I was thinking about R2millers point on my drive today. Removal of the entire pan is a step up for people who are fine with dump the sump and replace the external filter. A whole level up.

 

No, that won't happen. All of the flow that goes through the filter and that bypasses the filter goes through the cooler. Whether or not the filter element is in there 100% of the fluid that is in the cooler lines will go through the cooler.

 

To show my point that for some people, fluid temperature may be the deciding factor about changing to the 6.4L filter pan.


Unless my T/S comes in a little early ........


Aluminum finned pan? We don't need no stinkin' aluminum pan!

 

Might be one of the more important vid's you've done, Jack...

FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT DID NOT WATCH Jack's video...

HE PUT ON A LOT OF MILES AND HIS TRANS FILTER WAS ONLY FILTERING .1% OF THE FLUID!!!!

There is no downside to this great upgrade, even r2millers would have to agree...

100% fluid filtration all the time....

 

Yours does show it's running a bit below temp no doubt. Mine, the few times I checked, comes up to 165 relatively quick, within 10 minutes and stays there. This is with no trailer but I'm always loaded with fuel. I wonder what other guys experience after the switch? (Hint hint hint)
I'll pay more attention tomorrow when I run out for parts.
I picked up where you were quickly. I waited for the school to come into frame.

 

I'm always concerned about the testing, or demonstration of one. Doing so would have left me venerable in my career. As long as I've monitored this truck the few times I've bothered to look at trans temp it has run like this, and honestly I've taken it as face value. It could be a truck with a faulty trans temp sensor or a stuck open thermostat, but I've never had a reason to be concerned about it. Cold ambient sensor check has always shown all my sensors the same. So my premise based off the one truck experience may be invalid. It's even cooler during the winter.

Maybe Mark will chime in with his comments.

Btw, it was YouTube that randomly picked the Barnegat exit sign to highlight on the face intro, which I thought was sort of karma.

 

I suspect the thermostat in your truck is opening at a bit lower temperature than the nominal. I think it does open and close, but it is probably open for a short time. Your premise that most of the time the thermostat is closed and little fluid was being filtered is probably correct.

 

Thanks for the informed analysis Mark.

 

Which makes a guy wonder about trans filtration in winter climates.

 

In review, it maybe that my t/s opens at ~155F, and that once I did the in-town 35mph run fluid did go through the coolers and filter. That's unusual for me. My typical drive is 38 miles, and like the LBI exit, temp shows 140F by that point. In these temps. My old job commute was shorter.

And yes, in winter cooler. As I stated earlier, IMO there are a lot of transmission designs that rely on debris contained in the fluid, not relying on good filtering. So I'm not freaking out about the history on this truck.

But I suspect most of us want to improve filtering as Scott has hammered home. And I suspect there will be a FMC parts inventory clerk in Dearborn who is going to get confused why all of a sudden Powerstroke 6.4L pans are failing at a high rate and dealers are ordering them.

 

I took Mark's advice and tossed the toilet paper filter even though I have a brand new one sitting on my shelf. Once I removed it, I never have to think about changing it again. I put on 15,000 miles on the new pan and filter and will drop the pan in 10k.

 

I think 25-30k would be a good replacement point for the first filter change. If the filter was in place since new I would follow the 60k interval. But as an upgrade, we know there is fluid retained and other debris retained on internal surfaces. So I would expect the first run with the more efficient filter would have a higher loading. The only way I could conceive of not doing an early first change would be do do a dump and refill with the original pan, then within a few hundred miles (if that) install the new filter, pan and fluid. That would bring the debris initially trapped but now in fluid suspension to a lower percentage.

Actually my intervals will be 50k as I try to pull everything in a common base, 5, 25, 50, 100. Otherwise I'm old, I get confused.

 

I'm nearing 30K on my filter and fluid. Picked up the new fluid yesterday, Wolf'shead brand full synthetic, 12 quarts for right at $50 and meets Mercon LV standards.

Jack, we think alike.

 

That should scare you.

 

I agree, I think your thermo is opening early or even staying open a bit. I think we all agree on that.
So with that said, if the thermostat is open allowing ATF to flow through the cooler (which it must be, that's why it's lower than 165) then isn't it ALSO being filtered by the TP bypass filter? I think so.