7.3L Ford Diesel

jerem0621 wrote:
Well, maybe I am crazy but I have had two 4R100's well past 130k and they were nearly perfect. A lot of them were replaced due to some shifting problems that may be able to be traced back to the valve body. Pretty easy fix.

Keep it cool, keep the fluid changed and don't join the HP war and the 4r100 is a pretty decent 4 speed transmission.

Add power...and yep.. you have decreased it's service life. That is NOT the fault of the transmission.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

You are correct, the biggest enemy was heat with the 4R100, the stock tranny cooler ,and no transmission heat gauge to know what was going on. If someone is going to buy one of these old 7.3's thats the first thing they better do is add a 6.0 cooler ,and gauge if they are going to tow anything very heavy .

Good friend of mine years ago towing a fifth wheel boiled the fluid right out the dipstick, and didn't have a clue until the damage was done. Bone stock 99 no gauge, and the crappy stock cooler.

6.0 coolers were the best thing that came along for 4R100, I have no doubt thats the main reason besides fluid changes that kept mine intact. I too was 140K when I traded it, and owned it since new until a year ago.

You probably proved my point a lot better then I did. If you want to start towing much over 10K most won't be very happy with the performance, so like many I started adding power, then dealing with ETG's, and transmission cooling etc etc.

As some like to point out its not a race towing, but its not enjoyable at 30 mph , when the new trucks of today pull the same hill ,with the same fifth wheel at the speed limit, and with ease compared to how hard that 7.3 was working .

We were all in the same boat more or less 10-15 years ago with these old diesels, we can go on ,and on about how great or not so great the old diesels are or were, but fact remains time has passed them by , and give a few years, and they will be forgotten just as the towing machines of the 80's ,and most of the 90's have been.