the problem; transmission fluid was leaking out of the bell housing onto the y-pipe. I did my research and come to find out it is most likely the front pump seal that got soft from overheating. So my buddy and I drop the transmission and replace the seal. Put it all back together and everything seems great.

Another week goes by and we have driven the Ex fairly extensively around town and even took a couple short day trips and everything is great. Then as we are turning onto an on ramp to get on the highway I give it gas to speed up and all of a sudden the RPMs climb like it dropped into neutral. I had enough momentum that I got over onto the shoulder and started to check thing under the hood. Looked like I was low on trans fluid; ok so I added a quart. Put it in "D" and still nothing. Then I try "1", "2", "R" and they all work fine.

So now the Ex is at the local trans shop and they are going to tear into it for me on Monday. Starting price is $1,800 for the overhaul. Guess I should have just taken it to the shop when the seal went bad.

 

Yeah that sucks, but that's what I would've done too. It has to be overhauled anyhow, so you may as well get the thing upgraded and damn near bulletproof so you don't have to do this again.

My trans went at 127K February 2006 because of the mechanical diode in the diesel Excursions. I was fortunate and the service advisor got me setup with Ford's (at the time) new HD4R100. (Knock on wood) it's withstood the test of time and the power I'm putting down with incredible ease and almost asks for more. I don't have the specs on it, but it's night and day better than the stock unit and has paid for itself several times.

Two pieces of advice:

-Make sure they install a Magnefine inline filter. This will catch the initial metal shavings that may come and slowly destroy your trans. After cutting open the one Ford put on, it's obvious that it more than did its job saving my trans.

-Look into a 6.0 trans cooler, it can at times be overkill for these trucks, but better safe than sorry. I have one on mine and it's kept my trans unbelievably cool in the hottest weather and towing situations. It's also cheap insurance since heat kills a transmission.

 

Yeah, I was already planning on the 6.0L cooler after the seal went. I've been looking around FTE trying to get a part number or vendor to get a decent price. I am also putting a trans temp gauge on the A pillar. Jegs had a free shipping deal a few days ago so I ordered the gauge pod, now I just gotta go to the parts store and buy the gauge.

 

this was posted by Mark on another thread yesterday. I remembered it since it seems very applicable to you.

You might be able to drop the trans and fix this yourself on the extreme cheap and wait for a real/worse failure

 

Just wondering what torque converter you are using?

Thanks