Ok i just bought a 99 f250 zf6 that had some issues. It had a busted rear housing. I got it apl back together with a new housing and ran into some questionable things. Not only were parta robbed off it that took me hours of troubleshooting to find but i also realized that the previous owner bypassed the trans cooler. Its just hooked up line to line. 2 questions is it safe to drive like this while i get new lines. And 2 hoow do i clean and flush the cooler? Thanks
I thought about that also im going to see if i can blow air through it. I may need to break down and get a whole new radiator the fins are pretty bashed. If i cant comb the fins good ill just kill 2 birds woth 1 stone and buy a radiator. The dude didnt even bother to lossen the fittings on the cooler he just cut the lines off. I would assume as long as im not hauling the trans shpuld be fine to get me around.
If you're going to try flushing the OTW cooler in the bottom of the radiator, I would use some sort of liquid pumped thru it. Air isn't going to really do any good. Maybe a combination of liquid backed up with air. If the lines are crimped off at the radiator, I would remove the lines and be sure there isn't coolant leaking into the tranny cooler. I had an OTW cooler crack and mix coolant and ATF and take out the tranny at 40K miles. The dealer helped out on warranty, but said they had never seen that happen before.
I doubt you're going to overheat your tranny unless you're towing heavy, but you should consider installing an OTA tranny cooler at a minimum if you plan on towing anything. Be sure that the fluid in the tranny is topped off at all times and that the inlet and outlet of the tranny are connected by a tube to circulate ATF. (That little bit of tube is actually a cooler, although not that efficient.)
It would depend on how long the two fluids were in the gearbox while it was in operation.
But first step is to drain the entire gearbox into a clear container so you can get a better view of if there is coolant and how much and if the ATF shows signs of emulsifying (milky appearance).
I am going to guess the brown may be rust since the ATF would have floated above the coolant.
If it was me, I would drain the ZF-6 into a large clear container and let it settle. I would then fill with an inexpensive ATF such as Valvoline and run this while you are tracking down the cooler issue.
You can then drain the Valvoline ATF for a quality Mobil-1 later.
Let me rephrase. I pulled the trans apart and drained it. The brown was more like wearing stuff you'd find stuck to a magnet in the trans looked pretty normal. The redish color in the colant tank is a solid color like the motorcraft coolant. Now the only reason im explaining a luttle better is where the person before cut the lines and re routed them thwy arent crimped shut from the radiator im thinking if there was a problem with the cooler geting coolant it would leak out of the radiator id assume. Now theres no saying if i get if fired up and warmed it may drain the resivor and leak (will know soon enough) but if thats the case hopefully its a new radiator and all is good if that makes sence. Ill try to snap a picture of the coolant resivor and see if it looks like a normal color
If the lines aren't crimped shut, and the cooler was leaking, you'd see coolant dripping out of them. If the cooler is good, you can likely try flushing it and install new lines between the tranny and OTW cooler. Even if you do that, I'd add a magnefine filter (available from NAPA) in the line going back to the tranny. That will catch any crud that you may not have flushed out of the cooler.
Maybe the PO ripped the tranny cooler lines out at the same time he ripped the t-case loose and broke the tranny rear case. :shrug03:
Ok truck is running and driving. But its got me wanting to swap the manual into the crew cab. If i were to do this i just need a few questions answered. 1. will i need to modify the driveline? Its a 4 door long bed 2 piece shaft. 2 will the PCM out of the 99 work for the 2001? and 3. will the trans cooler work in the 2001 for the zf6? Over all the 99 runs ok but it needs some work and why im thinking of this is because I have litterally been through most of my 01 and it leaks no oil and has a rebuilt turbo and front end and drove like a champ till it broke. Let me know.
You might have to shorten or lengthen the driveshafts. I'm not sure how the lengths of the ZF-6 and the auto tranny compare, but I'd guess they're not the same. I do know there are a series of holes in the frame for the tranny support crossmember.
I'm gonna guess that the PCM would work, although I don't think you'd need to change the PCM, as an auto tranny PCM should work with a manual.
Tranny cooler should be fine as well.
from what ive read they say the auto PCM works but you have to cross over some range selector switch wires to fake it into park. I might swap PCM's so i dont have to do that.
"range selector switch wires"??
The PCM would normally get an input from the range selector switch, but without the switch - no input. But none is needed either with a manual tranny as there's no "park" position.
I have an Auto PCM in my truck that I got from DP Tuner, although it has been reflashed to Jody's 80E tune. No issues whatsoever.
If you have questions, shoot them to Jody and I'm sure he'd be happy to answer.
Im in the process of getting my trans cooler functioning and im wondering if there is an electric inline pump i can install with the filter as a fail safe? if there is such a thing any suggestions?
The pump in the tranny is a positive displacement lobe type and doesn't really need any help. It's a mini version of the LPOP in your engine. I wouldn't mess with an aux pump.
If you really want to check it, plumb a pressure gauge into the lower connection on the tranny, deadheaded to the gauge (no flow out to the cooler). Unless the case or pump is really worn, it should develop bunches of pressure with the tranny in neutral and the engine idling as all the flow will be going by the clearance space. If everything looked good when you put the rear case on, and there wasn't a bunch of stuff on the magnet near the drain plug, I wouldn't worry about it.
You could also check normal flow by pulling loose the top line at the tranny. It would be easier than the gauge thing, but would prove that you had flow thru your filter and cooler. Might be messy, though.
That sounds like a plan. I don't mind the mess. Thanks again
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