Finesse: Mag-Hytec Diff and Trans Pan Installation

Ain't she sweet?  And practical.  There's an extra 2.2+ quarts of capacity and lots of useful features.  Arrow 1 indicates the position of the diff temp sensor bung. Arrow 2 indicates the fill hole and dipstick. Arrow 3 shows the drain plug.

The rear axle of a truck that tows can get mighty hot.  When towing at its capacity at freeway speeds, it's not unusual to see 250 degree temperatures.  Add in a long grade, and 300+ degrees is possible.  A gear oil at that temperature has lost a lot of its viscosity and may not be doing a great job of protecting your axle's internal parts.  Oxidation (oil breakdown) is also occurring at a rapid rate and the additives are fading fast.  The same goes when it comes to the transmission.

Anything you can do to keep these items cool both protects them and, at least in the case of the rear axle, may allow you to run a lighter grade of gear oil more safely for better fuel economy.  Keeping the lubricant cool also extends its life.

The trans pan for the Ford 4R70W and 4R75E comes in two guises, the "D" holds and extra 1.5 quarts and is more compact. The "DD" holds an extra four quarts (shown here). The arrow indicates the bung for a temp sender and the drain plug is readily visible.

Enter Mag-Hytec.  They have been making finned aluminum diff and trans covers for a long while.  We've been using one on the Sterling 10.25 full float axle of our old F-250 for several years now, and it has proved able to knock a minimum of 15 degrees of diff oil temps.

It does it via a combination of a finned design that radiates heat and an increased capacity of about 2.2 quarts that allows more dwell time for the oil to radiate heat.

When we installed a Mag-Hytec cover on our F-150HD, which also has the Visteon 10.25 axle (a semi-float version), we installed a temporary gauge and got similar results, about 15 degrees. 

Because our truck has low miles, some break-in wear metals are still being created.  How do we know that?  The Mag-Hytec has a magnetic dipstick that attracts the metallic particles.  We have been periodically pulling the dipstick to remove the collected metal f

The Mag-Hytec DD and factory one.

uzz.  Over the past 5000 miles, the amount has gradually diminished.

We also had the pleasure of being able to install the Mag-Hytec trans cover on the 4R75E automatic in the F-150.  Like the diff cover, it's a high quality finned aluminum cover that increases oil capacity by four quarts.

Our Edge Evolution has the built-in ability to read trans temps (in the pan) and while we didin't see any change in day-to-day running temps (about 165 degrees), we had a chance to do a before and after, towing a loaded grain trailer; the Mag-Hytec pan brought us back an honest 10 degress from 190 to 180 degrees in separate runs to the elevator.

Drop the original cover, scrape away any old gasket/RTV material from the gasket surface, oil the new diff cover o-ring.  Install and torque the bolts to spec.  Fill with oil to the mark on the dipstick.

The truck already has a big cooler, which was doing a bunch of the work.  We have never been able to get this transmission very hot, no matter what we do (we're still trying!) but knocking an extra 10 degrees off in this situation is significant.  We know the pan will do m ore for us when we finally are able to challenge the transmission significantly.  The added capacity also extends the life of the oil.

The Mag-Hytec covers come with built-in drains for easy maintenance, and are drilled and tapped for temperature sensors.

No more gaskets or RTV to buy either.  The gasket face comes with an o-ring.  On top of all that, they are extremely cool looking and adds to the gnarliness factor of any truck.

A forever upgrade that makes service a breeze.

Bottom line...a Mag-Hytec pan or cover is a must have for any truck used for towing.