I bought an TCI pan from summit w/ drain plug and gasket the other day so that when I do my first tranny oil change I can just swap out the pans. I also picked up 5 qts of Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF but when I got to the counter to get the filter they asked me for a shallow or deep pan. Well the TCI I bought was considered stock size for the 4l60e so I'm assuming its a shallow pan. Am I right? Also if anyone can offer any suggestions on this process that might make this project easier I'd appreciate it. I looked for a how-to on the forum but came up empty. I'll just follow the instructions in my Haynes book, though it failed to mention anything about removing/disconnecting the shift cable.[:@]

 

Not sure which pan you have, and think the tranny holds more then 5 quarts. More like 8-12quarts (depends on pan deepth and if you have an auxilary tranny cooler).

Tips yea,
Put the front tires on ramps. Put a jack under the t-case or tranny tailhousing. Remove the cross brace to tranny bolts and jack up the tranny. Remove the cross brace.
Remove the cable shifter.- Don't try to disconnet the wiring harnesses on it, they are held in place with wax and you will only break that $150 connector. There is one bolt that holds the cable on, remove it. There are 2 bolts that hold the electrical connector in place, one is easy to get to, the other is behind one of the wiring harnesses. You can get to it from the top after you remove another bolt holding some wires/gas lines in place, might have to tip the tranny down to get enough clearance for your wrench. Now you can take out the tranny pan bolts that hold the cable in place. They are smaller then the rest of the pan bolts. I had to use open ended wrenches on teh cable tranny pan bolt, and electrical connector bolt behind teh connector.

To minimize the red shower. Remove all the tranny bolts, when you get to the last two, one in each engine side corner. Loosen teh furthest from you first, about half way out while holding the pan in place with your other hand. Then hold the pan in place before you loosen the bolt next to you. Make sure your catch pan is under the rear of the tranny (being up on the ramps helps the oil run out the back side). Now loosen that last bolt and slowely lower the pan, control the flow. Let it drain for 10 minutes or so. Pull the dipstick.

Carefull when you finally take those last two bolts out. The pan still ahs fluid in it, and there will still be fluid dripping from the valve body. Set the pan out of the way. Cuse and grab your floor dry before the puddle you made gets you covered in tranny fluid.

DO NOT GET ANYTHING INSIDE THE TRANNY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even a piece of human hair is thick enough to stick one of those valves.

DO NOT USE A RAG TO CLEAN THE FLUID OFF the valve body and tranny gasket area.

If there is anything you want to remove the tranny fluid from, spray it with brake cleaner, and compressed air to dry, or let it evaporate. NO RAGS. I highly recommend you hit the gasket area with brake cleaner before you put a new gasket in.

DO NOT PUT ANY GASKET MAKER on the tranny pan gasket. IF you plug up the 2/4 band drain hole you will fry your tranny. Look for a little hole in the flat area where the tranny pan gasket goes. The gasket doesn't cover the hole, however form-a-gasket will.

Chilton/Haynes does a decent job covering the rest of it. Those are just some tips to help fill in the blanks.

Good luck and have fun. Your gonna love that drain plug the next time you have to drain the pan.

 

I just installed the same TCI pan on my 99, all cast aluminum with cooling fins. Really nice. Plus it has a drain bolt whereas my stock one didn't. As I recall, for 4wd, you need the filter for the shallow pan. The TCI holds an extra two quarts. The fluid you'll drain from the valve body is about 5 quarts, so plan on adding around seven if you're not draining the torque converter. I just jacked my blazer up about two inches and the job was a snap. I have a 4 door so it might be different from yours, but there was no crossmember in the way or anything to really block access to the pan. Very, very simple swap. Even the kickdown linkage wasn't in the way. Hope it goes smooth for you. BTW, the M1 ATF you bought, is it DexronIII compatable? I thought I read somewhere it wasn't.
Will

 

this is the pan I bought if anyone wants to check it out.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

The Haynes manual said there is only 5 qts in the pan and the rest is in the converter. It says to put in 3 qts on level ground and slowly add the last 2 (=5) to bring it up to the crosshash area?? So just putting on a new gasket is suffice, I shouldn't also put any rtv or permatex on it as well.

 

I used some spray on gasket stick from NAPA. It is really fine so it doesn't spread out when tightened, but make the gasket very tacky to touch. It helped hold it in place when putting the new pan on. I used about 6.5 qts all said and done. Hanr3 covered everything else about draining it and such. Thinking back on it though, mine was easy because I have 6in long hex head sockets that can easily tighten the hex bolts that come with the pan for the tight spots. Regular sockets are a tighter fit and might be worth removing that cross member, or if you don't have a set, just use vice grip pliers on a 6in allen key and it will work just fine.
Will

 

from mobil 1 website:

Outperforms conventional ATF and meets General Motors' Dexron® III and Ford's Mercon® and Mercon® V requirements. Also recommended for Chrysler automatic transmissions

 

It'll almost always take more than 5 quarts unless you are VERY fast. If you drop the pan and have the second one ready to go and slap it right up there, you may get away with 5 quarts. Normal pan means shallow. Deep is not normal. Any tranny left to sit for a while will drain more fluid. I like to leave them sit. May take 6 quarts. Completely empty with frontend raised and converter draining also will get you all the way to 8 and if an aux cooler is in the circuit, add another quart. Deep pan takes a couple of more quarts.

Hanr has it pegged nicely. I wish I could get my son to believe this. He is always buying to little fluid when I change or open a pan.

 

update:

changed out the pans, filter and fluid...reverse works great 1st gear is really boggin down and not shifting right. check and made sure fluid was right and did a road test..during the road test got a SES light, when to Autozone got shift solenoid error. In anyone has any recommendations please help. going outside and taking off the pan again and see whats up. I may not sleep tonight! if anyone has a pic of the valve body and shift solenoid(s) please let me know.

 

another update:

pulled the pan and immediately noticed a broken solenoid(must have happed when I put the pan on) I removed it and hopefully find a part store that stocks it in the morning. Ugh. Atleast the engine code directed me in the right situation. Had I pulled that pan and found nothing visibly wrong I would of been SOL. Thanks guys.

 

The crosshatch area the book is referring to is on the dipstick. It is the fluid fill area on the dipstick. One end should say fluid level while "Hot" and the other is "Cold". The fluid expands as it gets hotter. The fluid must be between the two, where depends on if the tranny is hot or cold. At the "cold" end of the dipstick it will say add 1 pint and have a line. I think the line is the bottom of the cold mark or its below it. 4 pints make up a quart. If there is not fluid ont eh dip stick, add a 1 quart until you see it on the dipstick, then add accordingly. If you get a little too much, don't worry about it. If you get alot too much, it will eventually drian out the vent hose. Or you could drain some out the drain plug. If the leakage continues after the fluid is back down to normal, then you have a problem.