2011 E350 RB w/top - WE HAVE A RIG!

[shenrie]

^^^ some manfs use drain plugs on their tranny pans, some dont. hell, some say that you dont ever need to service trannys now...which i could just never abide by. maybe you had a pan with no drain plug and they did a drain plug kit so you didnt need to remove pan and have to replace a gasket each time you did a fluid change. ive done that with a few setups.

awesome transmission info everybody. appreciate the feedback...but sorry i cluttered your thread up dia

regarding intakes. its been my experience that k&n intakes and elements work great in most applications, along with most of the other brands as long as they have a good quality filter (in most cases, tubes are tubes). however, i wont use an oilbath filter setup on a vehicle that uses a maf sensor. just seen too many people have to replace the maf sensors due to over oiling their filters...another reason i love manfs that use map sensors instead.

its been a while since i did any intake research, but afe used to offer kits that had performance filters that didnt use oil to be effective. if i end doing a custom intake, thats the filter i had planned on using.

dia, i did the same thing with the original add pix from our van too. had to hav'em

[Dia]

Feel free to geek right out, folks. It's good learning for me, which is doubly good because the hubs is a programmer, not a car guy (he can wire up the solar though). Me, my best claim to "car gal" fame is that my old Cavalier kept overheating on the way into a remote campsite. I took out the thermostat, boiled it in a pan of water over the fire to see if it would open, then changed it out with a new one someone brought in for me.

Of course, I managed to lock my keys in my trunk in the process. Fortunately, they were on the lip along the side, and I was able to fish them out with two sticks.

Anyhow, the more I learn, the better off I'll be.

In other news, my Prius rolled 100k earlier this week. It made the new rig cost more, but I'm really glad we didn't trade it. It's been dead reliable for 10 years, and proper maintenance should give me another 100k out of it. It'll make a good teenager car in about 2 years. Inexpensive to insure and operate, plus we know he won't be drag-racing it.

[Viva]

Originally Posted by Dia

Feel free to geek right out, folks.

Glad you don't mind the side-track. And I meant to say Congrats on your new van!

I got the deeper transmission pan as part of an overall beef-up of the transmission. I think it was probably the least necessary/beneficial part, but it doesn't hurt anything either, and I like having a drain plug.

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by Dia

It'll make a good teenager car in about 2 years. Inexpensive to insure and operate, plus we know he won't be drag-racing it.

He'll be drag racing it alright.......it'll just be a very slow drag race.......

[Dia]

Originally Posted by boywonder

He'll be drag racing it alright.......it'll just be a very slow drag race.......

And that's fine by me.

[Dia]

I've made my first purchases for the van: two cigarette lighter USB chargers and a Garmin GPS. Probably the cheapest modifications I'll ever make, too, since the GPS is a warehouse deal off of Amazon and the charger doodads were $10 a pop.

I'm trying to figure out where to put a running thread for us and our van. The top is legit SMB, but the official SMB section doesn't feel quite right. We're going to be building out very slowly, and sticking to a minimalist / flexible / transformer plan until we have a good idea of how we use the van and what we really need.

Frankly, a platform bed and we're probably good. So - homebrew section?

[boywonder]

Mine's in the homebrew section.......bought it as 4WD, chopped the roof off and bolted on a PH, now building out the interior, so somewhat similar.