he needs to man up and at least tell y'all where she is and what happened

 

I just did a coolant exchange a few months ago when I rolled over 60k. Haven't touched the transmission yet. And I haven't done the diff fluid yet because I'm toying with the idea of a 4.10 gear swap...

 

Did you take it to the dealer for the transmission? Did they just drop the pan,do a flush or did they do a fluid exchange?

Just curious because My truck needs inspected this month and I'm taking it to the dealer I bought it from to do it and I have no experience with them. I was going to ask them whether they just drop the pan or could do a full fluid/filter exchange when I'm ready to have the tranny serviced. I do not want it flushed.

When I had my 04 NOBODY around seemed to understand what a fluid exchange was......they either dropped the pan or flushed it. I ended up finding someone with the machine and did it myself.

I'd do my current truck myself but it seems like too much of a PITA without an actual dipstick.

 

With our trucks most transmission machines won't pull the fluid out, they need a special adapter and the fluid has to stay at a certain temp (170 i think) for it to get it out. My dealer was the only place in town that could do it, they used a hot fluid exchange machine. I inquired about a filter change but decided to go with Exchange only. Ended up taking 14 quarts of Mercon LV, even though capacity is 12 quarts. They used 2 quarts to run threw the system to make sure all new fluid was in it. Ended up around $300 with tax but most dealers in the big cities were around the 180 mark.

I had a couple places that assured me they could, after really hammering them for info they found out they couldn't and planned to just do a pan drop and add new to the old. No thanks I don't like to do that.

 

Got the truck back today at 4pm. I pulled a rookie move and totally forgot to take the tune off. Thank goodness the service advisor was cool about it.

 

What ratio do you have now? 3.55's? For the way your truck is setup with the bigger tires plus towing it may not be a bad idea. I know alot of tremor owners didn't like the 4.10s and wanted to go down to 3.55's. But you aren't racing it either so may not apply.

 

Took the '87 LTD out for a run yesterday and for the first 15 miles or so it ran like crap -- as if it wasn't firing on all cylinders. It cleared up after awhile and seemed to be fine the rest of my drive.

Decided to change the fuel filter today thinking that might have been part of the problem, and man was there some nasty crap that drained out of the old filter! I only drove it about 3 miles with the new filter, but from what I could tell, it seemed to have made a difference.....

Oddly enough, it wasn't the factory filter on the car, which is what I was expecting to find being that it only has 4400 miles on it. It was a Fram unit, so I guess it was replaced somewhere along the line.....

 

Just curious what your thoughts are on why you don't want to mix some old and new?

 

Cause I want it all fresh. What's the point of draining out 4 quarts out of a 12 quart system? Kinda like doing a oil change, would you drain half the oil and pour 3 new quarts in? Hell no. You want all fresh oil

Call me weird but I want all new fluid in every system, otherwise whats the point of doing it

 

Wonder what the inside of gas tank looks like after almost 30 years

 

I understand what you're saying, but here's my point, sure all new is ideal, but 70% new is pretty good too

No oil < Bad oil
Bad oil < Mixture of good
Mixture < New oil

You're still improving the situation and prolonging the life. And when you're doing the service "early" compared to what's recommended, there's no requirement to do all new.



When you do an oil change at home, do you let it sit for hours until it stops doing little drips? Or are you just waiting for the drain to thin out and call it good?

 

I let it sit there all day and get every drop out, then pour a little dawn dish soap in there to get it clean

I see your point also, but I don't think your math is quite right. 4 quarts on a Pan drop and it's a 12 quart system. So that's only 33 percent (+ or -) new and the rest is still old.

 

Yeah, I have the 3.55s. It's more than adequate, I just always want more And I agree, it would help with the towing and the 35" tires.

However, its pretty expensive because I have to do it to two differentials. Plus I may be picking up a new daily driver very soon. As I mentioned before, I'm really interested in preserving this truck. Stay tuned.

 

Thanks for the info! I didn't even know there was a hot fluid exchange machine, I figured they were all the same. That's good to know for when I ask them about doing it.

I agree, I don't see any point in just dropping the pan. Especially on the first fluid change. I personally want to get all the junk out of there from break in and start fresh.

 

I have no idea if/when my cars fuel filter was changed but it looks like it's in worse shape than the Titanic

I ended up bypassing the filter because the line coming out of it was leaking pretty bad.....it does start up a lot faster now