Transmission Pan Cover, Filter and Gasket

I am pressing my luck blogging about my transmission pan gasket at this point, since this was round 2. For my first attempt, I tried to reuse the existing pan cover, buying a new filter, gasket kit. Pictured below is the original pan, and a picture of the failed attempt.

The gasket was the kind that is folded in a smaller box, presumably so the package takes up less room in the parts shop warehouse. It was a real bummer trying to get the gasket to flatten out so it could be installed; and after looking online, I found that petroleum jelly or oil-based grease could be used to stick the gasket to the pan while you were installing it. After one evening of sitting, the pan started leaking, as pictured below.

I truly believed the transmission pan to be hopelessly warped, even though I used a torque-wrench to tighten the bolts, first to 80 inch-lbs, and then finally to 120-inch lbs.

I ordered a B&M deep pan, which holds an extra 2-quarts of tranny fluid from amazon.com which had a good price on the pan. It comes with new bolts (longer because of the thicker cast aluminum), a filter extension (to lower the filter into the deeper pan well), and a magnetic drain plug which is nice because it collects metal, but makes draining fluid much cleaner.

The gasket came inside the pan, but was not folded. It was cork (the other was felt). In order to help the gasket hold the correct shape; I went ahead and put it under the transmission pan overnight so it would flatten out and stay without the need for petroleum jelly. This worked out pretty well; as the gasket did maintain a flat shape while I installed it. In the picture below, the filter is the thin, metal wavy part that is suspended by a single 1/2 bolt, and attached to the filter fluid spout.

I pulled the fluid spout from the transmission and applied the extender:

This was inserted then back into the transmission, and the filter replaced. In order to hang lower, the kit comes with a bolt/nut for which you manipulate the filter until its level. Once the filter is level, you synch the nut down onto the transmission and that tightens up the bolt/nut pair, holding the filter level.

Replacing the new pan, I had to add 7 quarts of tranny fluid to accomodate the deeper pan, but also the transmission lines and cooler pictured in my previous blog.