So my DTT tranny is finally on order! Terry, from Moonlight Diesel, is going to do the install, so he ordered up my parts from DTT about a week ago. Yesterday, I received this e-mail from the shop...

----------original message----------

Jared a note from DTT, Let me know if you still want the shaft so I can
plan accordingly.

Terry

----------

Terry we are no longer handle intermediate shafts on purpose anymore.
We did initially and did not like the number of breakage vs factory
ones.

What we noticed was that the breakage rate was more on the
aftermarket than on the factory ones. It did not seem to matter who's
we tried.

We will not install them on our units, it is up to each dealer to
decide what they want to do. We do not. All you can do is advise the
customer of our findings, he can put one in if he wants but all we can tell
him is that we see less issues with the factory ones.

Should you decide to put one in, just let us know for the file.

DTT

----------original message----------

What is the consensus on this topic? Here are my plans for the truck:

Smarty stacked with Quad Race v2 (I have both, but not stacked yet)
MPI towing twins (soon)
Intake / Exhaust (done)
GDP Fuel Pump (done)

I don't ever plan on sledpulling with this truck and it is not going to be an all out dragstrip truck, although I will make my way out to Rocky Mountain Raceway a couple of times once the tranny is done to see what I run. I'm sure I'll end up doing boosted launches but I do have some restraint and I won't be doing them on a daily basis.

I'm looking forward to hearing the responses on this subject!

Jared

 

Jared, I can't answer your question. I am curious to the answer too.


Besides having a son named Jared........and having an almost identical truck to yours.....right down to fuel system, black PC wheels, truck color and configuration, many similar mods...............we also have similar future mods planned.

I will probably be going with a DTT build too in the near future. I too, was wondering about the intermediate. My builder says the same thing. Stocker generally holds up as well as a billet intermediate and that DTT doesn't offer it anymore.

Thanks for asking the question!

 

The things I noticed when I was getting ready to buy a new transmission for my truck were that A) the people who know these transmissions inside and out that DON'T sell aftermarket products seem to give more credit to the stock parts then the aftermarket guys do-which would make sense if they are not making a living selling parts. B) no matter how tough a transmission is built, you still see them fail on these forums on a regular basis when they are in a race or pulling truck and you still see stock trannies going strong after lots of abuse. This is why I opted not to go with the all the extra shafts, ect... I don't race or sled pull either.

Personally, I would listen to DTT because if they are telling you this when they don't have to should say something. They could make more money off of you but instead seem to be saving you some with their honesty. I give them props.

 

This is what I've said a few times, but I don't think people believed me. I think more billet intermediates have broken than stockers. You just don't hear about it when the billet ones go because people want to get it fixed and bad-mouthing their tranny builders won't help much.

Go with the stocker and you'll be fine...and save about $700-800 bucks!

 

From what I have heard and read the intermediate shaft is usually the last to go but when it goes...it goes BIG. Unless you see 700-800rwhp in your future soon I don't think you need it. If you are really worried about it then keep the output shaft stock and that will break llooonnnnnggg before the intermediate.

 

That's true and all, but what DTT is saying above is that it doesn't matter how much power you have. They feel the stock intermediate shafts are actually stronger than the billet ones.

 

Hmmmm....interesting......

 

+1, i just bought a tranny from hts, billet input stock intermediate and billet output. Dusty reccomended it that way

 

why not go with a billet shaft? If your stocker breaks, then out comes the tranny, which is going to cost you a lot of $$

 

Because like the post earlier said, the billet intermediates are not necessarily as strong as the stock shafts.

 

I broke a stock input
I broke a stock intermediate
I tore apart the stock flexplate
I use a ATS billet flexplate.
I still have the same stock output after 330kkm of towing heavvvvyyyy and drag racing with up to 90psi of boost.

The keys are a having a good flexible yet strong flexplate and an intermediate shaft that is made of a material suitable for an intermediate shaft...
Talk to Opie at Intelligent Engineering....I think he is still standing behind his intermediate shafts with a proper flex plate and proper modding tolerances

You will see more broken billet intermediates because these are being used by people with more hp and torque. Hard to say if a stock intermediate would have been any better in the situations where the AM one broke....I believe not.

I wish I had gone with a billet intermediate the first time....If it broke ... at least I would have known that I had done my best to insure it wouldn't instead of just being cheap. Kerry

 

That theory really doesn't fly though. Since the intermediate is by-design the strongest shaft of the 3, those same people would theoretically break their billet input/ouputs before their billet intermediates.

It's not about being cheap. It's more about not spending an extra $700-800 for a weaker shaft!

I know Opie's billet shafts are supposed to be stronger than the other suppliers. If they haven't already, DTT should hook-up with Opie so they can start selling full billet trannys again.

 

There were several batches of billet intermediates out there that were "brittle"...based on their post machining treatment...

The truth to this whole story is far more complex than mentioned above.

The base material used for the shafts is WAY stronger with most aftermarket billet than OEM...

A treatment process used for a while made them brittle...so they did not twist or give much...just break.

Anyways...just use the right shaft...that is what it comes down too. Do your homework. Above 500-600 hp...don't use OEM if it is going to get abused/used.

 

Does it not come down to the tensil strengh of the materal like cquestad said? billet while stronger does not give or flex and if the treatment to the metal was off in a batch this would cause the metal to become brittle yes? while to stock will flex more then a billet is that not a good thing?
seems like something i should ask my buddies dad who works with exotic metals at lorance livermore lab.

 

They used too...but they had some trouble between them, and parted ways.

I run Opie Shafts, and a DTT tranny, and at the advising of my builder, I opted to not do the billet intermediate...with the plan I had for the truck, and the fact that he'd only seen one stocker fail, he said I shouldn't need it.

I'm hoping to make it to the first tranny refresh...hopefully 2 years...and then I might put it in

Chris