I think it's 80/90w from the TC.

Transmission fluid would be red to redish colored. If your Transmission fluid is anything past tea colored that transmission is TOAST. You can really only fill up a TC so much. You fill it up until it runs out of the fill hole. However I have seen a few people over fill their TC's due to having the LR facing down in their rather steep driveways. Then once level and driven = it blew out the vent line while driving. People do the same thing with F/R diff's and honestly it'll blow out the excess fluid until it's back down to the normal level lol. It'll make a mess in the process and put stress on the axle seals, but it will blow out the vent line (reason they're vented in the first place).

If you are loosing that much oil you either have a massive leak from your valve cover gaskets, front timing cover, oil pan, or timing cover oil cooler lines/oil cooler plugs. I'd certainly be checking your OEM baffle in the valve cover to make sure it's not 100% blocked. That can cause crankcase pressure within the engine to be high and it'll go out the weakest link = seals/gaskets vs being vented back into the intake and burnt up in the combustion process.

 

Thank you Richard G. This honestly seems like the first step and easiest of tasks to identify the problem...Crossing fingers and will report back tomorrow, I just got off work.

 

To Dave03S- Dipstick issue and oil levels: I've had 20 year diesel mechanics baffled with this one. Its as if the dipstick leads to a dead zone every other insert. I've tried every which way with cold engine. Dip stick out, fill out and run back in. Dip stick pulled twice, no reading and back in...and oil - wait and pull after 3 minutes...DRY. Run it back in and it comes to the "add" line. Wipe clean, run it again and it comes out dry...I gave up on it. I've been meaning to drop the pan to see what's going on in there but with all the connections I have to pull to drop the pan and (KIDS)...I have not found time. Buying pan seal today and will commit to it.

To Best 4x4: "massive leak from your valve cover gaskets, front timing cover, oil pan, or timing cover oil cooler lines/oil cooler plugs. I'd certainly be checking your OEM baffle in the valve cover to make sure it's not 100% blocked." The valve cover, timing chain cover, oil pan, oil cooler lines/plugs....would all leak from these specific areas right? I can tell you it leaks from everywhere, but the tube oil leak is a specific issue.

The valve cover baffle ??/ You have me baffled. Mind my lack of knowledge, I had to search it and came up with the attached image (likely not a LR) Do I need to buy valve cover seals before I go taking these off? And what am I looking for once I pull them off?

 

OK - bell housing inspection plate removed - dry...thank goodness

I pulled the transmission fill plug and nasty, I mean nasty dark oil with that same fuel odor I mentioned on my original post... came out the fill plug. Bought new transmission filter and pan seal. dumped the old, in with the new. I turned the engine on, went down the gears and back to park, waiting ~20 seconds per gear. It took 1 gallon <-- is this that about right for a drain and fill? I did not do full flush. Maybe in a few weeks I will drain and fill again. At $22 bucks per gallon its not too bad. I've always heard you never want to completely flush your transmission oil??? On a 2000 LR Disc with 222,000 miles, what do you all think.
ran it for 20 minutes and no more oil spitting out the vent lines. I went searching to find out what the lines are suppose to look like. Thinking one of them might be disconnected somehow. I found the image below. They look exactly like what I am seeing under my vehicle. The j-hook on the right is in the engine compartment. If I follow the lines on the image, it appears the lower ferrell nut on the left is the one that loops back around and ends up open ended just over the top of the transmission oil pan. The top ferrell nut comes up to the j-hook and vents in the engine compartment. And now I found this. I feel like a new man, with a high mileage LR.



So no more leaks from the vent line YET. I wonder if the oil filter was so clogged that it would not pass the oil fast enough and cause the oil level to rise in the pan ??? we shall see if it happens again in the next week.

Now while under the vehicle, I notices I once again have a crankshaft (front) seal leak. I last fixed this at 100K miles. I guess an added 122K miles will bring back the demons.