hyperrider
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'24 Ram 2500, 6.4L with the 8HP75 transmission, 13,000 total miles, some 3k mile cross country tows, and various others.
I am an "early fluid change" kind of guy. I have a lot of reasons for that but I won't go into them here. The short story is that this process is not that difficult, but convoluted. I am not a fan of the inexact nature of the process. Truth be told, I should have done this service before I towed a single mile.
GOOFY #1
So, I went to Blau Parts and bought their change package ($300) that consists of a new plastic pan/filter, a pump, plug, a new gasket, new bolts, and enough Ravenol 8HP (6 liters) to do the job. How do they know 6 liters? Before it arrived, I changed my mind and decided to purchase two more upgrades: the PPE +1 quart pan, $297 (228053420) and the PPE bypass VALVE $80 (Which is a stupid name because it has no valve. That's the purpose). Whatever. The bypass part number is 225065100. I found it interesting that PPE now says that this pan no longer fits my truck but the vendor, Summit Racing, says that it does. Maybe PPE decided that it only wanted to sell its deep pan $320 (228053000) for this truck, I don't know. Just to be safe, I bought 2 more liters of Ravenol 8HP. I kept the plastic pan just in case this goofy project goes off the rails.
GOOFY #2
I understand the procedure, but I've found several posts on Gore's net that says that the trans should be leveled, not the truck. From under the truck, the pan certainly does not appear to be level. Maybe that's where those guys went astray, I just don't know. A.I. says it's the truck that should be level, which makes more sense anyway. I used jack stands, it was easy.
The first thing that I wanted to do was replace the cooler valve body. There is trans fluid trapped in the cooler (because the valve is shut at <160 F), so let's get that out first. If you don't remove the valve during a fluid change, you will not get that portion of the fluid out, just like what's in the TC. I measure all outgoing fluids and the cooler seems to hold about 8 ounces between it and the lines. The lines are sealed with o-rings, seems like a weak system to me, but it hasn't leaked. I think it would be easy to damage them. The fluid appeared new and smelled new as well.
The next consideration was to open the fill plug and see if anything comes out, engine completely cold. I expected that some fluid would come out with the passageways draining into the pan. Sure enough, 18 ounces flowed out of the fill plug hole. That was a bit more than I expected. It is a good data point, though and seems to indicate "working" transmission fluid requirements. In other words, if you could fill the trans to the plug hole and then get an additional 18 ounces in there, you'd probably be in the ball park.
GOOFY #3
The stock plastic pan has a plastic drain plug that is situated directly above the cross over exhaust pipe. I could get an allen to it, but it immediately stripped out. So, looks like we'll just do the Niagra Falls method of backing out the pan bolts so that the pan tips to one end. It wasn't too bad. I caught 76 ounces coming over the falls. If you are counting, that's a total of 102 ounces of fluid or 3.2 liters. Wait a minute. Why did Blau send me 6 liters? With my new pan adding .94 L plus the cooler adding .25 L, I should only need: 3.2 + .94 + .25 = 4.39 liters. We shall see.
GOOFY #4
Make sure the drain plug is tight as well as the optional temp sensor port plug, then install the pan. The gasket fits the pan perfectly. You have to reuse the bolt bushings. Some of them are loose in the pan holes and some must be smacked in. The filter is bolted to the pan and can easly be replaced next time. Fluid is pulled up through the media via a hole in the bottom of the filter. It exits the filter from a slight tube extension which has an o-ring at the tip. This is a slip-on fit and seems quite goofy to me as I wonder at what inference it has in order to maintain the pull of the fluid vertically. I suppose that if it cannot seal adequately you will know when you are sitting on the side of the road and the truck does not go. The larger pan that PPE sells has an additional extension tube that attaches between the filter and the transmission. Seems Goofy+ to me. In the end, it all went together without problems.
GOOFY #5
The refill and check is the goofiest of them all! I cold refilled the trans at the overflow hole. I used Blau's pump on Ravenol's "straw container". Blau doesn't tell you HOW the pump attaches to the container until you get them. I assumed that one would just screw off the lid, screw on the pump, and start pumping. Nope. The Ravenol containers cap cannot be removed. Blau's idea was to slip the end of the pump onto the straw. I thought, "Man, that's a dumb idea. I should just transfer the fluid to another container." But, being the optimist, I decided that Blau was smarter than me. By the time the pump is attached to the end of the straw, the aparatus is over 2 feet tall, which is way too tall to use under a truck that is on stands. But the greater problem is that the pump tube will not stay attached onto the Ravenol straw. If the straw retracts, as it tends to do when your pumping motion is directed downward into the bottle, it will instantly detach. You'll need one hand to hold the pump tube in the trans fill hole, one hand to pump, and one hand to hold the straw to the bottom of the pump. I ended up being one hand short. This particular Blau set up is a joke.
