2019 Tahoe transmission service at 28k miles

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tom3

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I've been seeing all the problems with the 6l80 transmissions lately, son's GMC took a dump at 100k miles, scared me some. Decided to do a mid cycle service on our Tahoe to see what it looks like. Pretty surprised (nice) to see the inside of the pan. Also changed the thermo valve while I was under there. Had a hard time getting the fluid out enough to pull the pan without taking a bath in ATF. Bought a drill transfer pump, worthless. Finally dug out my brake bleeding concoction, vacuum pump and homemade jar, pulled out a bit over a gallon, sure made a neater removal, probably another quart of loss overall. Couple pictures for anyone interested:
tahoe transmission service 1.jpgtahoe transmission service 2.jpgtahoe transmission service 3.jpg
 

15burban

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I've had good luck so far with this extracting fluid through the dipstick. I can get 4 quarts out of our 6l80. Can't tell ya if that's enough to avoid the bath dropping the pan. I'm sure it would be though. I was in the process of getting ready to drop the pan and change the filter but like clockwork suddenly the wife had to go somewhere right now. So had to abort mission and just add 4 new quarts.
 

Doubeleive

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I've had good luck so far with this extracting fluid through the dipstick. I can get 4 quarts out of our 6l80. Can't tell ya if that's enough to avoid the bath dropping the pan. I'm sure it would be though. I was in the process of getting ready to drop the pan and change the filter but like clockwork suddenly the wife had to go somewhere right now. So had to abort mission and just add 4 new quarts.
if you want it to last I would bypass the thermostat completely
get the Holly B&M deep pan
then add a trucool 40k

doing that will drop the temps a lot, doesn't matter if you tow with it or not heat kills
 

15burban

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I deleted the thermostat the first week we got ours. It's the wife's so it will never see a trailer and she says I've already spent enough money on it lol. Don't know why she complains the money isn't coming from her bank account.
 

Jeff_

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How difficult was it getting the entire pan off?
I normally always just take all the bolts out and tilt it down and use paper towels to get the rest of everything in the pan and take the magnet out and clean it etc
 
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tom3

tom3

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I dropped the exhaust pipes so I could bring the pan straight down. I'm pretty good at tilting those pans and pouring oil all over me even with the pan mostly drained. And I wanted to remove those nuts on the exhaust manifolds anyway and Never Sieze them real good. Those six nuts were really, really!, tight too.
 

Rygrego

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I dropped the exhaust pipes so I could bring the pan straight down. I'm pretty good at tilting those pans and pouring oil all over me even with the pan mostly drained. And I wanted to remove those nuts on the exhaust manifolds anyway and Never Sieze them real good. Those six nuts were really, really!, tight too.
My first service I had a modified factory pan installed with a welded in bung and a drain bolt. A great deal for $100 and future DIY trans service. No fuss, no mess.
 
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tom3

tom3

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Went for a drive up to the big city today, first road trip after doing the service. In town with traffic, stop and go, 90 degree day the trans. temp got up to 170 degrees max. all day. Before the thermo valve swap I'd see near 190 as typical. Does make a difference seems like.

Only problem I've had is getting a good read on the fluid level. When the trans is hot that fluid is really thin and clear, and it's running down that 6' long stick, makes it near impossible to see the actual line front or back of the stick.
 

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