That sucks. I wonder if someone else has it in stock to get you moving faster.

Ain't dat da troof! Mine took an entire case (that I bought) to fill after installation. Then another (that drivetrain.com bought) when they had to replace it after getting my filter connected backwards.

 

apparently, everyone is out of the pan.. Derale is back-ordered... Even though I'm tweaked about the last two place being out of stock, I'm really happy that they called me and gave me a heads up about it.. it's unfortunate, but folks actually providing some customer support like those two have is uncommon anymore..

 

Once again: Ain't dat da troof!

Guess we're stuck waiting on those photos, huh?

 

unless you wanna seem me swimmin' naked with the gals who just moved in across the street... that's my alternate plans until I get the parts in..

 

Nah -- stay behind the camera!

 

Agreed, we have some diesels at work with the fuel filters mounted upside down and to me it makes more since to mount them right side up. My thinking is any debris would be more apt to sink rather than float.

I just installed a Derale pan about a month ago. I'm not sure what trans you have in the 02 but I noticed you ordered the filter extension. The bolts that come with the extension that Derale sells for the 46re are not long enough. I had to make them out of threaded rod as I needed nearly 4" and the bolts that came with the extension were roughly 3". When I called Derale, they said the extension is universal.

Also, I believe either Purp or Unreg recommended that I get the thick plastic Mopar pan gasket. It was a great tip and proved invaluable when trying to line up the pan with the tranny. It made it very easy to bolt up. The pan comes with a cork gasket, Napa's filter kit comes with a rubber one pictured below with the Mopar thick plastic gasket.

 

very good info- thanks man!!!

yeah, the upside down thing was a misdirected notion that passed through my noggin but was cut off at the pass by knowledgeable folks who have actually worked on these rigs like you and unreg- and yes that was a run on sentence.. I wish the engineers who designed half the crap in this world would seek council from folks like yall.. not to say i'm an engineer, but to say i could see how easy it would be to stuff something somewhere and in a position it really ought not be in.. go figure, right?

anyhow- dang good info on the extender rig.. yes, I have a 46RE as most 2ndGen guys do.. except for the skin and a few drivetrain alterations- we have the same truck..

I like the idea of a thicker gasket too- and i hate cork.. love that crap on my fishing poles, but hate it as a gasket material..


question for you about the pan: what was the actual increase in volume? was it actually the reported 5+ quarts?

 

To answer your question, definitely an increase in volume but it was not a 5+ quart increase.

The pan can be a bit deceiving to the eye, the outside looks massive. It is definitely a great upgrade for the added capacity, cooling tubes, drain plug and the sending unit port. I have no regrets at all but the tubes in the bottom of the pan take up some space for obvious reasons.

As careful as I was and believe me, I was careful. I drained roughly 5 quarts into a 5 quart pan, all over the cardboard under the pan and on myself. After letting it drip for 2 days I may have got another half a quart.
When I refilled it I added roughly 8.5 quarts.

A couple more things I did while I was in there were replace the governor pressure sensor and the solenoid. Also, somewhere in the FAQ's there are torque spec's for the valve body bolts, which I checked and all but one were torqued to spec. There are also torque spec's somewhere in there for the pan. I did the torquing in a cross pattern and no leaks. I tried finding them for you but the search isn't working right now.

Good luck and wear an old soon to be a rag t-shirt unless of course the ladies across the street love a man with that new transmission cologne.

 

I appreciate the advice!

Unfortunately, this isn't my first expedition into the tranny.. Not that I'm an expert on such AT ALL- but I know what it looks like naked from the bottom side..

I put new sensors and governor in about 25k ago, and had the tranny flushed about 20k ago.. (this is/was before I understood the damage that could be done by such)..

here is another question:

I've found a dude who sells complete valve bodies- with sensors and all.. He has installed a shift kit and tapped some port or another (I don't have the details on that yet, but he was real excited to tell me about it so I figure he's proud, which means it must be good?)- anyway... a complete valve body w/shift kit and new sensors for $250...

If I go this route, how hard is it to swap out complete valve bodies? I figure I can use the new valve body on the new tranny when it comes to that, and I can also enjoy having the new valve body AND sensors for the basic price of OE sensors.. How tough on an aging tranny will the new valve body be?

I appreciate y'alls help a whole dang bunch.. thanks..

 

If "tapped a port" means he drilled the valve body (between pressure and cooling circuits) to get fluid charge in Park, leave the thing on the shelf. That's a suboptimal way to go about it -- converter drainback is increased by it. A reworked manual valve is the hot ticket for that, is a stupid simple upgrade, and costs all of about $20.

You might want to get a deeper explanation before unloading your wallet.

Oops, forgot the other questions. Need less blood in my caffeine stream!

Nuthin' to it if you're careful. If memory serves there's a bit about it in the FSM to guide you.

If it's not too aggressive, it could increase the lifespan of the transmission by reducing clutch slippage during shifts and cleaning up any internal leakage your old valve body might be experiencing. OTOH, if it's too aggressive it will stress parts that are already worn, as well as beat up on u-joints and diff gears. The typical "street/strip" shift is way too aggressive for something as heavy as a full size pickup that sees street duty.