I have "flushed" every 50K+ mile car I have ever had for 30+ years and many rigs for other folks. As long as you maintain fluid in the pan there is absolutely nothing to be feared. Once you have nice clean fluid coming from your cooling line just button things up, drop the pan and change the filter. Fill/top off as necessary. To me this makes far more sense than doing half a job repeatedly... especially with the cost of proper tranny fluid.

 

Are you using one of these fancy flushing machines, or the more manual bleeding method I am describing?

 

Your method. Let the tranny pump do it;s job and there's no need for machines or special fittings. Now I have to admit that a few times I have disconnected the return line at the radiator/cooler and ended up with a bit of a mess so I usually don;t bring that up too much. :lol:

 

Excellent.

Can you describe which hose comes out of the radiator and heads back to the transmission? That's the one I want because it will flush out the radiator as well (at least some of it if the radiator has a thermostatic bypass though).

Definitely I am ok with just fluid changes and not ripping the car apart for a perilous pan change given that most people never change the fluid or filter on these cars per Rover.

 

Lemme go out and see if I can find a diagram on the shop system as it's been awhile since I;ve worked on an LR3/Sport.

 

You may interested in switching from the standard plastic pan to the metal sumps available. I believe they are used on the X5, and the Ford version of the ZF6HP26, I think the X version is in a Ford Falcon or something like that, a AUS vehicle.

All you do is unbolt the plastic pan, cut the pipe, and slide the pan out, then remove the pipe. This eliminates the cross member, motor mounts, exhaust issues, as they are directly related to the size of the pan and the length of the pipe.

The new filter is seperate from the pan and fairly small so you can insert the filter, and then slide the pan over without having to make space.

Last I looked you could get a conversion kit from the UK between 150-175. This generally gets you the pan, the bolts, a filter and a gasket. The filter and gasket kits were selling for around 30.

The "transfussion" method you are thinking of works just fine. Did it plenty on my duramax tranny.

 

Well I'll be danged if I can find a flow diagram. If I remember right the LR3/Sport is top flow to bottom outlet but like I said it;s been awhile.

 

The top hose coming from the rad is the return line and feeds the tranny.

 

Great info -- thanks everyone!

Is this the metal pan I would need?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Falcon...an-Service-Kit-/321667270579?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item4ae4dd07b3&vxp=mtr

 

I believe the pans are all the same for the ZF6HP26X. The X is the designation for the 4x4 version of the ZF 6 Sp. tranny.

I just looked at a Ford Falcon pan online and I did notice that the gasket was different, black instead of green, and perhaps wider.

I purchased mine from Rimmer bros. and they listed it specifically for the LR3/4/L320/L322, but I know the exact same pan fits on my brothers X5.

All that to say I am not 100% sure.

I do know these are the right parts numbers:

Steel Pan - 1068 203 042
Gasket - 1068 303 017
Filter - 0501 213 359
Pan Screws - 0736 010 347 (21 required)

The kits if you get them from the UK instead of AUS are listed as part number LR007474P

I would suggest getting the kit from the UK they tend to be about a $100 USD cheaper than the ones from AUS, probably mostly shipping.

Just another note you do not need to use ZF Lifeguard fluid there are a number of alternatives that are significantly cheaper. Motocraft Mercon SP ATF XT-60SP, Shell ATF M-1375.4, Wolfshead ATF Synthetic.

I have also seen reference to Redline D6 ATF, and Maxlife Dex/Merc ATF; I have no experience with these and have done no research on them so I am not 100% certain about them.

 

More great info -- thanks!

So I am having trouble visualizing how you can get screws for the pan off, move the pan down enough to cut off the suction tub, fit in the new separate filter and metal pan without having to remove the exhaust and the cross member? Do you still need to do all of that, and metal pan just saves raising the engine? Saving raising the engine is a big thing, don't get me wrong...

Also, were you concerned about the lower fill capacity and the new way to determine the correct fill being a problem?

