Hi all,

Well I just got my new Edge Evo and love it. However, I have just experienced a strange situation after some minor custom settings using Level 3: Performance.

I entered the settings listed below and took the truck out for a drive. Boy it really livened up that truck. I am very pleased with the results. I do have an issue that surfaced and I wanted to get your opinions on what you think it might be.

I have an '01 Lariat Off Road 4X4 with 84,000 miles. It's stock other than a Gibson exhaust and K&N filter (and of course the Evo). After doing some spirited driving consisting of a couple "stop and floor its" and some highway driving of up to 75mph with a several "floor its at 50mph and 60mphs", I noticed a smell of trans fluid. When I got home, I looked under the truck and noticed that there was a small amount of fluid that appeared to be leaking from the bottom of the bell housing, and/or a small metal tube which is to the right (passenger side) of the bell housing. I'm not sure, but think it's a vent or overflow tube for the tranny?? I did not crawl underneath to see exactly where it was coming from, but from what I could see that's where it was leaking. The burning smell seemed to be coming from the exhaust cross over pipe on where some of the fluid had dripped.

From the Custom Settings below, does anyone have any idea why/what this may be all about? I take good care of this truck, it's in excellent condition. At 50,000 miles I took the truck to Ford and had them do a complete trans flush etc. I know the fluid is good, clean, pink and unburned. It's never leaked before. It shifts good and firm, but not heading joltingly hard. I didn't think the Custom Settings I picked were terribly radical.

Here are the Settings:
Level 3: Performance
All 3 shift firmness levels are set to +5 over default
Fuel at WOT is +20 over the default setting
Timing is advanced +2
Fuel is 92 Octane

Again, I'm very pleased with the Evo, but am also very perplexed by this new trans leak. Could the firmness levels be causing this? It does not appear that the fluid is leaking under normal (i.e. non spirited) driving.

Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long winded story. Thanks again, Mark

 

Your settings look fine to me. Nothing particularly extreme there.

I'd have to guess, and it's just a guess, that the (unusual?) stress you put on things during the "floor it" part of your tests revealed some weak spots. Probably, there is a seal in your transmission that has deteriorated and should be replaced. I remember too, a long time ago, when I just crawled under my Mercury and tightened all the bolts in the bottom of the transmission to stop a small leak. Some of them didn't seem tight at all, and the "fix" worked.

- Jack

 

there should be a rubber plug on the bottom of your bell housing. pull that plug out and see if fluid comes out. sounds like the input seal or maybe the torque converter drain plug(not sure if your year has one or not). it could also be something very simple like the trans is overfilled and the higher RPMs are foaming the fluid and leaking from the vent.

 

Your timing is advanced too much, I would be afraid of running lean. Level 3 is set for 91 octane, so if you are running 92, then you should bump timing +.5

 

Thanks for the input,

JackandJanet, Yea, I didn't want to go too crazy, just get a little performance enhancement. I do need to crawl under there an take a closer look. I got home late last night and the last thing I wanted to do was crawl under a hot truck.

Paralyzer, I will check that plug tonight. You know, I was wondering about the fluid level. This morning, before starting the truck I checked the trans fluid level. To my horror, I found that the level was at the top end of the HOT zone. As you probably know, the COLD zone is the very bottom 1/4" or so of the dipstick. I don't know how accurate checking the trans level is when it's cold. I'm going to get it good and hot driving home after work and check it again. Like I said above, the last time fluid was added was when FORD did the tranny flush and re-fill. I wonder if you're right and I'm blowing out extra fluid. Now the question is, should I remove the excess? I thought that if the fluid foams, it could cause serious pump issues. I don't remember, but I don't believe there is a drain plug on the tranny pan. I guess I'll have to get a long hose and try to siphon it out throught the dipstick tube.

bluejay432000, I was wondering about the timing. I have an 88' supercharged 5.0 Mustang and before supercharging I played around a lot with timing. I know at some points I've advanced the timing as much as 8 degrees with good results and no issues. So when it came to the truck, I wasn't sure but thougth 2 would be safe. I did not notice any detonation, but as the weather gets hotter, I'm sure it could become a problem. I'll go ahead a drop back down to +.5.

I do have a functional question about the Evo too. When I do go in to change the timing (or anything else for that matter), can I just change it, or do I have to re-update all of the other changes? I believe that if I go in and "Load Previous Settings" first, I can then just go and change the single item by itself. Does this sound right to everyone?

Again, thanks for all of your input, it's so nice to have all of this experience and help at my fingertips.

 

That is correct, save the previous settings, then change only those you want changed. I'm sure that Edge plays it conservative with the canned tune on timing. I know that on the 04s, many came from the factory on the lean side and you may never hear the pinging. Your 03 probably does not have that problem, but if it were mine, I would not risk it. If you want mor "go", I would get a custom performance tune. All I change on mine is the tire setting whereas when I had the canned tune, I was changing everything except the normal shift points.

 

Actually I'm pretty happy with the increased performance. If I really want to get up and go, I drive the S/C Mustang. The leaking trans was the only "bummer" out of the whole deal. I'll have to take a look at that tonight. All in all I'm pretty happy with the Evo. I do think that the instruction manual could stand to be a bit more descriptive or in depth. Other than that, it does what it claims.

 

I agree with you that the manual could be better. By the time you read through it a few times though everything makes sense. I think the real problem though is that the Edge does so much, it's easy to get confused or to forget something.

I too, noticed that your timing seemed overadvanced, but couldn't see how it could cause a transmission fluid leak. So, I ignored it. And then again, different engines will react differently to advances in timing. Mine seemed to "lope' at idle when I tried advancing it just 0.5 (for our 2500 foot altitude here in Tucson), so I reset it to 0. Somebody else, with a seemingly identical truck, could get good results with the advance. Production tolerances on assembly lines don't produce identical products.

Hope you find that your leak is of no real consequence.

- Jack

 

Thanks JandJ. I'll definitely report back. I don't like posting a problem or question without also posting any solutions I find. Figure everyone's entitled to any helpful info available.