acarapella

Great advice about taking a day to progressively torque bolts. NASCAR engineers and technicians put RTV on everything. Food for though. I agree that or hoghtac is a good idea. The Instructions on RTV say exactly the same great advice: lightly tighten, then when the RTV has set, torque to spec. My 1957 Chevy axel/third member in my 50 Chevy doesn’t have a gasket at all. It’s just gear oil rated RTV, done as outlined above and doesn’t leak

As for the tranny fluid, I did several drain and fill on a 2006 5 speed auto (solara v6) with maxlife from 90k to 176k and didn’t see any miracle. At 176 it was a major flair between 2nd and 3rd that encouraged me (along with struts,complete exhaust) that made me sell it. I wish I didn’t. I’m a good
mechanic/fabricator and could have done the work. Point is, T IV is specially designed for these transmissions by I believe mobile and may be best to stick with. What clunk? And do you mean the 4spd or 5spd or both


That said I think our 2009 Odyssey may get 5 drain/fill of maxlife. That’s because it’s acting strange and I’ll try $100 I’m fluid before I put an $900 used transmission in the thing in my driveway

gabzor

Congrats OP! these cars are great, its just too bad for the weak transmissions, and heated seats not being a standard anymore :/
Sorry to steal the thread a bit, but if sludge revision was done by a dealer already (have records) does that mean they changed the valve cover to an newer ES one? my 2001 coach has a metal pcv