545RFE trans questions

[Wahrsuul]

Ok, I did a service on my trans over the weekend - pan drop and new filters, put in around 6 quarts of Valvoline ATF+4. Trans seems to be shifting fine, but the manual says to check the trans hot - what temp is that? Seems mine gets to about 12-125 on the way to work, is that hot enough? Want to make sure I have enough fluid, but not too much.

When we dropped the pan, the fluid was a bit dark and according to my brother, "starting to smell". Not sure it it's ever been done before, but according to the manual 120k is the first service?

Anyway, I'm thinking I'd rather do this a bit more often, so is there a way to put in a drain plug to make this less messy? I've read of a few guys changing fluid every 15k, and filters every 30k. Excessive?

 

[Hemi395]

My dipstick says to check in neutral at 180*. My trans has never been that hot and usually only gets to about 130* and sits there unless I'm towing. When I filled mine up I left it on the lower side of the "Hot" marks because my trans runs so cool. That way if it does get close to 180* at some point maybe while towing or something, there's room for fluid expansion.

You can get drain plug kits, B&M makes one but when I tried that on my 65RFE pan and it kept leaking. I tried the Dorman pan that has a built in drain plug and that wasn't formed right around the return filter. I got pissed and ended up getting a MagHytec trans pan.