Originally Posted By: Milano
Hey folks. Long time... I started a job where I'm given a vehicle so I haven't done much with the car for a while....
I used maxlife 10/30 and I burned a bunch and leaked a bunch... I don't blame the oil, I blame the valve cover gaskets and the transmission only having 1st and 2nd gears! I used a Purolator pure one for this.
Last week I had the transmission built over... I don't know who did the last job but it had an incorrect valve body and torque converter in it. My transmission guy added a shift kit, high energy overdrive and reverse bands, new cooling lines and he used an OEM AOD valve body he had in Stock from ages ago. Drives beautiful now. Oh, new transmission mount and oil pump too.. Even changed my loose negative battery terminal free because he didn't want it to not start when I came to pick it up.
he's a friend of a colleague and told me I'm warranteed until he dies lol. According to him it was such a pleasure to work with. I guess the new stuff is over complicated. He used full synthetic mercon LV and says I don't have to worry for 50,000 miles.
I just did the rear diff fluid... Not limited slip so I used Shell Spirax HD 80W-90.. Seems to get good reviews on here and it's what they had at my shop. It seemed very gray coming out and I wasn't happy about that... But there's no noise or anything.
The power steering is screwy. Previous owner changed it (pump and box) and it worked fine when I got the car but now it's difficult every morning...
I see he liked to use cheap parts so I'm going to try drain and fill with Redline power steering fluid and if that don't work I'll get a better rebuilt pump. I see Ford specd Mercon in the transmission that year but Type F in the steering? Can anyone confirm?
I've ordered more maxlife and a motorcraft filter this time around.. Hope to get to the valve cover gaskets but it's freezing out. Perhaps now that I'm not revving the heck out of the engine driving in second gear now.... the oil won't burn and leak so much!
I also upgraded the lowbeams to Hella H4 e code housings.. Anyhow, I'm doing this post on my phone and I'm afraid I'm going to lose it so I'm gonna post and add later if I think of more. Thank you guys so much for the insights.
See if you are supposed to run dedicated PS fluid or ATF? I run Maxlife ATF and it has been great in extreme cold.