Flush vs drain and fill

8

8nutz8

New member
Has anyone ever had any experience or hear about what is better for the 6f55?
What is officially recommended?
I'll be replacing my mercon lv with amsoil signature series trans fluid and i've got enough to flush the whole system and get all 11+ quarts repalced. Of course there's tons of horror stories about flushing services ruining high mileage transmissions as it breaks away pieces of debris and deposits them in more harmful areas of the transmission. I'm currently at 48k miles so this isn't a huge concern for me. Also i'm going to be doing this at home not taking this to a shop so i'm not referring to a pressure flush where they also use detergents and cleaning agents.
I'm just gonna let the trans pump do it's job and move all the fluid out.
Anyhow just curious is anyone has done a DIY flush like this or what the recommendation is?

Thanks for any input guys!
 
Hmmm i just ran across this comment in one of Ford Tech Makuloco's videos. . . has me wondering if i shouldn't have just stuck with the mercon actually

"Brian,  I have been using amsoil oil for years. Signature series atf says it's a replacement for Mercon LV.
Do u think it's OK to go with the amsoil?

Thanks for your videos, they are very helpful!


FordTechMakuloco:

"You can do whatever I would not use it in my vehicle. Mercon LV has a very specific additive package unlike fluids of the past"
 
Colorado-SHOBro said:
Hmmm i just ran across this comment in one of Ford Tech Makuloco's videos. . . has me wondering if i shouldn't have just stuck with the mercon actually

"Brian,  I have been using amsoil oil for years. Signature series atf says it's a replacement for Mercon LV.
Do u think it's OK to go with the amsoil?

Thanks for your videos, they are very helpful!


FordTechMakuloco:

"You can do whatever I would not use it in my vehicle. Mercon LV has a very specific additive package unlike fluids of the past"
Click to expand...
He's a ford tech, not a tribologist.










 
The blue label amsoil is LV and meets the Mercon LV specs

So signature series LV ATF is what you want....the non LV is the red label 
 
SHOdded said:
As far as replacing the fluid in one shot, I hope you have at least 15 quarts handy.  Never run low on fluid!!!

I have posted this link before, I think, this is on a 6F50, but should work for a 6F55 also
http://www.fordedgeforum.com/topic/2040-transmission-fluid-replace/page-2#entry144768
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link. I remember reading that a while back. I'm doing something very similar to that process.
I'm going in with about 14.5qts which should be more than enough.
 
I had my transmission flushed on my 2010 at my trusted shop... unfortunately they used a “high quality” non-brand name synthetic (lv) fluid. There is a post about it somewhere...

In any event, the transmission did not shift clean when tuned at WOT until I did 3 x drain and fills with Motorcraft Mercon LV...then everything was happy... It was even cleaner with an extra half quart of fluid per LMS recommendations.

Just my experience...




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
651c9e180734a9397ebc8186b3b9c6fb.jpg



This is what I used...


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BJSHO said:
I had my transmission flushed on my 2010 at my trusted shop... unfortunately they used a “high quality” non-brand name synthetic (lv) fluid. There is a post about it somewhere...

In any event, the transmission did not shift clean when tuned at WOT until I did 3 x drain and fills with Motorcraft Mercon LV...then everything was happy... It was even cleaner with an extra half quart of fluid per LMS recommendations.

Just my experience...




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
This is why no one puts a wrench on my car but me. Even reputable "trusted" shops make mistakes or get careless. Only other people to do any work on my car has been a very close friend of mine did an alignment and the dealer has had the car twice for warranty work.

At any rate the amsoil trans fluid gets here today and i plan to use it tomorrow. I trust amsoil but also think there's some validity to ford tech makuloco's statement about OEM manufacturers having very specific additive packs to their trans fluids these days. I'm sure amsoils fluid match and exceed those requirements but it's still somewhat of a universal fluid vs the lv being specific to ford.

If there's any funny business after the flush i can still flush back to mercon lv if need be.

Can anyone who is running amsoil trans fluid in their 6f55 speak on behalf of their experience?
 
SHO BRO did you get LV amsoil? If you did not then I wouldn't use the amsoil..LV is not specific to Ford, many OEMs are switching to LV fluid in the name of fuel economy
 
Colorado-SHOBro said:
BJSHO said:
I had my transmission flushed on my 2010 at my trusted shop... unfortunately they used a “high quality” non-brand name synthetic (lv) fluid. There is a post about it somewhere...

In any event, the transmission did not shift clean when tuned at WOT until I did 3 x drain and fills with Motorcraft Mercon LV...then everything was happy... It was even cleaner with an extra half quart of fluid per LMS recommendations.

Just my experience...




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
This is why no one puts a wrench on my car but me. Even reputable "trusted" shops make mistakes or get careless. Only other people to do any work on my car has been a very close friend of mine did an alignment and the dealer has had the car twice for warranty work.

