I am looking for help here. '93 D250 with stock transmission (46RH). Having some problems with slipping and heat especially while carrying camper. Because of this I just had it rebuilt by a performance shop with a very good reputation. They did a rebuild with a shift kit, HD torque converter and HD clutch packs.

It is much quieter and shifts smoother but it seems to run hot around town and when coming up my steep hill from a stop sign it lacks power. My wife drove it and said she slowed to a walk before getting up the hill. I notice 200-205 degrees with a temp gauge mounted in the line coming out of the transmission, after driving around town.
I did this rebuild to stop this heat nonsense. Any insight before I go back and discuss this with them?

Problem 2: I hooked up a 6800 lb trailer (total combined towing wt is 13500lbs). Pulling out onto the hiway took 1/4 mile+ to reach 50 mph on a flat. Cruised to the beach with OD off. Summit of the Coast Range was 800 feet and the grade was about 6%. Max attainable speed was 45mph. Pyro at 1200degrees, tranny at 215-220, weather was about 80 degrees.

I plan on some performance upgrades on the IP and such but not before straightening out this transmission issue.

 

HD converter by who?

 

Sounds like they put a crappy converter in it that is slipping and causing lack of power and heating up the fluid.

 

Would another trans cooler help any or fluid level down?

 

A trans cooler may help a little but I don't think it will fix your trouble. Putting less fluid would make the problem worse because the fluid halps get rid of some of the heat. Sounds to me like it is a slipping converter. When you said it would not go over 45 did you mean because the engine didn't have the power or was the engine racing and just not getting the power to the ground?

 

I must have worded it wrong, I meant to check your level to make sure you had enough in it, and the level wasnt down.

 

215-220 is not that hot for the sensor being in the hot line. We are still talking about a non-lock up trans and pulling 13,500 pounds. At that weight i would keep it out of OD. Also i would be looking in to opening up the exhaust and intake to help lower egts and coolant temps.

 

Sorry gitrdone I misunderstood what you were saying. Archer you have a good point also that is the temp coming out of the converter so I will be hot being a non lu.

 

Bill,
When I said max speed, I meant pedal to the floor and just moving along. No engine racing or anything. Just felt like there was nothing left to give.

Rocky

 

TLRMAN,
Don't know which converter. When we spoke initially they said I didn't have a lot of choice as the non lockups were pretty standard. Now I'm ticked that I didn't push the issue. After I get some info here I will go back and talk to them about this, but thought I should be as informed as possible. Everyone I talked to raved about these guys.

 

2 things come to mind....

An extra cooler won't tell you how cool its getting the oil as is because you are plumbed into the HOT OUT line. Coolers may be fine, which leads me to point 2...

HD converter might be heavy duty on a gasser but not a diesel. I see this all the time. It lists "HD Converter: GAS 46RH, Inquire for diesel". To me, it says that they just lower the stall a bit for a diesel...

 

There are plenty of good converter companies out there. You have many options to choose from. The shop you went to probably only deals with one vendor that only sells one brand. I have a goerend converter in my truck and it made a huge power difference. The good converters are spendy but well worth the money. I am going to guess they charged you between 200 and 300 for the one you have now. Those are built to stock specs and are very inefficent. My goerend cost about 600 but it is a much better part. It is tighter and stall is much lower. When my truck was stock I could only go 75 towing a 4000 pound trailer. That was mostly because the stock engine will only turn around 2200 rpm. The stock converter that was in my truck was stalling to 2500 or so. So I was running out of rpm before the converter got to fully engage. After the 3200 spring went in it was a totally different truck to drive. I had no more issues with stall speed because the engine could turn enough rpm now to engage the converter. Then once I put the goerend in the truck it was only stalling at 1500. Now I am getting more power to the groung and I have more usable rpm. Try backing the high idle screw out some. Count the turns and if it dosent make a difference then just put it back. What do you have to lose. If this dosent clear anything up for you send me a pm and I will give you my number and i can maybe explain it better over the phone. Oh and if you google 518 diesel converter you will find a few other options goerend is not the only one out there making a converter.

 

thanks you guys, looks like I have some checking to do here. I have a wheel bearing to repack and then I will get back to to the trans shop with some questions. If they put a crappy TC in, I will be ticked if they want me to pay labor to replace it. After that I will look into some mods for a little extra power.

Rocky

 

Be careful the power mods can be addictive. That's what most of us said when we started.

 

So it does not sound like the RPMs are higher than they should be? It just seems like with the pedal to the floor there should be more power?