why do you change the fluid? you shouldn't change the fluid in a GM trans as they will tend to shorten their lives. My L80 never had the fluid changed till the torque converter got noisey, that was at 218,000 miles. the trans shop plus 2 ASE Cert. said don't change it as long as your fluid stays red and clean run it. if the fluid gets dark then you have an issue in the trans. I changed it in 3 other of my GM products in the past all had short lives afterwards. On a trans go with the old rule if it ain't broke don't fix it. just change the trans fluid in the transfer case when it tends to clunk from stop lights.

Actually, my wife's CR-V has to have the fluid changed every 36,000 miles.
HONDA knows of the problem, put out a service bulletin that admits the problem,
but will only pay for one change, after that we have to pay.

lol that's a rice burner though not a GM trans

im sure those techs knwo what they are talking about but it doesnt seem to make any sense to me. you only change half of the total fluid anyway and i dont think a filter would hurt anything. in my case my trans was making noise before and after so i dont know

there's fluid in certain areas they stay in place and hold valves in place but once you drain the pan then if the chance those vlaves move due to no fluid they might go the wrong way then keep fluid in incorrect areas of your trans which then cause's it to die fast and early, the rule is in 3,000 miles after the fluid change you will either still be running or pushing. don't you think if they wanted or thought the fluid needed changing they would have installed a drain plug? there's no drain plug in a trans on the GM stuff.

Many of GM's trucks came with drain plugs after 97, and my ALLISON DEFINATELY has one. I for one personally believe in changing the fluid AND filter every 30K for a daily driver, and every 15-20K for a vehicle that gets worked. I've seen WAY too many GM trannies get diagnosed as bad or fail because of lack of maintence. And when I was at DODGE you could tell if one hadn't been changed by how loud they were on a cold start. After about 40K miles the tranny will howl on a cold start if the fluid hadn't been changed. The problem with fluid changes is if you haven't kept up on it by the book, then don't do em at all. Once you go more than 30K without a fluid and filter change you will get particle build-up inside the valve body. If you change the fluid and filter after this has gotten built up, the fresh additives in the new fluid will almost certainly clean that build up out and deposit it in areas you don't want it.

[QUOTE=THEFERMANATOR;The problem with fluid changes is if you haven't kept up on it by the book, then don't do em at all. Once you go more than 30K without a fluid and filter change you will get particle build-up inside the valve body. If you change the fluid and filter after this has gotten built up, the fresh additives in the new fluid will almost certainly clean that build up out and deposit it in areas you don't want it.[/QUOTE]


thats pretty much the mantra i use for them. i was only at 30K after the rebuild when i changed the fluid.

Good job Therm. I dont know crap about working on vehicle.

Latest update.

Progress had to slow down unfortunately this weekend as I had honey dos on Saturday and my asthma flared up yesterday. I did get to work on it for about 4 1/2 hours on Friday and was able to get the top half of the engine tore down. This engine is nowhere near as hard to work on as I thought it would be, or maybe the fact mine is on a stand makes a difference. The passenger side head gasket at the rear most coolant passage was just beginning to leak as I had the nice white chalk line on the back of the block below the gasket, and you can see the rust line in the pics on the gasket and the block. Also found that cylinder #2 was showing signs of washing down from fuel and the injector tip on that cylinder was pretty rough. 1 glow plug is burned out and 2 others look rough as well. I pulled the injectors apart and cleaned them with some spray cleaner to see what makes em tick inside, and they are actually pretty simple internally.

Here's the engine with the heads off.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0920.jpg

The heads on the bench with the injector cups out.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0918.jpg

right side gasket at the rear.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0919.jpg

And the block in that spot.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0923.jpg

This picture shows how #2 showed signs of a leaking injector as the bottom of the piston is very clean.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0921.jpg

This may explain part of GM's troubles. This is the turbo intake horn gasket, that big ole MOPAR box for that little gasket.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0917.jpg

And the innards of the infamous LB7 injectors.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/HPIM0924.jpg
You have the nozzle, a needle valve that rides inside of the nozzle, then the plunger that rides against the needle valve and the return spring and the spring seat that sits inside of the injector body. Inside of the injector body is a metal tab that protrudes through the spring and this is what pulls the plunger back to let the needle valve open and allow fuel through. And the 2 little pins are the locating pins that hold the nozzle in place to prevent it from turning. My camera couldn't focus on the insides or else I would have put up a pic of that as well. When I pulled it apart the needle valve was just about frozen into the injector nozzle body and required soaking to come apart. Once apart it cleans easily with spray cleaner and I re-assembled with marvel mystery oil. Debating on wether or not to replace them or have these tested and run them.

man diesel engines rock.