Best recommended tranny tuner

[huro0302]

Hello,

Have a truck(02 CCSB) almost together with a somewhat larger set of twins (HTT366 and GT4788) and curious as to who you guys think the best tuner would be to keep my trans. alive. This will be one of the weaker points on the truck as I am also running a fabtech 6" lift with 35" tires. I currently have an ATS five star torque converter (mild stall ~1500RPM I think) in the truck as well and looking for opinions on whether it would be a good choice to stick with that or go to another converter and or stall speed. Truck will be mostly street driven. Possibly some pulling, dyno and drag racing as well. Trying to build an all around truck that can do everything well but doesn't have to be the best at anything. Big HP is high on the list but will be sacrificed at the point it starts to become unstreetable and untowable. Always open to other suggestions on the truck as well. Thanks for your time and input!

 

[TeaBagger2006]

So is the trans built? Or you just threw a converter in there? If it's not built you're just going to waste money on it trying to get it tuned! A good running tune should make the trans shift right and behave normal in general without having to tune the trans

 

[Hot COCOAL]

I have a re-calibrated tcm from
Ahem...
duramaxtuner and it helps, also anytime you change the turbo the tcm should be calibrate for the new turbo as well as the ecm. You will benefit from doing both fer sure, i have much less hesitation between shifts and the truck doesn't seem to fall under boost as much, ie it doesn't fall on its face anymore on downshifts or getting into the throttle.

JMHO

Edit- add

The alli is never going to be a fast shifting transmission, it is meant to be HD, once it shifts tho, its on like donkey kong, if its built properly

 

[huro0302]

Sorry, should have mentioned the trans has a suncoast kit with all the plates. I think it's level 4. The DIY full build. Had a buddy that runs a diesel shop put it together. He has done many allisons. It also has the stiffer spring in it with 1 or 2 shims(can't remember exactly). No billet parts though. I have heard the reason the allisons are living at the higher power levels now is because of good ECM tuning as well as a good TCM tune. I was hoping to find a good tuner who understands tuning the ECM and TCM on a twinned truck well. That is until I get better versed in fine tuning the truck myself. I already have EFI V2 with a dsp5 just has not been loaded onto the truck yet.

 

[juddski88]

where are ya from?

 

[huro0302]

Truck is located near Saint Cloud, Minnesota. LB7 with 100 over exergy injectors(enlarged motorsport tips not enlarged stock tips). Tuning the motorsport tips will be different than tuning oem tips of the same size as the tip is totally different. Thanks

 

[Mike L.]

I think TCM tuning in most cases is hype.

 

[christopherglenn]

I tuned my ecm and tcm, the only reason my stock tranny is still alive is I moved the WOT shift point up, and defueled the ecm tune to 10% over stock right before the wot 4/5 shift. Part throttle is limited to ~10% over stock, to protect 5th & 6th. Punch it and it hauls - till 75-87 when it defuels, feels like I hit a wall, but the allison is intact.

 

[Chevy1925]

Im running a built trans from mike and run stock trans tuning on the big tune. thats wtih s475 over stock charger, 45% over sticks, dual fuelers, and built motor all on 37s. the only thing id look at is shift points if you want it to shift higher in the RPM. otherwise, there really isnt much else you need to change.

 

[bluessmax]

I think TCM tuning in most cases is hype.

X2... Very little changes to be made in trans tuning without risking other issues.

 

[SSchmi5519]

X2... Very little changes to be made in trans tuning without risking other issues.

But those little changes can make a big difference in ET. "risking other issues" as you put it(if you mean what I think you do) is also good for a little more ET reduction, but only when trans longevity is a non issue and fastest ET is the goal. Get outcher pocket book though..you'll need it soon.


Sent from my iPhone.

 

[SSchmi5519]

Just like the engine, the trans can be detuned for greater reliability than stock.


Sent from my iPhone.

 

[bluessmax]

The torque table in the TCM needs to be left stock, I have seen it pull fuel on a few trucks, if so copy and past down that column. WOT rpm needs to be adjusted for that trucks peak HP rpm, and if someone has a big charger setup then make the TCM downshift with less throttle and bump part throttle shifts to stay on top of the charger in normal driving. Other than that... Not worth it and the Allison will learn its way out, hopefully without a tie-up.

