2008 6R60 Transmission Fluid Capacity

[PotatoExplorer]

Hey guys. I've got a 2008 4.6L with the 6R60 transmission. About 50k miles ago I had a shop drop the pan and change the filter/fluid. 50k miles later, I'm now looking to only pump out whatever fluid I can get to from the dipstick hole located under the the vehicle and would like to refill. I figure I'd just do a pump out and refill every 50k and then drop the pan and do a filter/fluid change every 100k. Question is, does anyone know about how much fluid I'll be able to pump out from the dipstick hole? I tried looking it up but can't find a definitive answer. I'm guessing somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 quarts, but since I have to buy the fluid online, I rather not underguess and be stuck waiting for more to ship in. Thanks for any help on this!

 

[Bazz270]

7 quarts of mercon SP per single pan drop,guess the same qty per dipstick holepump off.fluid to be checked only on 85 Celcius degree,engine on

Minimum pan qty to turn the engine on is 3.5 quarts

Use welding gloves or similar cause of the extra hot cat converter located 5 inch to the dipstick hole

 

[94Eddie]

All 6R60/80 transmissions now are spec'ed to use Mercon LV.

 

[PotatoExplorer]

All 6R60/80 transmissions now are spec'ed to use Mercon LV.

Whoa, that just sent me down a rabbit hole. I had no idea they changed that specification for the transmission fluid. Do you know if it would be OK to mix SP and LV together? Especially if I'm only pumping out whatever is in the reservoir, there's still a bunch of fluid in the system.

 

[94Eddie]

Whoa, that just sent me down a rabbit hole. I had no idea they changed that specification for the transmission fluid. Do you know if it would be OK to mix SP and LV together? Especially if I'm only pumping out whatever is in the reservoir, there's still a bunch of fluid in the system.

I don't think it would be catastrophic to mix them. Maybe doing another pump and refill in about 5k miles wouldn't be a bad idea to get a majority of the fluid to be the LV type. I would recommend doing a proper fill level check because the LV has different properties regarding how much it swells between it cool and hot state. The only way to ensure the fluid level is correct is to check it when the transmission is up to operating temperature.

 

[Bazz270]

All 6R60/80 transmissions now are spec'ed to use Mercon LV.

Do you have any oem document about lv and sp compability?cause motorcraft site clearly states not to use mercon lv where mercon sp specified.
Plus part.ford.com clearly specify mercon SP for 6R60 2006-2008 Explorers

Anyways you dont need to worry about liquid compabilty since the SP is still produced and available for purchase

 

[94Eddie]

Do you have any oem document about lv and sp compability?cause motorcraft site clearly states not to use mercon lv where mercon sp specified.
Plus part.ford.com clearly specify mercon SP for 6R60 2006-2008 Explorers

Anyways you dont need to worry about liquid compabilty since the SP is still produced and available for purchase

I was told this by a person working in a ford dealership parts department when I asked for Mercon SP transmission fluid. He informed me that SP was replaced by LV for 6R60/80 transmission. I have also seen this confirmed by FordTechMakuloco and others. Below is a video where he says to use LV in 6R60/80 transmissions. I believe the switch to LV occurred sometime in 2014. I don't think the transmission fluid in my 2010 was ever changed before I bought it which means it likely had SP in it when I dropped the pan, changed the filter and refilled it with LV. I ran it for around 5k miles and then dropped the pan again, installed a drain plug and refilled it. I have since done one more drain and refill. I have never noticed any issues with mixing the two types of fluid. By now, I probably have 90% of the SP out of the transmission. Also, I would recommend using LV since it is Ford's latest formulation of fluid for the 6R60/80 transmissions.

 

[PotatoExplorer]

This is where it gets confusing. Here's a Motorcraft chart for Ford transmissions and type of fluid to use -
https://www.motorcraft.com/content/...tomatic transmission fluids chart_english.pdf

This PDF document says it was published in January of 2020 and shows that the 2008 6R60 should be used with Mercon SP transmission fluid.

 

[Bazz270]

No any idea about what people say


Official Ford parts site say only SP for 6r60

But
You are free to put whatever you want in your own car

 

[Bazz270]

Just to make it clear


2006 to 2008 4.6 3v Explorers / Mountaineers equipped with 6r60 gearbox.

All the 2008-2010 equipped with 6r80 ,they are never used mercon SP on 6r80 since it filled with LV from the factory.

Use only factory recommended fluids on your car

Good luck

 

[PotatoExplorer]

I think what I'm going to do is buy one of those 1 quart mixing cups and 6 quarts of Mercon SP. Then I'm going to attempt to pump out 6 quarts and then pump in 6 quarts of new Mercon SP. I'm figuring this will be sufficient until I get to my next 50k miles (100k since the last pan drop/filter replacement) where I'll just pay a shop to pan drop and replace the filter again.

 

[Bill MacLeod]

Check with Advanced Auto, they had it in stock a couple years ago. Maybe A/Z ?

I've used a mity vac to pull out the old fluid (very slow process) and pumped in back in with a garden type sprayer. Measure what you take out, pump the same quantity back in.