Need some input

[h20skier]

I pull a fifthwheel with a 8900 GVW and a boat with a 5000 lbs GVW together. I recently added a K@N cold air kit, 5" exaust (turbo back) and a diablo sport predator programer. My truck has 90,000 miles on it and I took it to the lake this weekend and my tranny got hot. not too bad but around 220 degrees. when I got to where I was going I checked fluid levels and for a color change in the fluid and no problems were appearant. I was very didappointed in the programmer cause I programed it in the tow mode thinking it was going to help preserve the tranny a little when I pulled the doubles. On my way up the hill my truck began to NOT want to pull. I had tranny in 1st gear and I was creaping at a whopping 20mph, with my foot just in it and we weren't movin nowhere. Anyway I notice that the converter was not locking up and that when it did it would only last a short time and then kick out again. so when i got to the lake I said I was going to go back to the economy mode cause it pulled fine there too. When I left the tranny then got hot again but cooled realativly quick and ran the rest of the way home at normal 180 degrees. when I got home in my drive I noticed a leak coming form the front seal in trans. I guess what I'm getting at is do I just pull tranny replace seal and say to heck with that tow mode in the programmer. O do I send it to a tranny shop and have them go thru it and waste money that I really dont have? Hope somebody will respond to this. This is my first time on the site and I got a good empression. Thanks Steve

[Logan]

Hey Steve and to the ORG. I am not sure what to help you with your problem, but I can say that once you get it fixed, you might want to get an extra tranny cooler. They are not much money, a pretty easy install, and good insurance so you dont get it hot again. Good luck with it and I am sure someone will be able to help you shortly.

[shu873]

I too will let the experts give you the advise, but like logan said I know an extra tranny cooler is cheap insurance. Hope you're able to get it squared away real quick, and welcome to the forum!

[lifewitlooie]

sounds like ur programmer sux. but i am also a dummy. u said it ran fine in normal mode right? only on that crap tune did it mess up right?

[Blue01F250]

This happened to me also - tranny got hot and blew the front pump seal. $700 to fix at Ford. I too am looking at building the trans or just upgrading it..

the advise I've gotten is basically this... drive it until it craps out, then build it. Otherwise you are just putting a bandaid on a tranny with 90K miles (mine has 95K when I blew the seal) and wasting money on the TQ converter and valve body.. That $1500 could be saved and put toward a built tranny.

Replace the seal only if you're worried about the fluid leaking on your truck - but if you can deal with it until you get the $$$ saved - I'd let it crap out (was told just to keep fluid in it and it would be fine)

That may not be what I choose to do, but that is what a Ford tech told me -- take the info and do with it what you choose - but sounds like once you do get it fixed, you need a tranny cooler or two and a program that will boost your trans line pressure

Good luck and Welcome to the .org!!!

[bigcountrysg]

If the front seal is leaking on the trans repair the front seal. Also have a transmission shop inspect the trans. Because the valvebody could have locked up, which would result in high trans pressure which could have blown the seal. Yes when the trans gets hot the seal expands and when the trans cools down the seal may not shrink which could create the leak. Be safe have it checked out to make sure there is no problems with the valve body or torq converter.

I had the something similar happen to me. Ended up the valve body locked up and kept the trans in 3rd gear all the time while moving forward, ended up blowing the front seal of the trans. Ended up costing me around 900 dollars for new valve body and seal replacement. I opted for a rebuild. Why well 900 for trans repair, for 800 more get the trans rebuilt. At the time it seemed like the right thing to do.

[alabamafrog]

The predator programmer is a very good programmer, What you need is a Trucool 40k aux tranny cooler, cost about $120 and very easy to install. When these trannys get hot they sometimes puke fluid out the front seal and are just fine after they cool, no need to have anything “fixed” unless it keeps leaking all the time. 220 is very hot, I think 230 is redline and 220 for more than a few minutes is also very bad. Mine hardly ever sees 180 but I do have 2 40k tranny coolers in series. My old tranny pegged both my gauges around 300 and made it about 40 miles at that temp before giving up.

[FionaThe02PSD]

Hi Steve, fill out your signature that way we know which trans you have.

I'm not a big fan of the sport tuner, my neighbor had one on his derg and it ran hot with only 5K behind it. You might want to try another tuner such as DP-Tuner or adding a 6.0 cooler (If you have a 7.3).