DieselBoy20

Just wondering what I can do to this tranny to make it last. I'm gonna add a H&S black max to it later along with deletes for fuel milege and run it on economy. I need this truck in the summer months to tow a 5er and horse trailer. My first auto. Will a simple valve body get me what I need?

RAMRODD

Transmission will be fine on itd own. If your doing deletes, Spend the money on a external wastgate. That is way more important then transmission mods.

DieselBoy20

External wastegate? Is that so I don't have any head gasket issues after the deletes?

RAMRODD

Yep should save the head gasket. I blew the head gasket on my 2010, I never heard anything about a external wastegate but from what I can tell it is a must

John_P

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DieselBoy:

No offense to DTR Member RAMRODD, but IMHO,...that 68RFE will not last very long with an "H&S Black Max" and you towing a 5er and horse trailer.
In stock condition, the Dodge transmissions can barely take slight increases in power without slipping or quickly going bad. Personally,...I wouldn't do it Sir without at least upgrading the TC and valve body.

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John_P

DieselBoy20

I have the 2012 with the upgraded torque converter but do you think it's still a weak point compared to the non HO version? I know they upgraded it to handle the extra torque but who knows right? A valve body was always a thought for this trans

John_P

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Yes Sir,..... I still think the torque converters on the new Dodge CTD CR 6.7Trucks are a weak point. I have already seen too many of them fail.

RCW

The 68RFE is anemic in stock condition, and limited to 500 horses with major upgrades currently available which include:

Friction and steel modifications to the 4C Clutch Pack, 2C Clutch Pack, OD Clutch Pack, UD Clutch Pack, Reverse Clutch Pack, and the Low/Rev Clutch Pack .

Addition of the 68 Accumulator Kit to soften the hydraulic hammer that rips these apart.

Replace the useless OEM converter with the Suncoast 68RFE-46-3D converter

For the average guy that is going to work his truck, I would immediately do the Accumulator kit and the Suncoast converter.

The wastegate conversion has nothing to do with the transmission, and everything to do with keeping the head on the block.

If you are powering up, I would simply forget it as the new transmission is a marketing clown's dream and an engineers nightmare! It simply cannot be made to live in the performance environment by design.

I also would not screw with the valve body, the problem is in the accumulator and easily solved with a kit to soften the hydraulic hammer of the OEM unit.

John_P

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RCW:

Good post Sir! Thanks for the back-up.

As I said in my above post, the 68RFE's are not much better than any of their predecessors. And as you said, anything above stock horespower and owners are going to have problems.

Thanks again!

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John_P

DieselBoy20

Haha I think I understood that an external wastegate isn't gonna help me transmission wise. I'm not looking for huge power but I want a reliable transmission that can handle an extra 60Hp unloaded and about 30Hp pulling a trailer for economy reasons. I want an h&s black maxx so I can adjust power levels on the fly and have the defueling features also. I won't be drag racing this truck ever, I paid way to much money to go out and bomb this one. My last truck in the signature I had a few problems with after trying to get too much out of it, if i would have left it alone I would have been much better off in the long run. I returned that truck back to stock when I traded it in and it was its old self again which almost makes me regret giving up my manual tranny for simplicity reasons. But don't get me wrong I love my new one. Everyone wants a little extra out of these trucks and all
I want is a reliable amount of horsepower and I'm new to automatics and I'm trying to gain as much knowledge as I can so I can do so

DieselBoy20

So what would you say if I was to do the accumulator kit first and leave the stock converter in place and see how far I get? Or can having a weak converter to begin with destroy other stuff after it fails. Like I said I'm nt asking for much extra and the stock converter might just handle what I expect

John_P

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DieselBoy:

In my opinion, the stock torque converters in these Dodge CTD CR Trucks ARE the problem whether it is a 68RFE or the earlier 48RE. The problem arises when the added power starts to get the internals of the TC hot, and the TC starts to slip. You may or may not feel it when it starts. As the TC wears, the disc inside begins to deteoriate and that "powder" goes through the rest of the transmission including your trans cooler! You can get by for awhile, but eventually it will take the transmission out. I have seen ALOT of stock units fail like this. I honestly don't think these Dodge CTD CR transmissions can take more than about 50+ H.P. over stock! On my 2006, I could slip my transmission at about the 40+ H.P. level with a TST PM 3.
FWIW,.....if you have to completely rebuild the stock 68RFE with upgraded parts you are looking at around $3,000.00-$4,000.00 minimum and IMO, it will likely be higher than that unless it is covered under warranty. But, right now, if Dodge KNOWS you have added a tuner to a new 2011-2012 you can kiss that warranty goodbye!

I'm not trying to scare you Sir, just to make you aware that if you add the "H&S Black Max" your tranny is going to feel it.

Good luck!

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John_P

Blake Clark

I ran my Smarty on SW5 on the 08 for ~ 40k miles. Wasnt none too easy on the tranny unless I was towing. Often then I dropped to SW3. It never gave me any issues.

I will agree with the others though. I may have been just lucky. Either way, be careful. Common sense and a moderate right foot will keep it alive longer. Bunch of people claim the H&S tranny tune helps alot.

I went with the G56 on the '11 for that reason, and the fact that I really miss rowing em myself.

Like John said though, your warranty is up for grabs with any mods, and more than likely gonna be non existent. Im about to declare war on my warranty, and like everyone who mods should, I am willing to pay for what I break.

jeff-kc9ftp

Actually, from most of the problems I've read about concerning the 68rfe, the overdrives seem to be the weakest link. Towing heavy in the hills running low rpm's in overdrive doesn't work out too well. Add in some extra power, the overdrives won't last long. While I'm sure an aftermarket converter would be a good improvement, I don't recall hearing about any converter or converter related failures. Doesn't mean they haven't happened, I just don't remember any.

I would (and plan to) just run the overdrive tuning from H&S. If I get crazy down the road, I might go for an upgraded converter, but that would be a ways off. I would probably do an external waste gate at that time, too. The tighter converter along with the added power has proven to be the head gasket breaking point on some trucks.

Depending on how heavy your 5th wheel, I would say adding the overdrive software and running at no more than the 60hp setting should be pretty good.

Jeff.

RAMRODD

Ya what do I know about heavy towing, I only tow 38 to 42K and have 5 gooseneck trailers. Oh and I have had 14 Horses in my trailer, Never pulled a 5er those Can't even imagine how hard one of those whould pull

Main problem I have with the 6 speed auto is first gear needs to be lower to get the load rolling with 3.73 gears in the rear.