FAQ for turning up a 96 auto?
 

Dad is picking up a 96 2500 4wd auto, long box CC. 87k mi, bone stock, still has the muffler and everything.

I've heard of sliding the fuel plate? Or should he just drop the $220 and buy the TST plate and boost upgrade kit?

What's the best place to start to make some decent power. Would be sufficient to make it run like a 1st gen with 2 turns past the collar. He's hoping to stick with the OEM tranny and convertor as well.

Call Bill at heath diesel, get a plate, afc spring kit, guages, and a shift kit!! Worked great for my Dad's 96. She rocks now, it took about 8 hours for everything listed above, including adjusting the bands while I did the shift kit.

Any power modifications WILL destroy the TC, then the metal particles will get into the AT and destroy it also. There are some very good articles on the BD-power.com website expaining this subject.

Ray,

Where does it say that? Doing the shift kit brings the line pressures up, like the site says, which greatly increases the holding force of the stock TC!

I know the autos aren't super strong, but TST's site has a chart for which plates for which applications with notes as to what will harm stock trannys. Is it not safe to go by their chart?

Furious 70,

I put the number 6 in my dad's truck, if you load the **** out of it and then pound on it you can slip the converter, but drive with some sense and you should be fine. My Dad's boat and trailer weigh 17,500 lbs with out the truck!!

the biggest thing we have is a 26' enclosed car trailer and a 4000lbs car inside it. I really don't think we've ever been over 10,000lbs (not counting the truck).

The chart suggests a #8 plate for dad's truck, which would be more than enough poopoo for what we wanna do. Our only concern is whether that's too much for the stock convertor and tranny? If it can take a #6 with 17,500lbs behind it, that's more than we'd throw at it for sure.

Please keep in mind that when loaded my father uses the power, BUT pays extremely close attention to the truck/tranny, if he "senses" he is close to causing a problem he backs off a little bit.

does he see the tranny temp spike, or is it merely a 'sense'? I think I would be able to feel it, but dad really isn't as sensitive to how a vehicle is performing :P

No, No temp spikes, just that feeling, the truck sounds different and "feels" different. But for a 1 ton dually-she rocks, I dropped just under a second of the 1/4 mile time and picked up 9 MPH!! Under full throttle acceleration, when the truck is empty, the lockup is impressive!! to say the least.

I just swapped my #8 with a #10. The big difference in the two is with the #10, the power comes on at a higher RPM. I have mine set for about 1800 RPM which lets the tranny build up some pressure before applying lots of horsepower to it. You can control where your power comes in by adjusting the gov arm, higher=sooner, lower=later. The #10 has better high RPM EGT control as well.