ok, hi everyone i'm a new guy on here and looking for some advice. i bought a truck with a smoked tranny on purpose since i knew it was something that needed upgraded anyway. i do tow, just not on a regular basis, however when i tow i do it loaded heavy. also, i don't plan much beyond the mods below as i mainly plan to run for fuel economy with the occasional "turn it up and lets see whose faster" runs at the track or down the road. i just don't know what is too much and what is not enough since billet parts don't seem to come cheap. also i'm going to have the tranny build as opposed to buying a built one, so if there is a rebuild kit that seems to fit what i need, that would work too.


This is probably something i should search the forum for since i'm sure it's been asked, but what tuner seems to give you guys the best mileage and performance tunes all in one? shift on the fly preferably. the cortex tuner just doesn't seem to do it for me.

thanks for any and all help

brent

 

My advise is build your tranny to the hilt, if you spend any amount of money on it you will wish you would have spent more...

If you want the best, adjustable on the fly programmer for your truck, most people on here are going to tell you Smarty PoD...

 

Is there no upgrades that i can do to the stock tranny to help with keeping it alive without have to buy a new tranny?

 

Notice that I said build your tranny.

There are plenty of upgrades you can do to your tranny...There are many threads on here about them recently...

If you are like me, one upgrade leads to another, and doing stuff once and doing it right saves you money in the long run.

So, IMO, save your money if you want to upgrade your truck...

 

You can do a torque converter and valve body to help alot if it has low miles on it and is in good shape. If it has any amount of miles i would suggest just having it rebuilt with all the upgrades you want to not have to worry about it.

As for the OP I would say get a built to the hilt tranny as well. Full rebuild with TC and VB, double deep pan and billet flexplate and input shaft at the very least. Intermediate and output in billet as well if you want to be sure you can really flog it without worries.

 

Geez, maybe this tranny build is going to cost me more than just a couple grand...

 

I did what bighornram described except for the intermediate and output shafts. Works great so far with countless launches and lots of hard driving on it so far. I ended up spending around 6500 in the end with labor.

 

I flush the tranny every 30000 km and am not that hard on it. It only has 162000 km on the tranny and shifts good, seems to be ok.
I read that you said build your tranny, I was just wondering what upgrades i could do now before the stock tranny went south to help with the longivity of it. I am happy with the 85 hp extra chip i got it pulls my trailer great just want the tranny to last, not race it

 

Yes there are basic things to help the stock trans and some relatively inexpensive upgrades that will hold until you start getting over 600 hp. You do NOT need to drop $6k on a transmission to have a solid unit, address the low pressure problem, the leak prone areas first, and the weak links first. Then a TC and billet input will hold fine unless you are racing/pulling or just thrashing it to the max.

 

ok, so i've been doing a lot of reasearch on trannys the past few days and it seems i need to go all out to be happy. well i have a hometown local guy that's been the best in our area for building auto trannys for some 30+ years and he even has a 98 cummins dually that he pulls heavy with to boot. question is, where do guys like goerend or DTT get there parts for rebuild? where should i look for parts at. i think i can help my situation if i buy the rebuild kit for my guy to put together. any input would be great.

any luck with the kit on this site, looks pretty bad *** to me. let me know any input about this kit or anyone that has used it let me know what you think.
KIT #K48RZ2 level 4 ramzilla
http://www.transmissioncenter.net/dodge.htm


brent


EDIT: REPOSTED, STARTED NEW THREAD

 

Most of your bigger companys use thier own parts. Suncoast, Goerend and I think DTT all make thier own converters for example. Even more build thier own valve bodies. May be more expensive but might be worth buying an already built one and having your guy install it maybe. Then just turn your core back in to the builder.

 

suncoast makes great parts if you want to piece somethin together. i ahve heard good of the TransGo shift kit, Suncoast Converter, Suncoast Valve body, Suncoast deep pan, Suncoast flex plate.