I have an 2003 X 7.3, it has 315000 miles on it and i am going to pull the engine to change the timing cover. Should I pull the tranny while i have the engine out and rebuilt it? It is the original transmission and has never been rebuilt, I dont have any issues with it slipping and it is not used very frequently for towing or anything. I have installed an external filter and i have changed the filter and installed premium redline tranny fluid. It was serviced at recommended intervals until i bougt it at 300,000 miles. I have a local tranny guy that will rebuilt it with an upgraded shift kit and billet torque converter for $1000 including parts, if i take it to him. I also considered rebuilding it myself. What do you all think? Should I go ahead and rebuild it or wait till i start having problems? If rebuild what do you all recommend for upgraded rebuilt kits? last year at the ford-trucks rally i pulled 402hp and 732ft/lb at the rear wheels on the dyno so i am not completely certain how long the tranny is gonna hold out but Im not hard on the tranny at all. I am definitely upgrading to the 6.0 cooler when i put the engine back in the truck. OPINIONS PLEASE!

 

1000 bucks is a third of the price the last tranny rebuild I was involved in costs so if it were me..I would go for it.

 

I don't generally recommend replacing something until it needs it, but at 300k miles it is probably close to going out anyways and $1,000 is a heck of a deal.

 

Mine is original in my 7.3 X. At 306,000 miles it was starting to show it's age. Personally I would re-build it and for only 1,000.00 that's a great price!

 

Great to know! I wasn't certain but I thought $1000 was a helluva price esp wit it including the heavy duty parts and the billet converter.. I was also gonna buy a deep trans pan either way that holds almost 8 more quarts... Do you all know if since I'm installing the trans after he rebuilds it if it will be filled with fluid by him or if I will need to do that post reinstallation? I was gonna refill it with redline trans fluid any other fluid brand recommendations?

 

Labor wise it will save you the time it takes to remove the bell housing bolts at a separate date.

Most of the price he gave you is for the replacement parts and he may not feel so generous later.

I would stick to a Mercon V dedicated ATF and change it more often.

 

He does good work... I know a few people who's trans he rebuilt and they were very pleased and they had good prices too... One of them was a 99 quad cab 7.3 and he gave him a similar price but with a little more labor for dropping the tranny... The tranny guy says he charges his cost for the parts and makes his money from labor on the job... Redline d4 is great stuff and is says its for use for my application on their website... I was just curious what fluids are best... I assume I will need to add the fluid once I get the tranny back in the truck or should I expect it to already be primed since fluid is needed to install the torque converter?

 

You will need to do the final fill after you change the pan and get the cooler lines filled with final prepping.

I do not use universal ATF fluid.

It is going to cost you a lot to fill this system and at 30K mile service intervals so why not use the factory fluid that it was engineered with?

 

I don't think you've said what transmission you have, but if it's a 5R110W, you need to use Motorcraft Mercon SP (if you can find it). If you can't, Ford says using Mercon LV is acceptable. Don't use anything else if you care about your transmission.

 

Do not waste your money on a deep transmission pan, it has zero benefit to your transmission or wallet. The OEM stock pan is hands down the best way to run.

 

Its a 7.3, its a 4R100 the 7.3 never saw anything past that.

Mobil1 Synthetic ATF is probably the most favored, Any plain old MercronV will work as well. Avoid redline, royal purple etc, its all snake oil. The proper fluid is MercronV.

 

Right on. Sorry, I forgot the 5R110W was only used with the 6.0.

 

They're the same type of things. They're synthetic fluids. Mobile 1, red line, royal purple. Its all personal preference, just like dino oil.

 

No they're not, there is what your transmission is designed for, then there is the other stuff.

 

I have seen Mark K speak highly of Mobil1 fluid, He designed the transmission and I trust his advice over a claim on the back of a bottle.

I'm still sticking to my opinion RP, redline, Lucas etc is all snake oil and has no added benefit over even Walmart brand mercron V.