It was not quite black, but it was getting there. I was fortunate to have bought this truck from someone who seems to have taken good care of it mechanically - and to have almost never driven it (bonus). So it may have been flushed in its life, but probably not in the last decade. The 8.1 has the tall fill tube, makes it a little hard to see when to add fluid when flushing, but it is actually a little extra capacity one can use when flushing it out also, kinda nice
