It's like anything else I guess. You ask 5 people - you get 5 different answers.
I have spent a couple hours searching through threads about torque converters, valve bodies, and such. Now I have called DTT and BD. I still have no idea what I should do with my truck!

As my sig shows, I currently only have an edge jwa for performance parts. It will slip the tranny. I described what was happening to DTT and he agreed it might be the tranny slipping. He wants to sell me an actuator for $275 that should help some of the internal leakage. However, if you look at the information of their web site there are apparently a lot of places the trannies could be leaking internally, and they are not all the same. So how do I know if this will create enough extra pressure to save the clutches. I will be adding exhaust and maybe a water/meth injection. I pull a 10,000lb load on camping weekends with about another 2,000 in the truck. The set up he suggested is a single disc converter, leave the stock flexplate, a valve body, and the actuater.

BD doesn't think my tranny or the torque converter is slipping. At highway speed on levels 3 and up if I give it moderate pressure on the accelerator, the RPMs jump 300-400 and it feels like it is slipping. The monitor also shows slippage up to 13% at the worst. BD thinks its just my torque converter unlocking. The thing is, it didn't do this when I first put the edge box on. It was only after a few months and a little abuse. BD suggests a single disc converter, the stock flexplate, and a valve body. He said the 48re is a good tranny and that the weak link is the converter. He mentioned nothing about internal leakage. The valve body increases line pressure, but according to DTT that doesn't necessarily increase case pressure. After I mentioned that someone else was talking about the pressure, he said he had a pressure lock I could add. This is completely different than the DTT, however, and just keeps the pressure up when the converter is locked - if I understood correctly.

If I can buy an $925 converter (or $850 from Dunrite for that matter), a $400 valve body and be done, I certainly don't want to spend twice that for no reason.

PLEASE HELP! I am planning a vacation and will be towing over the rocky and san juan mountains and want to get this taken care of.

 

I have a 05 with 7000 miles on it now. At 5000 miles I had my tranny redone with all DTT parts. When we took the tranny apart we found that all three thrust washers were worn(real BAD) This is a problem with all 48REs IMO you need to think about the future and what mods you are going to put on your truck. Do it right the first time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CRIS

 

It sounds like you got about the same answer! You need a better tc, this will make a very big differance in how your truck performs!, and valve body or shift kit to firm up the shifts and increase the operating pressures. BD has a pressure lock which only adds pressure to the tc lock up and the DTT acumalator will plug the most common area of leakage, this helps all the time.
DTT know what they are doing and the best way to get there. You can always check the tranny pressures and see what for shape it's in? That's what all the test ports are for!

From your post I would say the tc clutch is slipping when you get on it! It only takes a couple times of slipping to ruin the tc clutch! take it very easy till you get it fixed! Another trick to make your trans last is to never get on it below 2000rpm, gotta keep the trans pump spinning.

 

Omaharam, If a tranny builder tells you to stick with the stock flexplate knowing you are adding all that power....run. Call DTT, ATS, Suncoast, Dunrite, and whoever directly and ask them what your best solution is. At the little diesel performance shop I 've gone to I've seen 5 48re flexplates sitting on the bench trashed. Most "harmlessly" strip all five threaded and welded studs out leaving a donut and the hole in one piece. I pulled 3 studs and pushed two studs and took out everything from the bell housing, starter, back through the output shaft. You need to rebuild that tranny before you add everything powerwise. A TC, VB, Flexplate is good for holding a reliable 125 hp more at rear wheels and towing medium loads. Anything more and you need billet internals, more clutches, etc. if you want the tranny to be reliable. ks

 

RickCJ

It's not really the same answer. One says the trans is fine I just need a converter. The other says the trans is just as big a problem as the converter. If the trans clutches are what is slipping, I certainly don't want to put a converter in it that will apply even more power and put more stress on the clutches without knowing if the acumulator will increase pressure enough to hold. Also, the guy from BD said that if the converter is slipping it will shutter. It doesn't shutter.

Thanks for the input.

 

In my opinion if you pick ANY one of the top installers you can't go wrong. But whichever one you pick, follow their advice and be honest about your goals. If you try to do it on the cheap you will end up paying twice as much in the end.

 

I did call DTT directly. They told me I didn't need a flexplate. They said I only needed to upgrade the flexplate if I went to a 3disc converter, but not with the single disc.
As far as a TC, VB, FP holding 125 more hp - according to DTT it depends. The trannies are so inconsistant that a box like my Edge might cause no problems on one 48re and cause slippage on another. So which do I have, and how well will it hold, even with the minor upgrades? I just wish I had $5k to drop on the truck and not have to worry about it anymore.

 

I've never changed out the stock flex plate! I believe they are ok for most of us, just the high performance or guys who race their trucks need it. Yes the billet tc are heavier and it wouldn't hurt to use one.

Check your pressures and see how the trans is! Go from there.

 

Omaha Ram,

Just to see what is what contact Jim Galatioto @ Advanced Transmission and tell him what is going on. Jim has been rebuilding these transmissions for 36 years now. I'm sure he can give you the straight poop, without just trying to sell you something.

He did my custom valve body recently and I could not be happier with the quality and the service.

Advanced Transmissions
916 636-3283 M-F

The only thing that you have to loose is the price of a phone call! You may gain much more than that!

