I was going through my phone, and I found some pictures of a job I did on my 2013 F150 last month; I thought y'all might like to see them. I had to remove the transmission to replace the rear main seal and flexplate. It had started grinding when trying to start for the last few months. While everything was apart, I replaced the oil pan gasket with the upgraded integral windage tray, and installed a Sonnax "Zip Kit" on the transmission valve body. The engine is a 5.0L Coyote, one of the best engines Ford has made in a long time. The transmission is a 6R80 six-speed automatic, and I'll give y'all some background information about it (and some other transmissions) in the captions. Spoiler This is the new windage tray/ gasket, next to the old simple gasket. If you want to do this on your own 5.0 powered anything, look up a gasket for a newer Mustang GT350. This design catches oil slinging off of the spinning crankshaft, and returns it to the oil pan, where it belongs, instead of spraying all over the bottom of the block. This adds a few horsepower, but not enough to feel. Spoiler Here it is, installed on the block. Note the crankshaft reluctor wheel (8 holes) on the end of the crank. If you leave this out, the engine will NEVER start. Spoiler Now onto the transmission. The Ford 6R80/90 is based on the ZF HP6 six speed. So is the GM 6L80/90. There are many similarities between all of the transmissions, but the GM version is by far the worst. The original design by ZF is very effective, and when Ford used the design, they basically only changed the exterior housing to allow it to bolt onto their engines, and ran it with their own electronics/ tuning. GM, on the other hand, not only changed the housing, but also the pump and valve body. They used inferior materials, and the tuning they used (specifically for the torque converter lockup logic) was deeply flawed. The factory tuning allows for lockup at very low speeds, which really stressed the torque converter clutch, resulting in accellerated wear. This results in debris being spread throughout the transmission. It wears out the pumps prematurely. Instead of a gear-type pump used by ZF and Ford, GM opted to use a variable displacement vane-type pump. Boy, does GM love their goddam vane pumps. Anyway, as you can see here, the Ford pump is made of cast iron, which is much more durable. The GM pumps are aluminum, which isn't nearly as impervious to erosion from debris. Spoiler Here is the transmission, on a stand, with the valve body shown. You remove all of the TORX bolts*, and it comes out with little difficulty. Once out, it splits into two pieces, and from there, you remove the spool valves. The shift solenoids are shown numbered; do NOT mix them up when reassembling the unit. *This is another place where GM decided to reinvent the wheel. Instead of conventional TORX or hex-head bolts, they decided to use inverse "Super TORX" bolts, requiring a special socket. I can understand buying a special tool for a special job, but when you make me buy a unique tool to just remove a bolt, you can kiss the darkest part of my white ass. Spoiler This is one half of the valve body disassembled. You can see the shuttle valves and springs. The Sonnax kit mostly consists of o-ringed end plugs to eliminate hydraulic leaks, which are one of the main causes of transmission failures. Spoiler When the valve body is removed, you can see where it seals to the main housing. The rectangular block on the left is called the "bridge seal," and that is the source of all the oil coming from the pump, It needs to be replaced when the unit is opened. On the right, you will see four holes; seals go in there, and those holes supply oil to the shift solenoids. The circled area is where the fluid thermostat goes; I did a cheap modification, and flipped the thermostat over, which will lower temperatures. From the factory, these units typically run at about 200 degrees (F), and that is not conducive to the longevity of the internal seals. Spoiler This is the profile of the bridge seal (new- upper, old - lower)
I'm in the middle of a bunch of Banks upgrades to my 3500 Cummins. EGR upgrade, turbo upgrade, turbo inlet piping upgrade, and a secondary oil filter system. Looking forward to getting it all done.
I don't know what the fuck is going on with this site, but I can't get all of the pictures to line up right. I've got spoilers behind spoilers. Anyway... Spoiler Here's an alternate view of the bridge seals, and you can see how bad the old one looked. Spoiler This is the conductor plate, which transfers power/ signals to the solenoids and sensors. Circled are the input and output speed sensors. Spoiler While the transmission was out of the way, I noticed a spot on the main wiring harness that had gotten burned on the exhaust manifold. I was going to have to do something about that. Spoiler I cut out the damaged sections, and soldered in new pieces. Spoiler Wrapped up with insulated tape, and no one will ever know!