AW4- deep pan

[Tom Campbell]

Hi there everyone! This is my first time posting on naxja. Like the new setup as opposed to the old bullet style. Anyhow to my point.

For quite some time I have been looking for an added capacity transmission pan for the AW4. To much dissapointment, none could be found. Recently I got in touch with a company called PLM inc. I talked with one engineer named Joe about the possibility of getting a pan produced. He said that they had been kind of burned on the 4.2l valve cover that they produce (which sounded very nice BTW). Anyhow, he said they would need to hear from around 50 people to get this onto the front burner. I think the deep pan could do well and open the door for other AW4 products.

For those of you who don't know what a deep pan will do for you, here is just a brief description. The added fluid capacity makes things run cooler as does the added surface area of the pan. Plus there is less chance of fluid starvation (Crawling up any steep grade) and burnt fluid. The added fluid also takes longer to get as dirty. All this helps out whether you tow, race, offroad, or just drive around in the hot weather. In conjunction with an oil cooler, you can really get temps down low(carefull not too low!). Or a deep pan would allow a smaller cooler and thus not block up valueble, and much needed radiator area.

The link to the companys site and their current pans is http://yourcovers.com/newindex2.htm

So please if you would like to see this go into production, please email [email protected] or give them a call.
Thanks!

 

[KarmirXJ]

that would be neat.
but seriously do be all honest with you a deep pan for the cherokee would be a waist of $ and also the AW-4 has a good oil holding capacity as it is. the added capacity would be no more than 1 inch lower (if more than that, there would be a chance it would come in contact with crossemember) the pan measurement of the top of my head I think would be around 12"x8"x2" so making it a 3" deep pan would only get you about a quart.

a good quality tranny cooler w/ hardware would be around the same price as the deep pan, and that would be much more effective than a deep pan. (and maybe even ad a small filter on by the tranny cooler too if your worried about 'stuff' getting in your tranny, larger pan wouldnt help)

2nd a deeper pan would not help the tranny from starving. heres why. when you have the fluid level at stock position. at level ground adding a deeper pan would not neccesseraly raise the level from the top but would just give you more fluid down ballow. now when your at uneven surface, (rock crawling) the level of the fluid would still stay about the same, all you would be changing is the the depth of the fluid.


Im not trying to rain on your parade, but im just giving you honest advise.

 

[Tom Campbell]

hmmm well you make good points. Let me try to counter a little bit.
Deeper pan, I dont know how much deeper they could make it. I beleive crossmemebr clearance could be handled in two ways, one just notch the seem of the crossmember back a bit. Or they could design the pan to notch in at that point. There are some pretty crazy castings that they have. If you think a 12x8x3 would add a quart what about a 12x8x4? 2 quarts? Thats pretty good. Or maybe a little less if that last inch was notched in for the crossmember. Also yes the capacity is pretty good but are you saying 2 more quarts would hurt and not help the trannsmission?

Now about the fluid starvation, you may be right but only if the stock pickup was used. I dunno if the company i'm trying to get and make one would do this but I have seen where the pickup and filter was spaced down the appropriate amount of the pan. That would help starvation because you'd have just that much more fluid on top.

Now I agree that a trans cooler is a smart investment but some of them can be pretty big. I'm just saying that a deeper pan would allow a smaller easier to mount cooler which wouldnt block and warm the prime radiatior realestate.

And yes a deeper pan means it could get smacked easier. but i have seen some skid plates that look like they have enough clearance for another inch or two. There is always a price and this would be the only one I can think of, but i believe alot of skids would clear.

 

[KarmirXJ]

its all good my friend whatever floats your boat.

 

[Tom Campbell]

Exactly! I'm just tryign to get some stuff made that could benefit all XJers and maybe open the door to some AW4 performance parts!
Its a great tranny and therefore I think it deserves some great parts. After all, in my book, if you own an XJ, you gotta know this is a good thing we got going on! :wave1: lets make it better!