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So I have had my Ex a little more than a week and everything seems fine. 180k 4x4 v10. Transmission is a little clunky when downshifting into first but I have yet to get to flush the tranny yet. I picked up a used 8x20 ft enclosed car hauler today and it was towing like a champ no issues running along at 65-70 I did remember to turn off OD as it seemed a little confused at first. RPMS were around 2-3 with the 3.73s but all the gauges looked good no weird sounds no issues. Right as I was pulling into my neighborhood I stopped at a signal and saw a somewhat largeish puff of white smoke behind the vehicle. At first I thought it was I locked up one of the trailer tires or something. When I made another left into residential side street I again saw it but saw some seemingly coming from the hood. When I pulled over in my neighborhood and parked I could see some vapors coming from under the hood but it quickly stopped, nothing leaking under the rig. I let it cool a little checked the oil etc and everything seems fine.
Again all gauges were reading great on the drive. I let the rig run for about 30 minutes, tried revving it a bit, put it in gear for a while etc and no sign of any issue.
The only "clue" that might tell me something was it looked like the top of the battery had some wetness residue on it, and there was some water just a few drops on the passenger side back by the firewall on what I think is the brakebooster. I need to get the trailer out of my HOA loving subdivision and over to the storage spot now that I loaded my track car into it but I don't want to injure my rig and want to make sure it's ready for towing.
Thoughts?
It did seem like the radiator might be a little overfull? I will check it again tomorrow when it has cooled down? Could it have vented without overheating and caused the smoke from stuff hitting hot engine?
"Puff of white smoke behind". Unless it was cold or real humid out it's very unlikely that coolant steam would have hung in the air well enough to see it behind you. Check to see if there's traces of trans fluid having dripped from the bell housing onto the exhaust pipe. My F-350 V-10 did that while towing heavy, (13k) after coming off the freeway and doing some low speed stop & go through the neighborhood. I later read that it's somewhat common for the trans to leak out the front when it gets too hot. It leaked quite a bit but then mellowed out to a small leak once back to normal temp.
If you smelled it when it was steaming/smoking; coolant will smell somewhat sweet where oils will smell more bitter/nasty. Wetness on the battery could be coolant, or that the battery is leaking. Water on the firewall passenger side possibly on the brake booster.....the brake booster is driver's side. Water down low at the passenger side could be condensation from the AC.
I agree with all that was said by the above post, if it hung in the air behind you I'd suspect the trans front seal overheat leak, look at the bottom of the bell housing. What did it smell like? How hilly was the terrain you were towing over that it was hunting in/out of overdrive that made you shut OD off? A 3.73 V-10 should be able to tow an empty car hauler in OD over most hills and only downshift as needed on its own. Towing in 3rd vs OD will build more trans heat than in OD. Get yourself some way to read the real trans temp now that you will be towing, the dash gauge is just a 3 position idiot light, not actually a gauge, use either a stand alone gauge or get an OBDII dongle and phone app like Torque to see the real trans temp.
On another issue, how old are those trailer tire's and what is their max speed rating? Many Chinese ST tire's are max speed limited to 65 MPH, running faster than that can and will cause internal damage to then leading to premature failures. Excessive heat, underinflation (which causes excessive heat), over speeding, overloading and age (3 years is OLD for cheap Chinese ST tire's) are the main killers of trailer tire's, shredding one at speed can do a lot of damage to the trailer as well the potential loss of control.
I didn't smell anything just as you said saw some smoke after stop and go after towing for a bit. The reason I turned off OD was because for lack of a better word it felt like it was slipping a bit or something when it went back into OD from turning it off? I have an OBD dongle I will try to locate it and hook it up to check trans temp. The smoke did stay where it was there was just a little bit left/whispyness when I finally parked.
I was keeping it at 65 mostly only hit 70 a few times, tires I need to examine as I just bought the trailer in terms of age but they look good
Tires look fairly old if I am finding the date right D and then a number?
Checking the trans fluid at idle it seems like it may be a little over full? which could contribute to the seal?
Tires look fairly old if I am finding the date right D and then a number?
Checking the trans fluid at idle it seems like it may be a little over full? which could contribute to the seal?
Date is a 4 number code, first 2 numbers denote the week manufactured and last 2 numbers show the year.
As an example, my old TT tire's had a build code of 3113, so the 31st week of 2013, by the Summer of 2016 two of them had failed internally with broken and shifted belts.
Slightly overfull shouldn't cause a front seal leak, that is typically only from running hot, and most times takes up and stops leaking when cooled back down as long as the sealing surface doesn't get scored by any debris.
