1998 LSC with 63k miles with Lucas Trans Additive??

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MN12hybrid

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Hello all,

I bought a beautiful 98 LSC about a week ago... drove her back home no issues. She is on original air suspension, with upper front ball joints needing to be changed. I am buying the parts to rebuild the entire front end, and possibly even the extra braces they sell from supercoupeperformance

I went through the papers in the glove box - the owners were elderly and 90 years old, and sold or likely gave it to a young kid who had it for 8 weeks before I bought it. There is an invoice that states the old change with motorcraft oil and air filter, chevron fuel system cleaner, and the part that bothers me, Lucas trans conditioner. This bothers me.. why did they add this to the car so few miles? There are no leaks, at all on the car, and the bottom of the trans and engine is ridiculously clean. It goes right into gear, no slip and its not shuddering. It seems to hunt for the right gear more than my 94 Mark did, from what I have noticed.

I am concerned that maybe the elderly owners took the car to jiffy lube and they used one of those stupid fluid exchange machines on the Mark in the past, without the owners knowing any better.

I am checking the fluid again in the next 10 mins to see if anything has changed. But I am thinking of taking the Mark to a trans shop to drop the pan, change the fluid completely, and J-mod it..

Does anyone ever use this Lucas trans additive on a transmission that is not on its way out?
 
This is what has me alarmed when I saw the receipt from about a month ago I found in the glovebox

mark viii receipt.jpg
 
I just drove it tonight.. I think I can see why they used the additive.

Car would shift into O/D as it should but sometimes hesitate and the shift roughly into O/D. I just got back home with the car moments ago, and this time it was not shifting into O/D when it should, and when it did it kind of thumped into place. The O/D light was off, so I toggled O/D on and off to see if it made any difference.

I guess I am going to have to get under the hood.. this is frustrating thinking of the possibility they may have been trying to hide a trans issue. I was going to get the fluid changed anyway, and maybe even j-modding it as soon as I can find a good shop in Los Angeles that will do this. I will check it for codes tomorrow.

Is there anything else recommended? Should I try going all out and using the Royal Purple fluid?
 
I always use mercon V
And have a becontrols valve body recalibration kit
Its just a little more than a j mod
In the past with a car that has shudder I've used Dr. Tranny
 
I am thinking its the O/D servo in my Mark.. hoping its just a broken snap ring. These transmissions are usually pretty stout, and given the owners were elderly I dont think the car was pushed very much over the years. It doesnt make sense that the bands would be worn out - the car just hit 64k miles. 3rd gear is sometimes a little lazy, but O/D is where most of the weird stuff happens. I love the car and its beautiful, and I have been driving it regularly and other than the blend door, and the CD changer in the trunk not working, its been awesome! I am going to put the stereo I used to have in my 92 Thunderbird in the Mark in the coming months, and ill be doing it in steps.. ordering some dynamat or fatmat soon, and doing the install right from the beginning!

I am going to run straight mercon V in it after the fluid is drained and the issue with the shifting is fixed.

Is there anyone or anywhere you can recommend I can buy a complete valve body from that is already j-modded with the upgraded springs, and accumulators? Also, what would the cost be for this? I would love to buy one thats ready to rock, and Ill get a new O/D servo for it if needed so it can be put in at the same time fresh mercon V is put in..

How much did you spend on your becontrols valve body kit?
 
Hello, I've been thinking about doing the J-mod kit on my 97 Mark VIII. Then I saw your reference to the Baumans Electronics kit that you referenced. Is it a better kit than the J-mod, if so, why?
Thanks!
Gato69
 
Read through there page
It does everything the j mod does and some up grades for improving torque correction with valve body springs washers and a new valve
 
If I pick up the one you mentioned for 114.95, is including parts to modify the existing valve body, or is this something that swaps out completely?? With a jmod, the updated springs and accumulator are usually installed, and is this update included in the kit? It would be awesome to get a valve body kit and swap the whole damn thing out with the proper mods with the better springs and accumulators... do the shift servos come with this, or do they need to be re-used from the existing valve body? I am a little confused.. would anything else need to be done other than installing this valve body for the jmod to be done right AND also for the lazy shifts to 3rd and 4th gear? I figured I would get this installed to jmod, fix the shift issues likely due to the snap rings broken, and I also plan to install a suitable trans cooler (like I did with my 5.0 MN12 Tbird) and bypass the cooler built into the radiator, because I would like to install a beefier torque converter and 3.73 gears in the near future, and a tune to go with it if its possible here in Los Angeles.. In my Lexus, I found out that the car stores the old program in memory along with the new program and if I remove the tune before smogging the car, the smog gestapo will see that I had a tune on it recently enough and still fail me even if Im back running the legal stock tune.

If I buy that for 114.95, its basically something that will work as a jmod but even goes a step further? Under the product you mentioned on that page, it shows these little controller boxes.. are those involved with this upgrade?

If this is installed I see the settings are modified during the installation.. are they changeable as time progresses?

Thank you!
 
So I did some checking online a little further into this...

When yours was installed, did you have the issue with the snap rings that shattered and caused the O/D servo (or any others) to just drop out when the valve body was pulled? I am going to call the company this week for more details.. The price of 114.95 was actually a LOT better than I was anticipating, and of course I still need to get it installed, get the servo situation straightened out, and have them fish out out the bits of the broken snap rings if what I think happened is correct. With only 64k miles now, I find it hard to believe there is internal trans damage with the bands - the fluid looks pretty decent when I checked it last. Ive been driving the car lately, and other than the fact that it feels the IMRC's are gunked up (separate issue) the transmission seems to do this intermittently and sometimes shifts fine into 3rd and 4th.. if I floor it while on the freeway, and it shifts to O/D while at WOT, it will shift but it really lurches when it does that. Between the IMRC's and this trans behaviour, ill be the car will feel normal again and it will regain its lost cojones I feel its missing! lol

While at the trans shop, Ill make sure they use quality mercon V fluid, and also have them drain the torque converter.. There are people swearing by the royal purple fluid.. should I bother with that considering the very low miles on the car? Other than the little oddities I have to work through along with the upper front ball joints, this car drives damn perfect and feels great on the road. The suspension tightens up when taking curves, but also swallows the big dips in the road, and also can go up driveways comfortably without jarring the occupants in the interior!

I took the car last night to christmas dinner 50 miles away, and was stuck in traffic the whole way and the car was at normal temp in the middle. I pulled over for gas, and I opened the hood to check fluids, and it was perfect - I was able to rest my hand on top of the engine easily, and then even reached behind the shroud and rested my hand on the radiator easily without burning myself.. it felt luke warm which is impressive for an engine that usually tends to run on the hotter side!
 
I did mine 14 years ago but had no snap ring problems.
Kit back then came with new accumulater spring proper drill bits some little springs and washers and a great install manual
I also made sure the 1-2 piston was the updated one.
You sould not let a 4r70w shift into od at full throttle I also turn off the od before I floor it
Royal purple is good i just don't know if it's worth the money
 
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