Gerald Morris
Senior Member
Greetings to All Wise Moparians here!
After nigh 3 years of driving the best transmission I've ever owned, the familiar, putrid fly of a leaking transmission pan interface has polluted the ATF. This leak first drew attention this past spring, meriting then a pint of Type F as I prefer to run in my 727s. This sufficed for about 2 months, with the shortage of fluid causing the behavior I've come to know and loathe from driving leaky old automatic trannies for 42+ years. After replacing the second pint in early June, I've consistently had to top up over intervals from two to one weeks, as the record hot summer enabled the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics to spike the local entropic gradients in corresponding record breaking slopes!
I can take pictures if necessary of the stalagmite like drip deposits formed around or near some of the pan mounting bolts, clearly showing how ATF has seeped around the bolts, through the holes, leaving flexible polymer traces behind. The young sexagenarian who installed my after market, stamped steel pan with its commendable drain plug used copious quantities of black RTV in addition to whatever gasket he chose for the purpose. Before this spring, his work had no discernible flaw at all.
Which brings me to consider which course to pursue to remedy a potentially expensive problem before it becomes such. I've already purchased a good Moroso (Perm-align 93110) silicone-rubber and steel sandwich re-usable gasket to free me from the necessity of waiting 24 hours after bolting the pan on before adding fluid and driving. This gasket appears to have numerous virtues making it well worth its price IFF it suffices to stop ATF leaking.
I pray it will, and that the following paragraphs become pure academic grist for the brain-mills.
IF the Moroso Perm-align fails to satisfactorily arrest leaking at the pan-transmission body interface as now equipped with that stamped steel pan, would it be worth my while and money to purchase a high grade aluminum pan which won't be apt to expand or contract at rates different from the aluminum transmission body of the Torqueflite 8?
I ponder this little mechanics/thermodynamics problem after having survived driving every day of the hottest summer I have been so accursed to live through in my near 6 decades incarnate, particularly with those RTV/ATF stalagmites hanging from my transmission pan still vivid in my occipital lobes. The seal has incontrovertibly failed after having served well the previous two summers, the first being one of grueling city driving over much of a 6 hour shift in heat only marginally less than this years'. WHY?
I will get a decent IR thermometer with which to read temperatures on the transmission and the radiator in particular, as well as the rest of the engine for good measure. An inordinate hot spot or a few dozen might account for such peculiarity, and if so, then the cure for such might stop the leaking.... or NOT.
I suspect NOT.
Having read some postings on this Forum, I see some satisfaction with the high grade aluminum pans. This inclines me toward making such an investment for my own needs, but ONLY after a REASONABLE exploration of other probable causes of renewed leaking at this interface after 3 summers. As always, I humbly seek the wisdom of each of you my Senior Moparians and others in this matter.
After nigh 3 years of driving the best transmission I've ever owned, the familiar, putrid fly of a leaking transmission pan interface has polluted the ATF. This leak first drew attention this past spring, meriting then a pint of Type F as I prefer to run in my 727s. This sufficed for about 2 months, with the shortage of fluid causing the behavior I've come to know and loathe from driving leaky old automatic trannies for 42+ years. After replacing the second pint in early June, I've consistently had to top up over intervals from two to one weeks, as the record hot summer enabled the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics to spike the local entropic gradients in corresponding record breaking slopes!
I can take pictures if necessary of the stalagmite like drip deposits formed around or near some of the pan mounting bolts, clearly showing how ATF has seeped around the bolts, through the holes, leaving flexible polymer traces behind. The young sexagenarian who installed my after market, stamped steel pan with its commendable drain plug used copious quantities of black RTV in addition to whatever gasket he chose for the purpose. Before this spring, his work had no discernible flaw at all.
Which brings me to consider which course to pursue to remedy a potentially expensive problem before it becomes such. I've already purchased a good Moroso (Perm-align 93110) silicone-rubber and steel sandwich re-usable gasket to free me from the necessity of waiting 24 hours after bolting the pan on before adding fluid and driving. This gasket appears to have numerous virtues making it well worth its price IFF it suffices to stop ATF leaking.
I pray it will, and that the following paragraphs become pure academic grist for the brain-mills.
IF the Moroso Perm-align fails to satisfactorily arrest leaking at the pan-transmission body interface as now equipped with that stamped steel pan, would it be worth my while and money to purchase a high grade aluminum pan which won't be apt to expand or contract at rates different from the aluminum transmission body of the Torqueflite 8?
I ponder this little mechanics/thermodynamics problem after having survived driving every day of the hottest summer I have been so accursed to live through in my near 6 decades incarnate, particularly with those RTV/ATF stalagmites hanging from my transmission pan still vivid in my occipital lobes. The seal has incontrovertibly failed after having served well the previous two summers, the first being one of grueling city driving over much of a 6 hour shift in heat only marginally less than this years'. WHY?
I will get a decent IR thermometer with which to read temperatures on the transmission and the radiator in particular, as well as the rest of the engine for good measure. An inordinate hot spot or a few dozen might account for such peculiarity, and if so, then the cure for such might stop the leaking.... or NOT.
I suspect NOT.
Having read some postings on this Forum, I see some satisfaction with the high grade aluminum pans. This inclines me toward making such an investment for my own needs, but ONLY after a REASONABLE exploration of other probable causes of renewed leaking at this interface after 3 summers. As always, I humbly seek the wisdom of each of you my Senior Moparians and others in this matter.