Atf for my E4od

Joined
Nov 2, 2019
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440
Location
Independence Ky
After all of my research I am not sure maxlife would be good for my 94 E150 so I was going to go with mobile 1 synthetic ATF. now I'm finding it's only available in quarts which puts it higher than I would pay for amsoils best. I so wish I knew that maxlife would be good for my application being it's quite a bit cheaper and great stuff. Money isn't really the concern though. I want what is the best to run in my E4OD and just can't decide. At this point I'm thinking amsoil would be best.
 
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26 year old transmission...

Stick with what got u this far. (or dont change it at all).

I will let others chime in but i probably wouldnt go with a full syn.
 
Maxlife will be fine it the van calls for a Mercon type ATF
smile.gif
 
We had a LOT of trouble with those in E250s & E350s of that era, seemed like mounting the biggest auxiliary cooler we could fit, and NEVER towing in overdrive was the best way to lengthen the service life on them. We had an E350 cutaway 14 foot box truck with the 351 (modified?) and E4OD that was rebuilt THREE TIMES in 150K miles! They would run hot, burn the OEM Mercon, and major problems would result, including front pump issues. If you don't go syn, put on a BIG external cooler, and I would run a deep trans pan with a gauge to monitor fluid temperature-it'll be worth every penny!
 
A high viscosity quality full syn ATF... AMSOIL (Not the "fuel efficient" version) or Royal Purple Max ATF or something else comparable.

Alternately whatever Dex/Merc you find for cheap but change it every 30K miles.
 
Originally Posted by bullwinkle
We had a LOT of trouble with those in E250s & E350s of that era, seemed like mounting the biggest auxiliary cooler we could fit, and NEVER towing in overdrive was the best way to lengthen the service life on them. We had an E350 cutaway 14 foot box truck with the 351 (modified?) and E4OD that was rebuilt THREE TIMES in 150K miles! They would run hot, burn the OEM Mercon, and major problems would result, including front pump issues. If you don't go syn, put on a BIG external cooler, and I would run a deep trans pan with a gauge to monitor fluid temperature-it'll be worth every penny!

I remember our work van, E150 had an E40D that burned up on us on the freeway with a smoke screen behind us.
 
My strategy with my old 96 F-250 has been to use the cheapest regular dex/merc I could find and change it every 15K to 20k miles. At least up to 96, there is a drain plug in the torque converter so you can replace 12 or 13 out of 16 quarts with every change. It seems to have worked well with mine, as it's made it to 190K so far.
 
Originally Posted by krismoriah72
26 year old transmission...

Stick with what got u this far. (or dont change it at all).

I will let others chime in but i probably wouldnt go with a full syn.



26 year old transmission with 29,000 miles on it. Picked it up a couple years back with 19,800 miles on the van absolutely mint. I want to keep it nice. I do have paperwork where the sellers had it all gone over and serviced at the dealership after a long sit in a garage. The dealership used motorcraft mercon v. I want a synthetic In it.
 
Originally Posted by bullwinkle
We had a LOT of trouble with those in E250s & E350s of that era, seemed like mounting the biggest auxiliary cooler we could fit, and NEVER towing in overdrive was the best way to lengthen the service life on them. We had an E350 cutaway 14 foot box truck with the 351 (modified?) and E4OD that was rebuilt THREE TIMES in 150K miles! They would run hot, burn the OEM Mercon, and major problems would result, including front pump issues. If you don't go syn, put on a BIG external cooler, and I would run a deep trans pan with a gauge to monitor fluid temperature-it'll be worth every penny!


Definitely going synthetic I've heard plenty of horror story's on this trans. Also getting a cooler installed.
 
Originally Posted by ripcord
My strategy with my old 96 F-250 has been to use the cheapest regular dex/merc I could find and change it every 15K to 20k miles. At least up to 96, there is a drain plug in the torque converter so you can replace 12 or 13 out of 16 quarts with every change. It seems to have worked well with mine, as it's made it to 190K so far.


My plan is synthetic and adding a drain plug to the pan to replace 5 quarts every oil change. I only use this van on vacations and joy rides to keep it from sitting so at 3,000 miles I change it twice a year at most. I think it's almost 3 years I've had it now and put 10,000 on it.
When removing pan and draining convertor after all is together and time to add fluid is it best to add half first then run it a bit and add the other half?? Surely you can't just throw all 13 quarts in at once.
 
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If you're gonna replace it that often just use the finest harvest king you can find at your local rural king, only $20 for a 2 gallon jug of Dex3/Merc
 
Only going to replace 5 quarts of it probably once a year possibly twice. Out of 16 or so quarts it holds it's not much. So more like on one of my possible 2 oil changes per year.
 
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What's this transmission additive I hear all the time good for?? Think it's called lubegard red?
 
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Originally Posted by R1jake
Originally Posted by krismoriah72
26 year old transmission...

Stick with what got u this far. (or dont change it at all).

I will let others chime in but i probably wouldnt go with a full syn.



26 year old transmission with 29,000 miles on it. Picked it up a couple years back with 19,800 miles on the van absolutely mint. I want to keep it nice. I do have paperwork where the sellers had it all gone over and serviced at the dealership after a long sit in a garage. The dealership used motorcraft mercon v. I want a synthetic In it.

I'm not sure Mercon V is the correct fluid for it (although Ford may have superseded the original Mercon since then), but there are many good synthetic Dex/Merc ATFs out there, I use (pricy) Red Line D4 in my F-450's parking brake unit, and there have been good reports on (now fully synthetic) Maxlife ATF. I've just only used (Dexron III) Mercon in them.
 
Amazes me how stories blossom into real life truth around here

OP had a low mileage Ford with an E4OD tranny and there's already a future problem that hasn't even happen yet

Give me some lotto numbers !!!!!
 
In the past I used Mercon V (back spec'd) in my E4OD ('93 F150). Last fill was M1 ATF. Trans is original and has never failed or given me problems (255k miles). Probably just jinxed myself!
 
Wow-Mercon V in a C6?? I learned something new today, thought those were all Type F! Ford doesn't license Mercon any more, so I guess they just decided (expensive, somewhat hard to find) Mercon V is OK in everything old!
 
Originally Posted by kstanf150
Amazes me how stories blossom into real life truth around here

OP had a low mileage Ford with an E4OD tranny and there's already a future problem that hasn't even happen yet

Give me some lotto numbers !!!!!


I'm just one of those paranoid types. Lol no really though I keep seeing on different ford forums reading old threads where there saying even In a conversion van without towing a trans cooler is a must.
 
Originally Posted by ka9mnx
In the past I used Mercon V (back spec'd) in my E4OD ('93 F150). Last fill was M1 ATF. Trans is original and has never failed or given me problems (255k miles). Probably just jinxed myself!


Wow now this is really good to hear. Does yours have a transmission cooler mounted? Have you done much towing with it? Also do you just do a pan drop or remove a cooler line and replace the entire fluid as well?
 
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