 

[paint94979]

The torque table in the TCM needs to be left stock, I have seen it pull fuel on a few trucks, if so copy and past down that column. WOT rpm needs to be adjusted for that trucks peak HP rpm, and if someone has a big charger setup then make the TCM downshift with less throttle and bump part throttle shifts to stay on top of the charger in normal driving. Other than that... Not worth it and the Allison will learn its way out, hopefully without a tie-up.

My TCM torque table is maxed out and has been for 4 years or so I'm not making 1000hp though

 

[bluessmax]

Some are fine, some freak out. We tested it here at Calvin's and it is hit and miss. What happens is the TCM looks for a "pre defined" torque calculation, off the top of my head it will only reference 776 if im not mistaken. Sometimes if it sees out of range values, or values that catch the TCM off guard it will cause a "defuel/flared" shift. We have even seen them come in doing weird stuff like hanging shifts and downshifting under very light load. The majority of this is ECM tuning via torque tables... Here is my theory. If it does not "defuel" the ecm then why mess with it? A stock dmax off the lot generally shifts like a dream, so given that if they shift like junk with a tune, the tune most of the time is what caused it to defuel shifts in the first place. IMO, instead of trying to "fix" the problem area, just dont mess with it and it wont shift funky in the first place. If there is a table that defuels the ecm, then do whats necessary by verifying the changes you make in tuning are truly taking affect via datalogging. To make changes in areas that do not directly affect the truck sometimes can cause weird unpredictable things to happen- This can likely be associated with other tables we cant see linking to them. So for my .02 of what its worth, i like to use the "KISS" method (keep it simple stupid). I remind myself this every day!

 

[SSchmi5519]

If it shifts like junk with a trans tune then its a bad trans tune. Not a result of tuning the trans in itself.

 

[huro0302]

Wow, a lot of interesting points brought up i never even thought of. I think I agree with the majority of points made. I guess what I have taken away at this point from all the insight would be that TCM tuning is gonna get more beneficial as the valley(hi-press.) charger gets larger and has trouble staying lit thus, raising shift points to stay on top of the charger as well as part throttle down shifts, etc. Running with this theory since i have a 366 in the valley and it spools close to stock, TCM tuning probably isn't gonna have a huge effect on my truck. I guess that leads me to my next question, since this twin kit has a decent size charger on top would it be beneficial to raise shift points somewhat to light the larger charger sooner through the gears or are the shift points already high enough at the factory setting to do this? Partially thinking this might help the truck with rpm drops between shifts since it is running 35's with 3.73 gearing. I know a few guys around the area running 475/stocker kits and one of them just bought ECM and separate TCM tuning from a big name tuner. If this makes a noticeable difference in his truck this should be somewhat more substantial in mine. Or am I way off base? Opinions on the converter good/bad/ugly? Suggestions? Thanks

 

[huro0302]

Mike,

Do you think TCM tuning in this case would be a waste of my time? Thanks for the input everyone, I appreciate it!

 

[Chevy1925]

It cant hurt to try it. Personally, i like the way mine shifts. I can be hauling my 12k trailer at 60mph at 1500rpm, roll into the throttle some and instantly start building boost and building speed. Im a nut for trying to get the best fuel mileage i can thougb when i tow so im always tryin to use tthe low end grunt and keep it in 5th

 

[huro0302]

Chevy,

How big is the tune that you tow on? I would assume it is a somewhat milder one as from all the research I have been doing has told me to avoid shifting at low rpm where the major torque curve is, thus the TCM tuning?! My theory is this may even help the built motors last longer, at least the ones breaking the cranks and suffering from crank walk, main movement, etc. I plan to turn the truck down as much as possible the majority of the time when not competing, or racing buddies, etc. I am thinking with the setup all the way turned down it will probably be around ~600-700 rwhp hopefully which will be perfectly ideal for the street anyways and should outrun 99% of the trucks in my area at that level anyway.