has anyone opted for one of these?

I was thinking of adding one, something I could change every spring.. much easier than draining and dropping the pan

No, but I always liked the idea. Great for maintenance as you say. Place it in front of the trans cooler / radiator, and if anything bad does happen, you don't have to flush that cooler, just the lines. Easier I would think.

Pre 1963 Chrysler used inline trans filters stock. There was no filter in the body of the trans. However, unless you are doing serious abusive driving, there really isn't a need for one. However, it's your van and your money, do whatever floats your boat.

inline filters are cheap enough, and the value of not having to drain and drop the pan, something that my exhaust complicates, makes it worth it

What he said. I've been wrenching a long time and have never come across one. Temperature is more of an issue than filtering. Get a deep pan with a drain plug and forget about it.

I installed Magnefine filters in my transmission cooler line as well as in my power steering pump suction line. I opted for these since they contain a donut magnet, to capture even the most minuscule of magnetic metal particles. When I read in several official tech bulletins that magnetic inline filters were required by the manufacturers as part of warranty transmission replacement at car dealerships, that tipped the balance sufficiently to get me to move on it.

The one manufacturer includes two different inline filters with the replacement transmission; they have you install the one filter, drive for a certain period, then replace it with the other filter, which remains in place from then on. This sounds like a perfectly reasonable strategy even on a non-failed system, as it would initially scavenge any microscopic metal and more substantial non-metallic debris particles out of the system, then a fresh, unclogged filter would take its place, to allow for maximum fluid flow for the long haul.

I've read of a few people randomly encountering weeping of transmission fluid from the threaded area on some Magnefine filters. Mine haven't done this, but as with anything manufactured, tolerance stacking certainly may occur. A potential ultimate solution to this possibility would be one of the billet Aluminum Magnefine filter assemblies which places like Summit Racing offer. The filter element is replaceable in these billet units. They look mighty sweet too!

did you remove your stock filter? or add this in addition to it?

The OEM type filter in the 727 transmission sump is still in place, if that's what you mean? I installed the Magnefine filter in one of the lines to the integral transmission oil cooler in the bottom of the radiator. It's been so long that I forget whether it was the return line or not, but I think it was. You typically wouldn't install filters on the pressure side of a system like this.

There is ordinarily no filter at all in the power steering system; that's one of my longevity mods.

Took a while, butI finally found one of my pictures of the filters installation:



Please note that I eventually ty-wrapped the filters and hoses in such a way as to reduce stresses due to acceleration from airflow and vibration, since the filters do have injection molded bodies with integral plastic nipples. Even though it's tough fiber-reinforced plastic, no way am I going to encourage a nipple to snap from flailing about unsupported! Strain relief is a good thing.

Hope that helps out!

Nice!

that's what I am looking to do.

someone on facebook said if I didn't remove the sump filter when doing this, it was like "only changing one sock"

I imagine he meant that you would benefit most from removing any debris already captured in the original filter by installing a new one. The size of the original filters factor in plenty of area to avoid flow restriction issues though. If it's been in for a long time it might be worthwhile to change it too; after all, your goal is as much filtering as possible.

The in the pan filters have been described as rock catchers. They do not really filter very small particle sizes very well, I imagine in the interests of little flow restriction.

My Magnefine filters weep fluid from the seams. i removed the one on my Power steering, and plan on replacing the one on my transmission lines with a remotely mounted filter.

I am just wondering about the fluid pressure. The system was designed for only one filter, how much drag would be caused by adding a second filter ? I often wondered why trans never had a spin on filter as part of the design.

My '05 E-350 has a factory external filter ( canister type ) I think they all should!

My '96 Saturn SL2 has one as well. Looks like an engine oil filter in shape and size.