I'm still trying to decide between the SuperCrew and a CC SuperDuty. I don't really need a SuperDuty but I keep finding things I don't like about the SC. I was at the Ford dealer near my sister's house over the holidays and crawled up under a 4x4 5.4L SC and found, to my great suprise, the "little" transmission (4R70W). What gives? Does the "big" transmission (4R100) only come on the 7700 trucks (not available with SC)? I know there has been plenty of griping about both transmissions but I have a '91 Bronco with 200K miles on it and the original E4OD still working fine. I have a friend who is the service manager at a local ford dealer and he told me the 4R70W is OK but you should change the fluid every 15K miles. That sounds pretty damn often to me and must indicate overheating if it is using up the fluid like that.

Should I be concerned that Ford is putting the little transmission in it's biggest F150 truck, with 4x4 and 5.4 even? Is the 4R70W to be avoided or is it OK in this application? I've just had really good service out of my E4OD and I want another one!

 

Sounds to me like you answered your own question. I would go with what I know to be true and in your case that is you have had good service out of the bronco tranny. I have the 4r100 and I have'nt had any problems with it. I have pulled flat bed trailers with 10 big rolls of hay with it. I change the fluid every 20k though. I would think Ford's reasoning for putting the 4r70 in the SC is something like this. It's target audience for this truck is the "sport ut" crowd. In other words its a family ride. The bed is to small to put a good, heavy load in and chances are it wont see any heavy 4wd use. Maybe the most severe service the tranny will see is pulling the family boat down to the lake on the weekend a few times a summer. If that's your case you'll probably be fine with the 4r70 but if I was getting a work horse I would go with the 4r100.

 

Aside from some very early SCREWS they are all 4R70W's. The rational is the HP being delivered to it. (Lightnings have the 4R100). There are actually dozens of variations of each model transmissions dependent upon use so it is hard to do a true comparison.

As you mentioned, there are gripes about all of the currently available transmissions from Ford. I also had a 96 Bronco with the E40D and 5.8. I did loose the tranny at 113K so I do not have much faith in it either.

As far as your comparison goes with the SD vs. F150 take into account your use for the vehicle. If I had a good enough reason and the money I would have gone with the SD w/PSD. I ended up going for the SCREW since the majority of use did not justify the SD.

Just my .02.

-D

 

I have a 2000 f150 4x4 5.4l with the 4r70w I have already changed fluid once. At 15000. Truck now has 20,900 on it. I added a trans temp gauge and it is hard to really heat up the trans. I normally runs around 135-150. The highest I ever saw it go is 185-190 when I was pulling my boat. 23' larson with a 5.0l and a tandam axle, it is around 4000 lbs. It was about 85 out and I had the air on. I have towed up to 6,000lbs. with the same results. No problems. I also run a superchip. The trany shifts firm and will chirp the 285-75r16 BFG a/t's that I run. I don't now how abusive you are on the trans. But piece of mind is well worth it. My brother in law had a 1999 f250 PSD and he tows a 39' 3 axle fifth wheel with his, trailer is 14,000lbs. The truck had 60,000 on it and he never changed the fluid. Also no problems. He now has a 2002 f250 PSD.

The only advise I can offer is that if you don't trust the 4r70 get the SD. But that doesn't mean you wont have trans problems. You never know. g/l

 

If you read the blower forum you will see that myself and crash push the crap out of these trucks. The 4r70w is a bullet proof tranny with a few mods. The mustang guys have been using them for years (pulling front wheels off the ground). If you put is a quality shift kit such as the baumann kit the tranny will take whatever you can through at it. Go to the baumann website and read about the 4r70w and the 4r100. the page is very informative.

