Well the Exhaust brake cold start cycle doesn't engage since they messed with it. No big supprise as nothing else works either - - read on


Got it back this eve. Supposedly it was done and they were happy with the results. I AM NOT!! It was better stock.
Sluggish and blows way to much coal.
If you come into it REAL slow it does OK but was still better stock
the real problems start when you hammer into it.
Shifts firm and may be OK 1-2
2-3 shifts too soon and bogs the truck creating more smoke
3-4 is the real doozy - - If your no more than 3/4 peddal it does ok If you go WOT it winds to 3700 and either stays there not shifting into OD until you back out of the throttle or it sits at 3700 for about 3-4 seconds and then grabs OD. They told me to simply not hold the peddal WOT. BS!! I don't want to have to drive it a certain way to make it work. This was supposed to be an improvement over stock!
WIth the OD off the exhaust brake works about as well as it did with the OD on in the stock configuration. With the OD on it is useless. I don't think these guys have any idea how the rig drove prior to their modifications. If they did they would see that it most certanly is not an improvement. They tell me the stall is "about 13-1500.
Again I ask, does this sound right?? Seems way to low to me (hince the sluggish take off and extra smoke)
I have not doen a lot of bombs (planning more)O but it was my understanding that as the power goes up so to should the stall. The TC is so tight it shakes the truck in D when at a light.

Question: Thhose of you that have similar rigs and similar bombs to mine, and have had tranny work done: What is your stall and are you happier with it than stock?

Maybe it's not the compnents and just the way things are adjusted.
I have a friend that has a 01 identical to mine with no mods at all. I am tempted to install the SMARTY on it and take it down there so they have a refernce point. Tell them that if they can not improve on it then to refund my $$$ put the truck back the way it was and I will take it elsewhere to have it done right.

 

1300-1500 stall is WAY to low. The lowest I'd ever want is 1600. Preferably 1700-1800. That's what's causing the bogginess I'm betting. It definately sounds like these guys don't know what they're doing and that something is definately wrong.

 

I've mentioned a dozen times that I thought it should be a higher stall than that.
They keep insisting that it is what it should be. Pretty sure they are not going to be happy when I tell them to ditch that TC.

 

Yup. WAY, WAY, WAY to low a stall. I don't even know what you'd use something that low for.

 

I agree on the stall... You'll be starved for air... Lug-city

 

I think I am going to give them the chance to tear it down and start over again. I have a call in to Ripp at Source to see what he thinks. If nothing else I will gladly pay him to hold the local shops hand and walk them through it. So do you think the stall need to be a tad lower (16-1700 as mentioned above?) or should it be the stock 1800 or maybe higher?

 

Personally:

I'm not sure about what you have, modification wise - present and future, but I'd suggest staying around 1800 to get you out of the lag zone.

If your trans is up to snuff, and your TC lockup is beefy enough, junk the smartlock and get a trans controller. ATS has one that has a good deal of flexibility that will let you tune your lockup, even in 1st. So you can use the flexibility of the 1800 stall, and the tunability of the controller for future and present mods. The trans controller can also manage your exhaust brake. (I do not own any ATS products, just cited the option. Other manufacturers like BD might have a product that does the same thing - never looked)

Just an idea, but completely dependant on what you got or what you might have one day, and how much you intend to spend.

 

That is pretty much the same thing as the "Smart Lock". Only thing is that this unit only works the lock-up when deccelerating and takes a little more effort to adjust. I was happy with the brake for the most part (before they messed with it) it's the function of the trans that I am not the least bit happy with. All in all the brake should work at least as well after the upgrades as it did before if not a little better.

 

Truck is back in the shop again today. They have two different VB kits to try. Hopefully one of them will fix the shifting issues. Also they have agreed that once the VB is fixed and the tranny is shifting proprely if I am not happy with the stall they will pull the TC and replace the stator with a higher stall. I assured them that I would not be appy with it and they would need to go from the 1300-1500 that is in there now to a 1600-1800.