musta been good in the begining! i got 2 yellow top optimas still going strong! purchased in 2002/2003 or so.

 

USCG- Check into Costco batteries. Same manufacturer as Motorcraft's. Johnson controls. Not an exciting AGM or anything but IMO worth the coin.


For those of you with Scangauge II's what are you averaging for crusing unloaded trans temps with the 4R100? Most I have seen today was 128 degrees F. Should it be a higher average? Keep in mind it was maybe 55 degrees tops today. Any gauges besides water temps, voltage, trans temp and RPM I should look at? Haven't located a cod for IAT's yet?

 

I have not had good luck with Optima batteries either, my yellow top ran down WAY too easily. Left the radio on for about 15 minutes and it drained enough to not have enough left to start the x!

 

You are right in the ballpark with what mine runs, generally 70-80 over ambient empty and 80-100 over ambient towing.

 

I agree with Eric, the factory setup would run about 80-100° over ambient. I was never happy with that, as moisture can accumulate in the transmission because it never gets hot enough to evaporate out.

My solution was a thermostat:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ghlight=derale

 

My mustang has an aftermarket sunroof and it has given me no issues

Sent from my Telegraph using IB AutoGroup

 

I like the color Russ

 

.....no King of SUVs badge for the 6.8? Jeez yo!

On a side note, while driving home last night, my exhaust broke off just in front of the muffler. I gotta say, that muffler sure does muffle when it is hooked up.

 

We as well have always ran optimas and I have always liked them. Then they switched to a mexican factory from what I hear and have been down hill ever since.

We still have optimas in everything but have been straying away as well lately.

It is amazing how all kinds of companies that are building a great american product get talked into cheap manufacturing out of the country and then every single time the product quality goes downhill.

Milwaukee tools did the same thing.

 

a 6.8 is easy, I just used the other two to show what they could look like...

As for batteries, I got rid of the red top and went with a standard O'Reilly's off the rack battery. I don't shop at Costco, so that was not an option, and O'Reilly's has always treated me right.

On the way back from getting a new battery, this happened to the Ex...


Finally popped the 100k cherry

 

Man, we love Costco!

Congrats on finally breaking in your Ex!

 

I had an old red top for years back when they first came out and kept it anytime I sold/traded vehicles. That thing was in at least 30 cars in 4 years and not once ever gave me issues. That said I hear nothing but bad things about them now I'll never buy one again. In case you're wondering what happened what happened to mine I honestly don't remember.

 

30 cars in four years?

 

Yeah... I used to buy and sell a lot. I normally had about 4 vehicles at a time. I did a lot of motor swaps with Hondas and Nissans back in the day so I'd buy 240's, hardbodies, 720's, Probes and civics to strip/swap/scrap/cannibalize. Plus I was really into trading for a long time To be completely honest that is extremely conservative. It could easily be 3x that. I have a stack of about 15 titles of cars that ended up being scrapped in pieces because I didn't have a way to easily scrap whole cars so one of the guys at the shop would plasma cut them into 4 and they would just get loaded in with all the other scrap.

 

I'm actually kind of jealous.