Recommend deep pan for A4LD?

[davidk]

I'm trying to everything I can to increase the longevity of my A4LD. Has anyone put in an aluminum deep pan?

Thanks!

David

 

[410Fortune]

Yes I had a large aluminum pan on my A4LD It worked just fine, except when climbing very very steep inclines in Moab I had to overfill the trans by 2.5 quarts!
The deep pan does not have much of a Sump for the pickup tube
So unless you plan to climb some super steep hills I would say the deep pan will be a good upgrade for keeping temps down and holding more fluid

 

[davidk]

Yes I had a large aluminum pan on my A4LD It worked just fine, except when climbing very very steep inclines in Moab I had to overfill the trans by 2.5 quarts!
The deep pan does not have much of a Sump for the pickup tube
So unless you plan to climb some super steep hills I would say the deep pan will be a good upgrade for keeping temps down and holding more fluid

That's a good point about the sump. I do drive on rocky/dirt mountain roads say max of 45 degrees (but infrequently). Is that what you mean by super steep?

 

[massacre]

Could a sump be welded in though? Or at least baffles?

 

[swshawaii]

Is the "slosh" referring to the PML pan? If so, glad I clicked this thread, was ready to pull the trigger on one. Subscribed.

pml a4ld - Google Search

 

[410Fortune]

How steep is the "launching pad" in Moab? Its pretty dang steep, like stuff on your dash ends up on your back window kind of steep
We have to back down it about 4-5 times to add more ATF before my a4ld with the deep pan would finally supply enough fluid to the pump to climb over the crest!

No way to add sump to aluminum pan that I could see, unless you can weld aluminum, the pan already had some internal baffles

If I remember correctly you have to trim the 4x4 style filter to fit the pan, so I used some clay to see how much i needed to trim on the new filter and made it a tad longer.
I did not have trouble anywhere else only moab in 2-3 spots, sucked to have to reverse several times!!
I also did not have that pan long before I went V8
Ill dig up some old pics

 

[410Fortune]

OLD PICS!!

Now on this pic see the two little black dots? I had to trim that baffle to clear my filter intake
I used a pneumatic grinder with tiny wheel to cut two slots and then cut the whole piece off

No sump of any kind is the issue for the 4x4 application
It did help keep my A4LD cool...and I was able to make the climb when we WAY overfilled the pan.......

Installed:

 

[davidk]

How steep is the "launching pad" in Moab? Its pretty dang steep, like stuff on your dash ends up on your back window kind of steep
We have to back down it about 4-5 times to add more ATF before my a4ld with the deep pan would finally supply enough fluid to the pump to climb over the crest...

I think my Explorer would look at the "launching pad" and just refuse to go up it (like my dog would refuse to go outside if it was raining).

It sounds like for my on/off-road adventures the PML deep pan would do just fine. Thanks a lot for your input!

David

 

[davidk]

Could a sump be welded in though? Or at least baffles?

The PML pan does have baffles to limit sloshing.

 

[massacre]

No way to add sump to aluminum pan that I could see, unless you can weld aluminum, the pan already had some internal baffles

I weld aluminum frequently

 

[Albino 94LTD]

The launch pad isnt that bad. If you want more fluid add another cooler.

I have 2 and the second has a fan. I didnt have any issues with fluid starvation, not even when flopped on Hells Gate <<

 

[Mbrooks420]

I’d much rather add capacity with additional coolers like suggested above, and by adding a bypass filter setup.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Could a sump be welded in though? Or at least baffles?

The 4 X 4 filter has an extension tube which is a sump that the regular filter doesn't have. A magnetic drain plug is also recommended.

 

[410Fortune]

FYI my Transwerx built A4LD never saw over 180 degrees I had stock 4.0L two core radiator with trans cooler and large B&M trans cooler along with aluminum pan and pan temp never went over 180
Bypass filtration would be awesome for A4LD longevity and the additional capacity would help keep it cool!