So, I am refilling the trans. I pass 5 liters and nothing is overflowing from the port. Now that's weird. Based on what came out, the cold fill should have been spilling by now. In theory, 4.39 liters (PRIMED) was all that I needed to get back to where we were. I keep going and finally get spill at about 5.7 liters.
I crank the truck and go through the charging process. I check the temps and they are fine, but then the SERVICE TRANSMISSION notice shows on the screen and will not be deterred. I speculate that it came on due to a low fluid level sensor. Now I cannot see my fluid pan temp but I am not worried because getting above the 122 F level would take a lot more time than I have expended. I complete the reverse, drive, neutral, rpm process and then check the port. Nothing is coming out, so I begin to add more fluid. I finish the 6th liter and grab another. I get in maybe a tenth of a liter before flow starts from the port. I burn my hands on the pipe several times. I button up the plug.
This process has me a bit pissed. The trans has somewhat of a narrow tolerance range, but the process to get there has variables and obstacles that are nothing more than half baked. I turn the truck off, disconnect the battery to reset the SERVICE TRANSMISSION notice and let the truck cool back down to stone cold.
Roughly 3 hours later, I decide that it would be prudent to repeat the charge process and then check the fluid level again. I crank the truck and the SERVICE TRANSMISSION is still there! I remove the fill plug and nothing comes out immediately. But after I reach for another bottle of fluid, it begins to flow. I reinstall the plug and take the truck off the jacks.
By the time I am ready for the test drive, the SERVICE TRANSMISSION notice is gone and never to return. That's weird. I assumed that the trans would need to "re-learn", but I could not notice any change. The trans shifted and operated just as perfectly as it did before I started down this goofy path. Two weeks later, and everything is still working perfectly.
I say that this process is goofy because this machine requires specific and accurately measured materials. Yet, everything seems to be somewhat of a guess. I ended up with about 1.7L more fluid in my trans than what should have been, based on what came out.
I told A.I. what I had done. It replied that my fill was very likely perfect because there is likely more space in the new pan than PPE claims and that the factory is known for shorting the correct amount of fluid in the trans. It said that the perfect shifting would not occur if there were too much fluid, due to foaming. I sure hope that it is correct. We'll do it again in a couple of years, if is correct.
Best wishes on your trans service.
I am an "early fluid change" kind of guy. I have a lot of reasons for that but I won't go into them here. The short story is that this process is not that difficult, but convoluted. I am not a fan of the inexact nature of the process. Truth be told, I should have done this service before I towed a single mile.
GOOFY #1
So, I went to Blau Parts and bought their change package ($300) that consists of a new plastic pan/filter, a pump, plug, a new gasket, new bolts, and enough Ravenol 8HP (6 liters) to do the job. How do they know 6 liters? Before it arrived, I changed my mind and decided to purchase two more upgrades: the PPE +1 quart pan, $297 (228053420) and the PPE bypass VALVE $80 (Which is a stupid name because it has no valve. That's the purpose). Whatever. The bypass part number is 225065100. I found it interesting that PPE now says that this pan no longer fits my truck but the vendor, Summit Racing, says that it does. Maybe PPE decided that it only wanted to sell its deep pan $320 (228053000) for this truck, I don't know. Just to be safe, I bought 2 more liters of Ravenol 8HP. I kept the plastic pan just in case this goofy project goes off the rails.
GOOFY #2
I understand the procedure, but I've found several posts on Gore's net that says that the trans should be leveled, not the truck. From under the truck, the pan certainly does not appear to be level. Maybe that's where those guys went astray, I just don't know. A.I. says it's the truck that should be level, which makes more sense anyway. I used jack stands, it was easy.
The first thing that I wanted to do was replace the cooler valve body. There is trans fluid trapped in the cooler (because the valve is shut at <160 F), so let's get that out first. If you don't remove the valve during a fluid change, you will not get that portion of the fluid out, just like what's in the TC. I measure all outgoing fluids and the cooler seems to hold about 8 ounces between it and the lines. The lines are sealed with o-rings, seems like a weak system to me, but it hasn't leaked. I think it would be easy to damage them. The fluid appeared new and smelled new as well.
The next consideration was to open the fill plug and see if anything comes out, engine completely cold. I expected that some fluid would come out with the passageways draining into the pan. Sure enough, 18 ounces flowed out of the fill plug hole. That was a bit more than I expected. It is a good data point, though and seems to indicate "working" transmission fluid requirements. In other words, if you could fill the trans to the plug hole and then get an additional 18 ounces in there, you'd probably be in the ball park.
