1993 2wd 4.9 e4od 118k miles. I was on a long drive out to a ranch and I narrowly miss my turn. I quickly stop and pop it in reverse, I gun it and the truck revs, but won't go in reverse, I finally get it to engage and get off the main road. Smoke is coming out of my engine, There is tranny fluid all along the passenger side of the engine. all the way from the top of the intake manifold, , to the bottom (front to back as well). I get it a couple miles to the ranch but its out of fluid by the time i get there. I tow it back to home. This was the first time I had any troubles with the tranny one bit.

I got ahead of myself and didn't fill the tranny with fluid to test where the leak came from before i drop the transmission. (7 days after i tow it back to town) The inside of the bell-housing seems to be pretty dry, If it was a front seal leak, i would of expected this part to be covered in fluid? I dropped the tranny oil pan as well, no metal shavings, and no burnt smell in the fluid that was still in there (not much).

The transmission is out of the truck, I am going to replace the front seal since its so cheap, but is there something else it could be? The transmission shifts as smooth as can be before this happened all at once. I have a secondary cooler already as well.

 

It's not a leak. You've over-heated the trans & boiled the fluid out the dipstick tube.

In my experience, usually a sign it's toast.

All E4OD problem solving starts with running the codes, but probably to late now & its something mechanical & hard fail. (still worth a try)

Welcome to FTE.

Hopefully more informed will give you further advice/recommendations.

Good luck to you.

 

My guess is that you have a leak in a cooler or a cooler line.

 

Well that would be great. Hope he can find it.

 

The whole tranny is covered in mud, I am going to check the breather for a clog, switch the pump seal(since I have it out), replace the lines, to start.

 

Are the lines rusty? There's usually a splice on the return line under the fan that drips a lot. If it came off, it'd put a lot of fluid out.

Only time I've seen enough pressure to spray on the exhaust or intake it was puking out the dipstick & you did say there was some burn smell to the fluid.

Good luck & let us know.

 

I am thinking one of the lines that run along side the engine may have gotten a hole in it. On my 93 with an I6 the lines run along passenger side of the engine from below to the radiator cooler, I'd look at those to rule that out. Maybe remove them and pressure test them with air or fluid and see if they leak.

When I installed my secondary cooler and started the truck to circulate the fluid through the cooler and check the tranny fluid level there was a loudish "POP" that happened one time and all I can think of was a slug of air hit the transmission and it escaped through the vent. make sure that isn't plugged. Haven't had an issue since then, added enough fluid to get it within where it needs to be and it's been good since.

How is your cooler routed? I ran mine from the tranny to the radiator cooler, out of the radiator cooler into secondary cooler then out of it and back to the transmission.

 

After pulling everything and draining the torque converter, i bet i have about 2 gallons of fluid. So maybe not as bad as i thought(over reacting truck parent? haha) . I am gonna do the seal, lines, and change up that breather maybe? It was pretty crusty with mud. When i button it back up I will check my my return line to make sure I am getting good flow. What is a good flow rate for a e4od?

 

One gallon per minute at idle.