Rick

 

Gee, That is good advice from DTT , my stock TC was a single disc and out went my Flexplate. If you tow with HP and Torque the flexplate will go...sometime. It did take around 90k miles to go in my case but most of the ones that I saw gone were on 48re's on 04 and 05's with less than 30k. I guess most people that got DTT tow empty. I wish I had a picture of the stock flexplate beside a SFI Flexplate off a Small Block Chevy. Our stock one is a joke... lightly heat treated stamped steel with the worst welds on 5 threaded studs. Its probably true that a triple disc locks harder than a single disc. Time will tell I guess. ks

 

I have approximately 51K on my 04.5 and my trans started slipping between 2nd and drive. Torque still locks up at 40mph and works good at highway speed. Have my BD downloader set a 90hp. Two weeks ago got the trans flushed (no filter change) worked good for 50mi and then could not hardly crawl past 30mph. Ended up filter was plugged. Now still have major slippage.

I've been talking to a local hi-perf trans builder and he is suggesting a TCI Billet TC (tripple disc) as well as full re-build on trans with extra clutches, valve body, deep sump, billet pump shaft, etc. Says it will act more like an allison transmission in T/H mode, which sounds good to me. I still have warranty on the trans but cant wait the 3-4 weeks at the dealer to get it repaired and still have the same weak stocker as I started with. IMHO.......just bite the bullet, get a real trans so you can actually get the real power to the ground. Total cost will be $4500.00 CDN installed.

 

You have to keep in mind that without physically running any tests on your truck, all you are going to get are opinions. Nobody can tell you for sure what is wrong with just a phone call.
My converter was slipping when towing so I got a DTT TC and VB and they made a world of difference. I have been on a power quest recently so I'm going this morning to get my trans built w/ all the DTT parts including billet shafts. I personally have not seen anything about flexplates being a problem and I don't think I'm getting a new one. I didn't think to ask about it. We'll see...
If you think you will want a full trans done in the future you may want to try to figure out a way to do it all now. That way you don't end up paying the labor twice to R&R the tranny like I'm having to do...

 

Guys, If you run empty and have tons of tire slippage the flexplate will probably last for a long while. When you start hooking up the tires ....towing, sledpulling, wider tires, chang chang chang leads to cha ching. ks

 

I was in the same boat as you about 3 months ago. I did alot of research and also called all the main shops....ats, suncoast, dtt and they all had a different answer!!!! It makes it very hard to pick this way. Here is my experience. I also had only the juice/attitude at the time and wanted to beef up the tranny alittle bit without spending 4k on it. The truck had 3500 miles on it at this point. I ended up going to Dunrite because he is local for me and also he really could talk and seemed to know what he was talking about.

So I purchased the dunrite valvebudy kit and installed it. The truck would always flare real bad from 2-3 and from 3-2 and had a bad bind up shifting from 2-3. Tony told me he had hundreds of these im 05 trucks and they work fine. So I brought it to his shop and let him drive it. He said from the way it drove he was sure that I had intsalled the kit corectly. all the pressures were good and all the shifts were at the correct points. He said the flare was caused by the 5.0 lever and to change to a 3.8!!!!

Well 3 days later my my direct clutches fried!!! and my tranny was dead at only 3600 miles!!!!

So I pulled my tranny and replaced the clutches and also purchased a Dunrite triple disk. Tony said that I did not need input shaft or flex plate and that it is just B.S. that people say there are breaking. So I trusted him and did not do it. I also put in the 3.8 lever.

Well after putting it all back together It still had the same flare issues!!!!! I messed around for weeks trying diferrent things and couldnt get it to work right. So i decided to try a suncoast valvebody and gave up on dunrite. The suncoast did not flare but it shifted harsh and didnt run much more pressure than stock. suncoast is basicly just turning up the pressure on a stock valvebody and replacing the manual valve. 438.00 for that? so I sent it back.

So then I contacted HTS and talked with Dusty Hawk who had experinced the same issues before on is very own 05 truck. He had been working on the issues for some time and did alot of testing on his own truck. So I decided to give him a try. His body worked way better than the other 2 I had tried and we made a few minor adjusments to dial it it in.

Dusty is the nicest most informative guy you will talk to. He is not just after your money like the others were when I talked to them. When I had problems with the others they didnt seem to have time to talk and were very short just saying our bodies work on everyone elses trucks!!!

Well Dusty has even called me just to check up on how things are working out of the Blue!!! He even e-mailed me and told me about something new he thought I should try and sent me the parts for free. So I highly recomend HTS.

I will say that I run a ts mp-8 turned all the way up stacked with my juice/attitude on level 5 and I do not have any slipping issues running stock clutches .

I would recomend that you get a flexplate and maybe an input shaft if you plan to run more than the edge/attitude. Those are the 2 things I wish I had done when I had it out. But thanks to Tony at dunrite I didnt do it!!!

Dont buy any BS like the pressure lock. Its a joke. Here is the minimum you need:

Valve body

Triple or single converter

Recomended:

flexplate

input shaft

clutch kit to add 1 more friction to direct drive and overdrive packs

that is also the order I recommend if money is an issue.


Learn from my mistakes call Dusty at Hts and he will take care of you!!!!

Jamie

 

Luckily I have the ability and access to the tools to do the work myself. If I had to pay someone to do the work on top of buying the parts, I'd just take the edge box off and sell it and hope the tranny lasted. I simply don't have the funds to dump thousands of dollars into the truck right now. I'd love to drop it off somewhere and pick it up a week later and never have to worry about it.