GOOFY #3
The stock plastic pan has a plastic drain plug that is situated directly above the cross over exhaust pipe. I could get an allen to it, but it immediately stripped out. So, looks like we'll just do the Niagra Falls method of backing out the pan bolts so that the pan tips to one end. It wasn't too bad. I caught 76 ounces coming over the falls. If you are counting, that's a total of 102 ounces of fluid or 3.2 liters. Wait a minute. Why did Blau send me 6 liters? With my new pan adding .94 L plus the cooler adding .25 L, I should only need: 3.2 + .94 + .25 = 4.39 liters. We shall see.
GOOFY #4
Make sure the drain plug is tight as well as the optional temp sensor port plug, then install the pan. The gasket fits the pan perfectly. You have to reuse the bolt bushings. Some of them are loose in the pan holes and some must be smacked in. The filter is bolted to the pan and can easly be replaced next time. Fluid is pulled up through the media via a hole in the bottom of the filter. It exits the filter from a slight tube extension which has an o-ring at the tip. This is a slip-on fit and seems quite goofy to me as I wonder at what inference it has in order to maintain the pull of the fluid vertically. I suppose that if it cannot seal adequately you will know when you are sitting on the side of the road and the truck does not go. The larger pan that PPE sells has an additional extension tube that attaches between the filter and the transmission. Seems Goofy+ to me. In the end, it all went together without problems.
GOOFY #5
The refill and check is the goofiest of them all! I cold refilled the trans at the overflow hole. I used Blau's pump on Ravenol's "straw container". Blau doesn't tell you HOW the pump attaches to the container until you get them. I assumed that one would just screw off the lid, screw on the pump, and start pumping. Nope. The Ravenol containers cap cannot be removed. Blau's idea was to slip the end of the pump onto the straw. I thought, "Man, that's a dumb idea. I should just transfer the fluid to another container." But, being the optimist, I decided that Blau was smarter than me. By the time the pump is attached to the end of the straw, the aparatus is over 2 feet tall, which is way too tall to use under a truck that is on stands. But the greater problem is that the pump tube will not stay attached onto the Ravenol straw. If the straw retracts, as it tends to do when your pumping motion is directed downward into the bottle, it will instantly detach. You'll need one hand to hold the pump tube in the trans fill hole, one hand to pump, and one hand to hold the straw to the bottom of the pump. I ended up being one hand short. This particular Blau set up is a joke.
So, I am refilling the trans. I pass 5 liters and nothing is overflowing from the port. Now that's weird. Based on what came out, the cold fill should have been spilling by now. In theory, 4.39 liters (PRIMED) was all that I needed to get back to where we were. I keep going and finally get spill at about 5.7 liters.
I crank the truck and go through the charging process. I check the temps and they are fine, but then the SERVICE TRANSMISSION notice shows on the screen and will not be deterred. I speculate that it came on due to a low fluid level sensor. Now I cannot see my fluid pan temp but I am not worried because getting above the 122 F level would take a lot more time than I have expended. I complete the reverse, drive, neutral, rpm process and then check the port. Nothing is coming out, so I begin to add more fluid. I finish the 6th liter and grab another. I get in maybe a tenth of a liter before flow starts from the port. I burn my hands on the pipe several times. I button up the plug.
This process has me a bit pissed. The trans has somewhat of a narrow tolerance range, but the process to get there has variables and obstacles that are nothing more than half baked. I turn the truck off, disconnect the battery to reset the SERVICE TRANSMISSION notice and let the truck cool back down to stone cold.
Roughly 3 hours later, I decide that it would be prudent to repeat the charge process and then check the fluid level again. I crank the truck and the SERVICE TRANSMISSION is still there! I remove the fill plug and nothing comes out immediately. But after I reach for another bottle of fluid, it begins to flow. I reinstall the plug and take the truck off the jacks.
By the time I am ready for the test drive, the SERVICE TRANSMISSION notice is gone and never to return. That's weird. I assumed that the trans would need to "re-learn", but I could not notice any change. The trans shifted and operated just as perfectly as it did before I started down this goofy path. Two weeks later, and everything is still working perfectly.
I say that this process is goofy because this machine requires specific and accurately measured materials. Yet, everything seems to be somewhat of a guess. I ended up with about 1.7L more fluid in my trans than what should have been, based on what came out.
I told A.I. what I had done. It replied that my fill was very likely perfect because there is likely more space in the new pan than PPE claims and that the factory is known for shorting the correct amount of fluid in the trans. It said that the perfect shifting would not occur if there were too much fluid, due to foaming. I sure hope that it is correct. We'll do it again in a couple of years, if is correct.
Best wishes on your trans service.