I have a stock 12 valve and I pull a 22 foot trailer once a month. It's a lot for the truck and I'd like to get just a little more out of it. (for now) I don't want to get into tranny mods and there is 200 k on the trans now. So, for bottom dollar I'm thinking of going with the #8 tst plate.

Do I need an egt gauge?
Can I go to the #6 plate without slipping the tranny?

 

you really should get a egt gauge when towing even if it's stock. A 10 plate is probably the better all around towing/daily drive plate, especially with a stock tranny.

 

#10 plate? According to the tst page it isn't reccommended for the 98 12 valve w/ auto. I've attatched the chart. Will the 8 be enough? will the 6 be too much for my stock tranny w/ lots of miles on it?

Ok, I've been persuaded to buy a guage. (didn't have to twist my arm, huh) Only I don't know where to mount it, this was my hesitation. I already have the 3 pod column filled to monitor my vegetable oil system. I was looking at the box on the floor behind the 4x4 shifter. Anyone ever mount a gauge in that thing? It seems there is room on the side.

 

Hi siebertl,

Welcome to DTR. I really think you should reconsider adding ANY power to your truck without doing anything to your stock automatic transmission, especially since it has 200k miles on it.

The plates get more aggressive as the #s go down, except for a #100 plate, but that would be out of the question any way. So since a #10 plate may be too much for your tranny, a #8 would only make things worse. Same thing with a #6.

The most common plates are a #10, #100, and #0 these days anyway, no one really uses the others.

I think the first thing you MUST do is get a pyrometer and a transmission temperature gague, at minimum. Boost gauge would be nice, but not absolutely necessary.

Here is a mount that goes on top of your steering column:

http://www.dieselmanor.com/pillars_p...ts_stercol.asp

Go here and you can look at all the different gauge options:

http://www.dieselmanor.com/gauges.asp

There are also some universal mounts, so you could mount one gauge on top of your column and then get one of the universal mounts and put it on top of your dash or whever else you might want to.

I think what you should do first is get something like a shift kit from Transgo or at the very least a valve body. I have a Goerend VB and single disk TC and a freshly rebuild tranny and I love it. I know that you do not want to do anything with your transmission, but I am thinking that you are probably going to have to.

Next you need to get the gauges, as stated above.

Then you *could* buy a plate from TST, but I would just grind your own.

Now... where was I... back to wishing that my exhaust parts were here .

 

Thanks for the detailed info. I havent seen those steering column mounts before. I will look into getting one to mount guages.

Here is what I'm confused about. The shop guy I talked to at TST reccommended the #8 on a stock tranny. The info I'm getting here is to go with a #10 but it will slip the tranny anyway. I'm looking for more advice or experiences with adding a tst plate on a stock tranny.

Also what type of tranny do I have? It is a 98 12 valve. I like the advice on rebuilding the tranny, I plan on having the truck for a long time and would like to do a transmission on it, so I plan to start looking and saving for upgrades.

 

#'s 31605549 on tranny. Does that mean it is a 49XX

I'm not sure if it's a RH of RE?

 

Don't know what that part number on the tranny is, but you have a 47RE. The 47RH were the early, non-electronic transmissions, and the 48RE are the 3rd generation trannys.

I have a #8 plate, and a stock tranny and no problems so far. However, I don't do any hard launches or hot rod my truck.