MrM4

I bought a 05 3/4 ton with an Auto Tranny 118K on it that is all stock. This is my Daily Driver and I have a list of mods that I am sorting threw to decide what to do 1st.

My concern is that when I add the Smarty JR and start playing with the truck that a higher mile Auto transmission may not hold up. I relize support mods are required to gain power and I am wondering if this truck is better left as is in stock form?

I have the option to sell a couple of Gas trucks and buy a 2nd cummins that would have a manual tranny, I am wondering if this would be a better option for a truck that I would like to end up with 400-450hp. This is me trying to decide if the Auto is poor canidate. Like I said I could dump 2 other trucks and buy a 2nd CTD. Or I could take the cash and poor it into a beefy Tranny Upgrade once this one gives up the go.

My fear is that I will end up tearing up my daily driver. What do you guys think about trucks with Manual vs Auto trannys for "power mods"? Am I crazy for thinking about adding some juice to a truck with a Auto tranny?

Sur5er

Go tranny, go tranny, go tranny, go!. Get the upgraded flex plate too.

MrM4

Yeah as long as a person has it open that seems like a good idea, for what looks to be $300-$400 bucks in parts I supposes its a good idea.

rockcrawler304

Put a fully built trany in and let the bombing begin!!

dubyar

I have had the exact same question for some time now, all input is welcome!

Raspy

The stock 48RE tranny is not designed to handle any more power than stock. The first problem will be the torque converter lockup clutch. It will slip under added power. The trans is a strong design, but has cheap parts that are just enough to handle stock power. Staring with the 3rd gens, the coolers were finally adequate and heat is not that much of a problem. The 1st gens could burn up their trannies with stock power.

If you are not going wild on power and not racing or something, you can put in a triple disk converter, a modified valve body to give quicker and firmer shifts and a heavy duty Chrysler intermediate band. This setup will handle a lot more power for towing and general use and is relatively easy to install once the tranny is out.

If you plan to go farther with power and thrashing the truck you'll have to get a billet input shaft and flex plate, or just get a Georand tranny.

Your mileage is not that high, so you can do a few mods and run it for another 100,000 miles or so. Mine has 223,000 on it now and I have been running programmers for over 200,000 miles.