 

I have the E40D in my 93
No problems for 100,000 then developed tranny shudder
Took it to a rebuild shop and they did a complete overhaul
Still have problems and they claim it is my ignition or engine
Took it to Ford Dealer and they analyzed the hell out of it ( cost me $100 )and said it is tranny shudder. They even called the rebuilder who basically blew them off.
The Dealer is going to try a Mercon fluid fix hoping that may cure the problem

I am very po'ed at the tranny rebuild people and wonder what recourse I have especially if Ford gets it back in shape

BTW Ford Dealer said that FORD won't even let them attempt rebuilds and will only use remanufactured trannies that way if there is a problem they just send
it back and get a replacement

 

I had the same dilemma before I bought my SuperCrew. If they had offered a 4R100, I would have paid extra for it. The 4R70W is rated for 700 ft-lbs of torque. The 5.4 motor has 350 lb-fts of torque but you need a tranny capable of handling twice that due to the torque converter multiplication. So, that puts the 4R70W right at the edge. Of course that would assume that you run the motor at its peak torque output right when the torque converter is at is peak multiplication.

The problem with buying a Super Duty is that they weigh almost 1000 pounds more and so then you need a bigger motor. Don't get me wrong, I love the SD's but I was trying to be practical because I won't be towing much and I mainly use the vehicle just driving around town.
Anyway, I haven't had any problems and I absolutely love the truck. But, I would love even more to put a supercharger on it and I am very hesitant because of the tranny.

I will say that my budy is running highly modified Ford Thunderbird SuperCoupe with 450 ft lbs of torque and over 400 HP and he runs a modified AOD (similar to 4R70W) with no problems.

 

I have the 4r70w in my truck and this truck is the first auto I had in many years I have been driving it just over 2 years and put almost 45,000 miles on it and it has held up very well so far and I do alot of WOT action from red lights stop signs and so on as well as shift from reverse to drive before coming to a stop every once in a while and it still has the origanal fluid in it I'm going for 50,000 before I change it out.

 

What is the 4R100 rated for?

 

1000 ft-lbs of torque. Keep in mind that is the total. What the TQ does is included.

 

Yep, FamilyRide is correct at 1000.

I'm sure its been said before but just as a refresher into Ford Tranny part #'s :
4R100 or 4R70W

4 - 4 gears
R - Rear wheel drive
# - multiply by 10 to get torque rating
W - wide ratio gearset.

I saw someone make a post about a new upcoming 5R100 which will be interesting.
It seems that Ford went to the naming for the 4R70W when they added a wide ratio gearset to the AODE. I'm not sure what took Ford so long to switch the name on the E4OD to 4R100.

Another thing I was thinking about is if any upgrades had been done to the 4R70W since its inception. If weak parts have been upgraded since its inception, then maybe it really can handle more than 700 ft-lbs of torque but maybe they don't want to go changing the name for every little upgrade or they'd have a 4R71W and a 4R72W,etc...Just a thought.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BroncoGuy
[B]Yep, FamilyRide is correct at 1000.
...snip...
It seems that Ford went to the naming for the 4R70W when they added a wide ratio gearset to the AODE. I'm not sure what took Ford so long to switch the name on the E4OD to 4R100.
...snip....


I saw somewhere (possibley the Bauman Engineering site) that some of the later E4OD trannys also had the wide ratios, but they never changed the name.

But then again, I thought the E4OD was more or less the same as the 4R70W, rather than the 4R100.

 

Just my experience with the 4r100 in my 01 250 SD PSD. Two replacements so far. On my third transmission truck is only 14 months old. I pull frequently with it and dont really abuse it just one of those deals. So far the new one seems to be OK. We will see.

 

The E4OD/4R100 have had one set of gear ratios. The AODE switched to a wide ratio set when the name changed to 4R70W, but the E4OD never made any gear ratio changes.

The E4OD was derived from the C6, not the AOD.

Mark

 

If you look up the converter specs the ratio for the 4.2 and 4.6 is 2.20 for the 4R70 and it is 1.9 for the 5.4. Doing the math that is 644.6 lbs/ft of torque for the 4.6 and 665 for the 5.4. The 4R100 has a converter ratio of 2.20 for 770 lbs/ft of torque. If you run a chip with a 5.4 and add 40 lbs of torque you will exceed the rating of the 4R70 by 41 lfs/ft. Unless you get into a situation where gobs of torque are being applied to the tranny for a long period of time or where it is being quickly applied and released you should be fine with the 4R70. Get a temp guage to monitor the heat your tranny is generating and don't let it over heat. Neal the HP freak finally broke his 4R70 last year. If it can take his abuse for that long then it has to be a good one.

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier