True but if I assume that the car was properly maintained, (crossing my fingers and knocking on wood) then it would be time for it to be changed and should be changed. If the fluid is masking the problem I am only accelerating the process by a few months. I will also have a 3 month 3,000 mile warranty on the powertrain so I would prefer that if the tranny was going to act up it would do it sooner rather than later. Besides if it is toast that will just provide me the excuse to put in a shift kit when I replace it...

Also what is this cabin filter thing? I will do that. I will also check the supercharger oil, however I was told that it was just changed out. No harm in double checking though.

Sam

Thats a good idea about the pan. I will go that route to be safe. I assume there is no harm in the tranny cooler?

Sam

If you have a warranty, then by all means flush the thing. If its gong to go bad, it will do so quickly (usually within a week or two). The cabin filter is on the passanger side of the engine compartment up near the windshield. There is a popout plastic cover. This filters the air going into the cabin.

The SC oil should be up to the bottom thread of the SC oil fill plug.

The 00+ has a transcooler in the radiator already. By putting a 180 t-stat in the motor it will keep the coolant cool which will keep the radiator cooler and hence the trans fluid. You can add an auxilary trans cooler but you are just introducing a secondary point of leakage and its not needed unless you are in mountainous terrain or towing.

Cool. I appreciate all your help. Is there any harm in takin off that plastic cover on the top of the engine? Does it serve a purpose at all?

Sam

No, its a sight/sound shield and anyone doing performance ugprades to the car either removes it or cuts away most of the plastic and applies metal screen to vent the heat from the motor. I just removed mine. Twist the gray oil cap cylinder off (counter clock wise) take the top plastic nut off, remove the cover, remove the black oil cap from the gray oil cap cylinder and reapplly the black oil cap the valve cover.

Alright thats kinda what I thought about the plasitc shield. I noticed in your picture of the supercharger that it was missing and from a few others here on the site.

Bout the tranny cooler, I am not too worried about additional leaks. I have installed a cooler on my Bronco and on my T-Bird and didn't have any issues with leaks, but it did help significantly with the tempreature of the tranny, which as I understand it kills trannies.... I do live in Colorado and do a significant amount of driving up in the mountains so I am thinking I will go ahead and install it. I have it in the garage already so all it will take is time no money.

About the T-stat. What exactly will the T-Stat do. I know in the Thunderbirds it is reccomended to do the T-stat, however without a computer chip telling your engine it has the 180 degree Tstat it wouldnt do very much because the car wouldn't know to turn the fans on earlier. Will the lower Tstat actually fo something in the bonneville without telling the computer that it is there?

Sam

Yes, stock is 195 and your correct about the fan points, however putting a 180 in will cause the motor to begin to cool sooner as the t-stat will open sooner. If you use the auto-climate in the car, your fans will automatically come on in the low speed and at high speed, the wind will keep the temp close to 180 thereby keeping the motor cooler.

It wont do much for you in town, as stop and go will still cause your temps to rise but it will help. And when you get to the point of a custom PCM the fan points can be changed as well. Custom PCMs are about 200 from INTENSE.

If you could determine that a flush had already been done at some point, you'd probably be ok, but if not, I'd simply drop the pan and change the filter. You'll replace about 1/3 of the fluid that way.

Tranny coolers are a controversial issue here. We actually have 2 common generations of transaxles here on the club. The car your'e looking at has the 4T65E, which is commonly believed to NOT benefit from a trans cooler unless towing or harsh desert driving.

The 4T60E that I have has been shown to benefit from a cooler (additional cooler in my case, as some of us got external coolers from the factory), as most failures of the 4T60E are heat-related. We can extend our lifetimes that way.

Most of the major performance shops that deal with the 65E don't recommend a cooler. I'd trust their opinions on this without question.

Ok so I took it for a second test drive yesterday and was able to actually poke around the engine for a bit. There is definently an oil leak coming from both valve covers. How difficult/time consuming is it to replaces these?

Also there seemed to be opssible another leak. There was a spot of oil behind the right wheel that dripped considerably while I sat in the parking lot giving it a once over. The spot was probably 4 inch circle. That is a considerable amount of oil given I only drove it about 3 blocks parked in a parking lot and revved the engine a little bit. How concerned should I be about that?

I am a fairly compentent person, and feel I would be able to handle the valave covers, I am just a little worried that there could be something seriously wrong with it, that I wouldn't be able to detect...

I really like the car on the positive side...

Sam