"*** WHEN CONVERTING FROM A PLASTIC TO A STEEL OIL PAN THE TRANSMISSION SUMP WILL HOLD ABOUT 1 LITER LESS FLUID - YOU ALSO HAVE TO FILL THE TRANSMISSION THROUGH THE FILLER PLUG LOCATED IN THE OIL PAN, INSTEAD OF THE SIDE OF THE TRANSMISSION HOUSING. USING THE FILLER PLUG ON THE SIDE OF THE TRANSMISSION WILL OVERFILL THE TRANSMISSION AND CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE TRANSMISSION DAMAGE *** USE OF THIS CONVERSION KIT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK."

 

Once you haveremoved the heat shield and the heat shield bracket you can unboltthe pan. Once the pan is unbolted you should have about 4 inches ofclearance between the pan, in its bolted position, and thecross-member. The 4 inches gives you enough room to cut the pipe. Ihave heard of people just breaking it off, but I used a simple hacksaw blade, and once a small sawzall type tool.


Correct. The issueis simply that you need more room to disengage the filter and untilit is disengaged you cannot slide the pan off, and since they are oneyou need to back off all the interfering parts to disengage thefilter pipe.


With the Steel panand separate filter you can install the filter on its own and thenslide the pan into position and bolt it down without removing orloosening anything else, and the reverse whenever you need to servicethe transmission following the conversion.


I have seen thedisclaimers and when I first started looking into the steel pan therewere a lot of skeptics, both regarding the pan and the transfusionprocess. However I believe the low profile pan was first amanufacturer modification, either for BMW or perhaps by Ford whenthey built their own version of the Z6HP26 Transmission.


I am not an expertbut logic would dictate that if there was not enough fluid in thetransmission for the transmission to operate properly you would havesome functional issues issues right off, a litre is a lot of fluid ina transmission.


I get the concern,not enough fluid in the pan and you may start to aerate the fluid andthat will lead to problems, but you are not leaving the sump empty,there is less room in the sump, but the filter is still fullyemerged. As well I get the idea that less fluid may lead to earlierbreakdown of the fluid, but given the fact that you can, and probablywill, change it more frequently, and the fact the manufacturerdesignated the fluid good for a lifetime, or 150K I don't see thisbeing an issue either. A side note when we first did the conversionon my brothers X5 we measured what we took out and put the sameamount back in, plus some and then bled the transmission and we didnot get a litre + of fluid out during the bleeding process, we gotthe + we put in, no more, no less, so I do not know if thatdisclaimer is for a specific version of the pan or what but I havenot experienced this.


Final note my RRSwas converted at about 75K, and now has close to 150K on it and Ihave never had a transmission error, nor any of the juddering or poorcold temperature performance that prompted me to change it in thefirst place, pretty much the same mileage on my LR3 and no issues. Mybrothers older X5 is fine, and his newer one is fine too granted hedoes not put many miles on it.


In the end thoughthat is me, and I grew up on a farm, and farmers are always modifyingsomething to keep things working or to make them work better.

 

Great information Hauwse! I see a pan design change in my future.

The warning was from this link, but this website seems to go up and down, so I don't know if you'll be able to see the page with the picture of their pan to compare to yours.

http://www.thectsc.com/products/6hp26-plastic-to-steel-oil-pan-conversion-kit-222-9.html

 

The pan from the link looks the same, except for the ones I purchased always have a little orange/red washer on the top portion of the filter pipe, which may just be covered by the plastic cap on the pipe in the picture.

I did actually see the BMW initial modification for this transmission. It was an Alpina add-on, but it is heavy duty aluminum with fins etc., and cost like a $1000. The kits are identical minus the aluminum and the fins.

I also noticed there seems to be a shortage of these kits from the normal UK sites.

I do know that my brother did get one from here: Erikson Industries, 800-388-4418

I think you have to call to order.

I would not worry to much about the disclaimer. They use these kits on any car that uses the same transmissions now. I was surprised how many there were; Audi, BMW, Ford, Land Rover, Maserati, Rolls Royce, Kia, Hyundai, Bently, Volkswagen, and a whole other group that use the Ford version.

Just make sure you fill it per the procedure and you should be fine.