I have 2000 ford f350 7.3 diesel. (Approx 95,000 mi)
Tried to tow heavy wood chipper out of soft backyard, truck on angle because of grade. Put in low and second for better traction. After somewhat high engine rpm tires started to move me ahead until spinning occurred upon which I would immediately stop and try again (slowly). Next thing I know trans fluid on ground and truck steaming. Let cool down, refilled trans oil to proper level, unhooked heavy load. Fluid NO longer leaking, drive home fine (towing nothing). What are my next steps? Very concerned I've done grave damage!? Pls advise. Thanks
Kevin

 

Unlocked torque converter will generate volcanoes of heat. The seal that leaked will frequently re-seal after things cool down, but not if you keep that up. I'm not sure, but don't believe the 2000's came with the OTW cooler in the radiator. I also think they had the small oil to air cooler. The best help in that situation would be to use 4 low if it's 4x4.

Hopefully others will be along. And welcome to the forum.

 

Thanks for reply, I should have added it's only 2 wheel dr. Not sure what you mean by un-locked torque converter. Do you think my transmission received damage?are you suggesting bigger trans cooler?(if yes type size etc). I assume I should change fluid and filter as a first step. I've had truck since knew and have never had any problems like this before incl towing bobcats many times, all though probably on hard road, not soft backyard . (Also does that seal your talking about have to be replaced??) it would be nice if they had trans temp guage,not sure how big a deal to get one.
thanks again!

 

When the torque converter locks you have a direct mechanical linkage between your engine and the rear wheels. It eliminates any kind of slip in the driveline. When unlocked it's like slipping a clutch. This generates a LOT of heat.

Possibly the WORST move possible in that situation was to put the truck into second gear. That reduced your gear reduction and made the torque converter slip more and generate lots more heat. I'd bet a week's pay that you wouldn't have overheated if you had been in drive. You should only use that when unloaded and starting off on a very slippery surface.

Probably not. It's very common for the front pump seal to get too hot and start to leak. Most of the time when it cools back down it seals up just fine and you never have more issues. This happened to me once and it was fine. Sometimes that seal goes bad when this happens and you have to remove the transmission to replace the bushing and seal.

If you tow anything heavy most of us would highly recommend that. For some silly reason your 7.3L-powered truck has the smallest transmission cooler of any engine. Upgrading to a cooler from a V10 or 6.0L diesel truck would be a large improvement.

Only if it needed it anyway. You probably didn't hurt a thing; there's no reason to change out the fluid. And there's NEVER a reason to change the filter; if that thing is clogged you needed a rebuild anyway.

When it happened to me my temperature at the valve body was only 227 degrees. Mark K told me that the front pump seal was far hotter than that because of how hard I abused the torque converter, but the rest of the transmission didn't see those kinds of temps. I rolled off and put it in park to cool down once I saw the smoke, and I think my transmission temp spiked to around 240, which is safely under the max of 250. I sold the truck a few months later and it was doing just fine.

 

So was my torque converter locked or unlocked by virtue of me choosing 2 nd gear? Not clear on this.
As far as changing fluid, I'm not exactly sure on the specs of trans fluid my friend originally added to truck after it happened. (Approx 4qts), he said it said "for use in fords " on it. I never saw bottle.
After it cooled down I added 7 qts of Mercon 5 I believe. I can verify that tommorow. ( what oil do u recommend )
So question is I guess, how best to replace oil to be certain and I guess not worry about filter for now. I understand just opening drain plug will only drain some of the oil out? Your advice greatly appreciated, I'll just use drive if I'm ever dumb enough to go in backyards again with 2 wheel dr!
One last thing, sounds like you have trans temperature gauge. And thoughts on me getting one of those and installing?(type/preference, etc.)
Thanks again

 

Like Tom said, most of the time after the seal cools there are no leak issues.

If your truck is an automatic, it has a 4r100 transmission. The torque converter will typically lock after trans has shifted into 3rd gear, somewhere @ 40-45 mph.

Below is a link to a post @ flushing the transmission flush Mark K's (best)procedure is followed here.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...and-video.html

Post #4 of the following link shows installation of a larger transmission cooler.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ns-cooler.html

Any towing, gauges would be best to monitor transmission temps. and others. I believe some guys are using an android device and an app called torque pro.

You should check out the 7.3 section down further on the main page.

 

You can get a scangauge II. It plugs right into the obd port and sees the info that is being sent to the PCM from the temp sensor. You can also monitor 3 other things at the same time that are being monitored by the PCM. So you could have engine oil temp,coolant temp,tranny temp,voltage for example. You can get it for between $120-$160 you do have to enter codes for some of the x gauges but much easier than running wires and installing sensors and gauge pods.

 

Think of your torque converter like the clutch on a manual transmission. It only has two settings though, slipping just as if you had the clutch pedal most of the way out and locked like the pedal is all the way out. When you come to a stop your engine doesn't stall out, and that happens because the torque converter unlocks and permits that slip. When it's unlocked and transmitting power it generates a LOT of heat.

So now think about doing what you did with a conventional clutch pedal. Think of how hard you would have to maliciously abuse your clutch if you were to try starting out with a trailer in second gear. It would take much longer and the clutch would sustain a LOT more wear. Torque converters don't sustain wear in that situation because they're built for it. But there was a LOT more slip because the fluid coupling in the torque converter had to make up for the gearing that wasn't there in second gear.

Whenever your truck is at a stop or low speeds the torque converter is unlocked. You would have heated things up no matter what you did here, but second gear made the torque converter work much harder and generate lots more heat.

Your friend may mean well, but do not EVER LET HIM DO THIS AGAIN. He could have added Type F fluid. It's only used on Fords, but only in transmissions manufactured before the mid '70s. And it will destroy your transmission. For the sake of your wallet I hope that this isn't what he added.

Your best bet is to follow the flush method listed above. And only use Mercon V and nothing else. Stay away from dex/merc compatible fluids as well as additives of all types.

I use an OBD-II interface to do it. These things all have transmission temperature sensors that come from the factory, and I prefer to use that instead of putting in yet another sensor. I used to use a Scangauge II, but that sold with my Excursion. Now I use a bluetooth OBD-II interface and an app on my Android phone. Do you have a smartphone? This is the cheapest option, total cost is less than $30.

 

Thanks to all for advice and info!
Yes I do have a smart phone (iPhone).i googled obd-ii interface wide range of prices, how good of one (features I'm looking for) do I need. If it's not too much to ask. I'm trying to get my friend to find that oil bottle can he used, he thinks now it was only a quart and a half he added.
The trans cooler upgrade sounds like the thing to do. Thanks again to all

 

I use a cheap one I picked up for around $20 on Amazon.com. It can get a little finicky though, but it works for my needs. Since you have an iPhone do NOT get a Bluetooth interface. It will not work. For some strange reason iOS devices don't support the bluetooth mode that's needed for this.

You'll need a Wifi model, but it should perform the same function. You'll need an app as well, and unfortunately I don't have a good one to recommend. Search for OBD on the App Store and you should find a couple of options that will work out.