At any rate the amsoil trans fluid gets here today and i plan to use it tomorrow. I trust amsoil but also think there's some validity to ford tech makuloco's statement about OEM manufacturers having very specific additive packs to their trans fluids these days. I'm sure amsoils fluid match and exceed those requirements but it's still somewhat of a universal fluid vs the lv being specific to ford.

If there's any funny business after the flush i can still flush back to mercon lv if need be.

Can anyone who is running amsoil trans fluid in their 6f55 speak on behalf of their experience?
Click to expand...

I switched out my fluid to Amsoil at 25k with the entire flush on the BG machine in mid 2012. When I took the car out I could not believe how smooth the trans shifted and was not at all expecting that. My secondary thought afterwards was 'what the hell took me so long'.

I believe that the "special" additives in the oem fluid is more to get you to use their stuff and also to scare you about warranty claims; basically a training the brain gimmick so you continue to use after warranty as well. The idea being if your car hasn't blown up after 60k, the fluids must work the best so I might as well keep using it.

Amsoil (and other) is in the business of oils and specialize in that. Ford is not. I'm at 83k on that same fluid and haven't topped it off either since its full. I'm getting ready to do it again this spring sine I think its overdue. That's the thing about top quality fluids, you can go longer intervals. To date, no trans problems noticed at all.
 
AJP turbo said:
SHO BRO did you get LV amsoil? If you did not then I wouldn't use the amsoil..LV is not specific to Ford, many OEMs are switching to LV fluid in the name of fuel economy
Click to expand...
yeah 99% sure i got the right stuff. it’s what amsoil listed for my vehicle and i’m assuming the “fuel efficient” is their way of saying low viscosity.
f69e2501d3e3f8fa8fe2b1be0dec474f.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I was under the impression LV is just synthetic? At least all the LV I have even looked at was Synthetic...


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https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-product/transmission-fluid/automatic/signature-series-fuel-efficient-synthetic-automatic-transmission-fluid/


States it’s a replacement for Mercon LV... you are good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yeah you are good....

Fuel efficient=Low viscosity(LV)

I think all of the AMSOIL ATF fluids are synthetic but the signature series is obviously better and uses the PAO's.

You can get the LV amsoil in non signature series as well

So they have 4 types:
OE ATF
OE LV ATF
Signature series ATF
Signature series LV ATF
 
Alright went ahead and did the flush today and happy to say it went on without a hitch! The method worked well and i'm confident i got out at least 90%+. I would highly recommend using this technique if you're requiring a trans service. Just drain the pan(i got 5qts exact out). Refill with 4 qts to give yourself a little margin for error. This should leave you with ~ 11 qts in the system. Disconnect the trans return line and route to a graduated drain pan. Start the car and immediately cycle the trans between D,R,N, etc. until you've drained out 4qts. Be quick! the trans pump drains it out fast! Turn the car off. replace with 4qts of fresh fluid and then start the car and drain another 3-4qts as a final flush. Reconnect trans line and warm the trans up to normal operating temp and top off as needed. After i followed these steps i still had 2 qts of fresh fluid left(started off with 14) so i drained another little bit out and it was completely pure red trans fluid(it looked like it did coming out of the bottle) which tells me even after driving it around and letting all the fluid mix and settle just about every bit of it was fresh new fluid.
 
Do you not have the trans cooler? I thought the bypass thermostat valve prevents the fluid flow until the temp is reached?
 
AJP turbo said:
Do you not have the trans cooler? I thought the bypass thermostat valve prevents the fluid flow until the temp is reached?
Click to expand...
Great question brad. yes i do have the aux trans cooler which made it a lot easier to just pop off a hose to drain from. No disconnecting the hard lines or anything.
The trans bypass thermostat was a concern . . . I drove the car and got it fully warmed up(190*) before starting the job and just drove it on ramps and drained the pan real quick before it cooled down much. I believe the PP thermostat opens at 160*.
That may be difficult for guys that haven't switched to the cooler trans t stat though . . i think they don't open until 180 or 190.

The couple times a started the car to drain the fluid the trans temp on the x4 read around 130. However, i'm guessing the sensor is in the pan which was mostly fresh fluid and not the same temp as the thermostat sees. Regardless, the fluid kept flowing from the by pass block so it was never a problem for me.

The strange thing i'm still trying to wrap my mind around though . . . is that the fluid was coming out of the BOTTOM line of the bypass block from the trans. This is the opposite direction of what i've seen it's supposed to do. I thought the bottom was the return line.
I'm looking into it more but that may be why i didn't see much additional cooling from the aux cooler when i installed it. It seems it's going through the aux cooler first then the AC condenser then back to the trans.
 
Can i get some input on this comparison diagram attachment please.
In no event should the trans be pumping fluid OUT of the BOTTOM trans line from the thermostat bypass block correct? That's the line that should be returning the cooled fluid back to the trans. Unless the 10-12 system flows in the opposite direction of the 13+
 
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