700R4 transmission vent smoke

[reckerd]

Hello, I have my 33 on a lift. I wanted to test the shifting of the trasmission linkage I just installed. So with the wheels off of the ground I shifted into the different gears. I noticed after about 2 minutes a lot of smoke comming from the vent tube on top of the housing. Have any of you experienced this and is it normal? With this being my first time to build a car I have no reference of normal/abnormal. The dipstick shows full but since I installed a Lokar dipstick it is possible I do not have it adjusted correctly and have the wrong amount of fluid in it?
113886

[JimLev]

You did check it with the engine hot, running, car level, and in park, right?
You shouldn't have smoke coming out of the vent.

[sethmark]

Are you sure it’s smoke? If it is.... that’s bad. Did you pre fill the torque converter?

[reckerd]

I did not prefill the torque converter. I was told I could fill 8 quarts, run the engine in park, and then fill an additional 2 quarts to get it right.
He said the torque converter would hold 4 of the quarts and the transmission would need 6.
After I let the transmission cool down I started it back up and checked it. The fluid did not show on the stick so I added 2 more quarts and now it barely reaches the add section of the stick.
Not sure where to go from here. I am questioning if the dipstick is too short or if there is something I am not accounting for and need to add more.

[JimLev]

Your can't really pre fill the converter with much fluid, it will run out when you slide it on the input shaft. My directions said to add 8 oz, I put in a qt.
So you now have 12 qts in it, right. I'd check to make sure you have the correct dipstick.
Have you run it again since you added the last 2 qts? Smoke?
2 min isn't long enough to heat up the fluid to get a correct level reading.
Not sure what your 700r4 holds, somebody should know. Do you have a shallow or deep pan on the tranny, that will also determine how much fluid you need.

[RBBJ 32 HOTROD]

700r4 holds 6 quarts.

[Just puttering]

If you have a trans cooler how much fluid will it hold

[reckerd]

I think this is where I may have mis-calculated the quantity needed. I added another 2 quarts making it a total of 12 quarts and now the level shows on the dipstick. I ran the previous steps of running the car on the lift and did not have any smoke come out of the vent hole. So either I have already burned the thing up or got the level where it wanted. I guess I will know for sure once I try to go cart it here soon.

[Bob Cowan]

Smoke? Or steam?

[NAZ]

From my experience, typically on the older transmissions the full mark is at the level of the pan flange. I believe the 700R4 with a standard pan holds 6 qts (stated above) and if it has a 12" converter that will hold another 4 qts. Also as stated above, the oil cooler and lines must be taken into account for the system capacity.

Oil will smoke when it gets hot -- hot enough to oxidize and ruin the oil. I've heated a lot of bearings in oil tanks and you can generate a bunch of smoke heating oil near it's boiling point. The torque converter generates the most heat in an auto trans and the looser the converter (higher stall speed) the more heat it will generate when under load. If you like to footbrake your car you should realize that the heat builds up very fast.

But smoking out the vent while running the car on a lift -- not likely. Oil mist or vapor escaping the vent might look like smoke. But if indeed the oil got hot enough to smoke that oil needs to be changed and the source of the extreme heat needs to be found and corrected.