Opinions on tranny mods?

[FordNut]

I believe we've covered torque converter and chip upgrades to the tranny but little has been discussed about shift kits from trans-go and B&M. Another item I saw on the Diablo website is an accu mulator valve which supposedly increases pressure for more sure shifts. Anybody have experience with these mods to the 4R70W?

[RCSignals]

Can't pretty much most mods be done with the chip?

[SergntMac]

Originally posted by FordNut
I believe we've covered torque converter and chip upgrades to the tranny but little has been discussed about shift kits from trans-go and B&M. Another item I saw on the Diablo website is an accu mulator valve which supposedly increases pressure for more sure shifts. Anybody have experience with these mods to the 4R70W?

Ummm...Yes, and no. Yes, I've had some experience with the B&M stuff, but not with the 4R70W tranny. Your suggestion causes me to think in fast-forward again, about the pros and cons of a particular "upgrade," and the potential benefit to a Marauder.

Aftermarket products mean to improve performance, and that would be the "stock" performance of an OEM part. The manfacturer designs and provides an enhancement to a stock item, and usually "boasts" about a performance gain from adding his product to a "stock" car. Most of the time, the test bed is truly stock, and their testing measures the before and after of their product. What I'm getting at, is that not all mods benefit all cars.

Let's keep the example simple. Lets say you have a small block Chevy, with a two barrel carb, and you're shopping for an upgrade. Edelbrock, Holley and others, could promise you 30-40 HP from an upgrade with one of their products, and they would be able to deliver that performance. That alone, would have us salvating at the parts counter, however, what if your small block Chevy was a 302 from a late '60s Z28? Should you expect to see such a large gain in power? I wouldn't. Would their promise of gain still hold water? No, in fact, you may set yourself back a few notches and suffer a loss of performance to a "stock 302."

My point is, is that the MM is not a "stock" automobile, in the typical use of the word. Out of the box, she delivers unreal power and performance, and a lot of possibilities for improvements too. I think it unlikely that many aftermarket products presently available, will actually show any gains on this car at all, and the products we are getting, are mods specifically designed to fine tune the MM's "stock" form. Moreover, those of us who are performance minded, have probably already modified other systems, some of which affect the tranny directly.

I think adding a "physical" shift kit to the 4R70W would be a redundant mod, considering that the tranny is electronic, already controlled by the ECM and most likely, an add-on performance chip. Overlay that performance with another physical mod, such as a B&M shift kit, and I would not expect to see any improvement at all. In fact, I would expect to suffer a loss of power, and quite possibly, damage to the tranny.

Second case in point, my Stallion torque converter is a custom build for the MM. The designers built it to work it's best with MerkonV tranny fliud, the "cheap" stuff FMC sells off the shelf for thousands of trannies, available anywhere in America. If I were to change out to some "hi-performance" fluid that may work wonders on many other trannies, the Stallion TC would not only suffer a loss of power, it may cease functioning altogether.

It's nice to test old theories against new technology, but look at the affects of a particular mod on the whole car, not just the 1-2 shift. If you're still hungry for mods, do yourself a long term favor. Get a tranny temp gauge, and the A pillar mount from Auto Meter. Watching your temp, would be your best bet...IMHO

[greyghost]

I believe we've covered torque converter and chip upgrades to the tranny but little has been discussed about shift kits from trans-go and B&M. Another item I saw on the Diablo website is an accu mulator valve which supposedly increases pressure for more sure shifts. Anybody have experience with these mods to the 4R70W?

Brian, I am having Level II with Hi Stall, cooler, pan, and gauge done by DR next week. I will have it at next Atlanta Breakfast get together. I checked around and DR has the best deal going, I mean I checked a bunch of places and tranny sites for info before I made my decision.

Level II can be had in kit form or take it to DR to perform. I decided on the Level II because of my long range plans for my MM and didn't want to have to go back into it later.

Check out the following web sites

http://www.baumannengineering.com/e4odcat.htm

http://www.tccoa.com/articles/tranny/transmission/index.shtml

http://www.converter.com/

http://www.performanceautomatic.com/marauder_page.htm