Figured id make a little more detailed post and thread on the worked that happened on Friday.
Headed out to Mikes/Evans shop on Thursday night to install the Ratiotek valve body kit Mike and Steve came up with over the last few months. If this trans is going to have any chance at holding any kind of power over stock, its gunna take more than just a converter. Ive been seeing and hearing trucks with any kind of power over stock are not holding up once they get some miles on them. Mike nailed that one long ago on that E clutch.
Friday morning, Jon (@fastpunker) and i headed into the shop from the hotel and Mike introduced us to Evan and Dillon. Talked/BS'ed for a bit and then Jon and i went out to do some logging on the stock trans per what mike wanted to see for us to compare after. 20-30 min later, we pull in and throw her on the rack. Up she goes and Roger gets to work quickly pulling the pan off. There is no drain bolt on these pans, strictly just a fill level bolt you pull and let fluid drain out of till it stops to set the level. i think Roger forgot this and attempted to lean the pan forward to get oil to come out, Mike says "i wouldnt do that" and SPLASH, fluid come rushing out right at Mike. he may be an old cat but hes still got moves! he jumped back fast enough that not a drop of fluid touched him
. we get everything dropped out and Sal comes over to pull the valve body. After some instruction interpretation from Ratiotek and looking around, valve body drops out and its off to the bench.
From here, im just hanging back and peaking over the shoulders of the much more knowledgeable to see whats going on. Springs and drilling are on the menu for that valve body. All i will say is, the instructions should be thoroughly read for shops that do this. its easy to skip/miss where a "blue" spring goes
. They got the valve body sorted, made sure all the check balls were in the right spot and back together it went. if you look hard in the pic, you can see the secret holes...
now installing these valve body aint simple. its very easy to get bolts in the wrong spot you think fit correctly but dont. i can already see reg joe's trying to do this in their garage and spending hours trying to figure out how they got extra bolts that dont fit! we had our own fit figuring it out and 45 min later between Evan, Mike, Sal, Jon and i, we got the damn thing. As everything is getting snugged up, Jons wise ass asks me "So this bolt is a medium sized one..." and before he continues, i go "Where the f**k did you get that bolt?!? did you take it out of the damn valve body or is it another damn extra!" everyone stops and stares at him. he goes "no i pulled it out of here just to verify" as he points to the open hole in the valve body. i said "Damn it jon!! dont do that shit! we just spent forever figuring this crap out and you go scarring the hell out of me thinking we got an extra bolt!!". We all bust out laughing at my expense and Jon's genuine curiosity about the bolt size. As Evan said, "hey if we get down to just one extra bolt, she will run just fine. weight reduction"
Pan goes back on, top it off with fluid and Sal crosses his fingers we have no check engine light. Mike hops in and no lights!! did some preliminary testing on the lift to make sure we had gears and then it was off to the streets. It took maybe 4-5 runs through the gears and i swore it felt just like stock which was good! We drove around for a while and varied throttle positions without much to be noted. So we came back, BS'ed for a couple hours and Jon and i packed up to go deal with LA traffic back to phx.
Ill be seeing how it does this week if any "bad habits" are learned in the trans or if it stays shifting like stock. we might have felt 1 or two quarky shifts in LA traffic as we left but nothing worth noting. Thus far, it shifts like stock. By weeks end, ill be relaying info both via pressures and logged data back to the guys for comparison.
Mike will have to elaborate more on the details of the kit but we got progress! per facebook, i basically have a built trans at this point with a converter and VB kit
Headed out to Mikes/Evans shop on Thursday night to install the Ratiotek valve body kit Mike and Steve came up with over the last few months. If this trans is going to have any chance at holding any kind of power over stock, its gunna take more than just a converter. Ive been seeing and hearing trucks with any kind of power over stock are not holding up once they get some miles on them. Mike nailed that one long ago on that E clutch.
Friday morning, Jon (@fastpunker) and i headed into the shop from the hotel and Mike introduced us to Evan and Dillon. Talked/BS'ed for a bit and then Jon and i went out to do some logging on the stock trans per what mike wanted to see for us to compare after. 20-30 min later, we pull in and throw her on the rack. Up she goes and Roger gets to work quickly pulling the pan off. There is no drain bolt on these pans, strictly just a fill level bolt you pull and let fluid drain out of till it stops to set the level. i think Roger forgot this and attempted to lean the pan forward to get oil to come out, Mike says "i wouldnt do that" and SPLASH, fluid come rushing out right at Mike. he may be an old cat but hes still got moves! he jumped back fast enough that not a drop of fluid touched him
. we get everything dropped out and Sal comes over to pull the valve body. After some instruction interpretation from Ratiotek and looking around, valve body drops out and its off to the bench.
From here, im just hanging back and peaking over the shoulders of the much more knowledgeable to see whats going on. Springs and drilling are on the menu for that valve body. All i will say is, the instructions should be thoroughly read for shops that do this. its easy to skip/miss where a "blue" spring goes
. They got the valve body sorted, made sure all the check balls were in the right spot and back together it went. if you look hard in the pic, you can see the secret holes...
now installing these valve body aint simple. its very easy to get bolts in the wrong spot you think fit correctly but dont. i can already see reg joe's trying to do this in their garage and spending hours trying to figure out how they got extra bolts that dont fit! we had our own fit figuring it out and 45 min later between Evan, Mike, Sal, Jon and i, we got the damn thing. As everything is getting snugged up, Jons wise ass asks me "So this bolt is a medium sized one..." and before he continues, i go "Where the f**k did you get that bolt?!? did you take it out of the damn valve body or is it another damn extra!" everyone stops and stares at him. he goes "no i pulled it out of here just to verify" as he points to the open hole in the valve body. i said "Damn it jon!! dont do that shit! we just spent forever figuring this crap out and you go scarring the hell out of me thinking we got an extra bolt!!". We all bust out laughing at my expense and Jon's genuine curiosity about the bolt size. As Evan said, "hey if we get down to just one extra bolt, she will run just fine. weight reduction"
Pan goes back on, top it off with fluid and Sal crosses his fingers we have no check engine light. Mike hops in and no lights!! did some preliminary testing on the lift to make sure we had gears and then it was off to the streets. It took maybe 4-5 runs through the gears and i swore it felt just like stock which was good! We drove around for a while and varied throttle positions without much to be noted. So we came back, BS'ed for a couple hours and Jon and i packed up to go deal with LA traffic back to phx.
Ill be seeing how it does this week if any "bad habits" are learned in the trans or if it stays shifting like stock. we might have felt 1 or two quarky shifts in LA traffic as we left but nothing worth noting. Thus far, it shifts like stock. By weeks end, ill be relaying info both via pressures and logged data back to the guys for comparison.
Mike will have to elaborate more on the details of the kit but we got progress! per facebook, i basically have a built trans at this point with a converter and VB kit