What year is your EX, some early ones didn't have the ATF cooling loop through the radiator like the later rigs have, that setup is less effective and could help explain a hot trans.
I see what looks like a "grease spot" ontop of the y pipe which makes me think that the seal is going to be the culprit. Is this indicative of just cooling need then?
Ok got the trailer dropped off and took a couple pics, I definitely think that was likely the culprit. I noticed to me it makes a funny sound when shifting into overdrive sounds like zzzz or slipping or something to me.
Yep, that does look like the front seal overheated and leaked a bit.
Take a look at your radiator, see if it has the trans cooling loop going into and out of the lower end, I think that by '01 they had added the cooling loop but i'm not 100% on when that upgrade was made. I put 37K towing miles (9,500 to 12,000 lbs) on my V-10 EX with the factory trans cooler and the radiator loop and never saw trans temp over 207*, but you have a few more Mike's on your trans than I do. The trans cooler designed for the 5R110 behind the 6.0 Diesel engine is twice as big as the factory V-10 cooler and bolts right in the same spot with only a little creative hose routing, simple mod that offers substantial improvement in trans cooling. I just made this upgrade to my EX with the Dorman 31/32 row cooler.
Our 4R100 trans was designed to tow in OD and really only needs to be dropped out of OD if it is hunting between 3rd and OD frequently as that will build heat. Towing in 3rd I have seen higher temps than in OD and a cooler trans is a happy trans. I'm not sure about the noise and feel you you mentioned as it shifts into OD, but maybe that slipping is just the torque converter relocking following the shift? I use the OD Off button more now for speed control on descending grades to save on braking heat.
I used to tow a 9,500lb toyhauler when my EX still had the factory 3.73 gears, it downshifted a lot but didn't really hunt back and forth much so I kept it in OD most of the time. Now with a 4.39 effective gear ratio it holds OD almost all the time, only dropping down on steeper climbs, my custom tunes from 5Star help some with that also.
Yeah I am thinking about the 5star tune. Do you think the "slipping" sound going into overdrive is going to be aided by the cooler/transflush or am I needing to look into something more serious? It's only in the shift into overdrive I suppose I could try and video it. I want to put a big cooler on just because I know the trans is one of the weakest links when it comes to towing. The bean diesel kit for the 6.0 cooler is like 600 bucks, etrailer has a bunch much cheaper but they may not be as big/effective. I definitely want to go with something that is built for heavy towing.
For the dorman I would need the cooler, a bunch of 1/2" line and some sort of 1/2" to 3/8inch adapter for my cooler lines at the tranny? Or did you run yours in series with the current one? or just attach it to your old cooler lines? Just wondering how many worm gears/fittings/how much hose I would need.
If I do the SCT 5 star tune should I use that to monitor temps or are you using an analog gauge?
Maybe with a bit more detailed description our resident trans guru @Mark Kovalsky can help troubleshoot the OD slip and sound you are getting.
I have no idea what the issue may be, so no idea if a flush would help.
I have towed heavy for a lot of miles as I mentioned earlier and never saw high trans temps but I did the 6.0 cooler mod for the added protection as my miles add up and we head farther out West. I went with the cheap Dorman for $160-ish, about three feet of fluid rated hose, two 3/8" X 1/2" barbed adapters and a few hose clamps, fairly easy job that makes a real improvement. You will want to replace the factory 13 row cooler as placing additional coolers in line may raise the line pressure which could cause the trans cooler bypass open defeating the entire cooling circuit. The 6.0 cooler (and the Dorman replacement) are high quality stacked plate designs, they are the good stuff.
I use a stand alone trans temp gauge, cause I'm old school, but any method of either reading the test port temp or what gets reported to the PCM will be fine.
I read what Mark K said about the bypass. I suppose I want to make sure its functioning correctly but not remove it as he said its there for safety. The dorman cooler is looking like the best option for me to try right now, probably try to do that at the same time as the flush. I should probably flush first so no old fluid is getting pumped through it? In terms of the sound the first 3 gears shifting sounds normal, down shifting sounds normal, but 3-4 or into overdrive on the highway it was kind of a high pitched zzzz like sticking something into a fan
I doubt that you have a front seal leak. You mentioned that the trans fluid seems slightly overfilled. That will cause the fluid to foam and it will force some of this foam out of the vent. That's what I think has happened here.
Replacing the stock air to oil cooler (the aux cooler) with a cooler from a 6.0L truck is a great upgrade. Do not keep the old cooler, you'll have too much restriction.
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