Dice,

I have to agree with you. The majority of mods have fit great and worked. Some didn't give me as much as I'd hoped for but there always seemed to be an up side to then no matter how small or what it is.

 

I don't want no trouble with you Chuck, you my Pal.
It's just something I read.
I read it on the internet, IT MUST BE TRUE
RIGHT ?

First, an accumulator is a fairly straightforward assembly. In the 4R100, there are 3 shift bores, and 1 line pressure/throttle bore. The 3 shift bores are identical, and different springs are set in them to control the reaction of the accumulator piston to hydraulic pressure, this reaction translates into shift duration on the shift controlled by that bore. All of the bores are fed pressure by the Line Modulator Boost Valve, which reacts to the Throttle Valve, controlling this circuit boosts line pressure into all of the shift bores. If you change the Line Modulator Boost Valve and raise line pressure throughout the body, the individual shift bores are no longer "tuned" properly and the reaction in the shift bores will be out of calibration for the elevated line pressure. For this reason, you need to recalibrate the shift bores, both in the top circuit (above the accumulator piston) and below (the 321-310 circuit). Also, in the 2001 model Lightings, I have found that increased pressure in the lower circuits caused the 321 valves to "side load" or bind up due to asymmetric application of hydraulic pressure during the shift, resulting in a "bang shift". A Line Mod valve fails to address these conditions. My last (but not least) concern with a Line Mod valve is cost, I don't think you get much bang for the buck if you pay $89 for a Line Modulator Boost Valve. I've been very upfront about this, I use a part very similar to this as part of the Factory Tech/PSP Accumulator Shift Kit. In may ways, I think the part I use is higher quality, my valve and sleeve are made from stainless steel and most of the other ones I see have aluminum sleeves. This can cause problems in the long run too, as the steel valve cycles though an aluminum sleeve, the sleeve wears faster than the valve and after a time this results in pressure loss and sloppy shifts, the condition the part is designed to correct. Also, of all the parts I have personally seen, only the one I use has an O-Ring seal to prevent pressure leaking out of the circuit. For all this, my cost for the valve is about $20, if you just want a boost valve, email me, I'll sell you one for $30, shipping included, and in a year I'll still be here if you need a new transmission, my Monster Box goes for $1500.

I was just making a point Chuck, it's prob a great Mod, wish I had some kind of tranny mod on my L. "BUT" I have read in a few places in the long run it can hurt the tranny, obviously not in your case

Since your my pal, I'll edit that one from my list,
BUT DON'T TRY AND FIGHT ME ON THE $200.00 POS FILTER KIT
Or should I say the $30.00 filter they sell for $200.00
hehehehehehehehehehehehe

 

I believe having just the line mod in there will have long term affects on the transmission. However, with a properly tuned accumlator, youre less likely to adopt premature wear. This is what i have gathered from Greg.

 

Funny - don't see any retorts from any of the vendors on this one ...?

 

Retort's, lmao...

 

Perhaps that's because most(not all) of what they make/modify/market doesn't fit what you are whining about?

Their prices have to reflect more than just the price of the materials used. No, everything that they sell requires R&D but some of it does. No, everything they sell requires testing/dynoing/field(track) testing but some of it does.

They are small businesses that have costs/overhead that we, who are not businessmen, have no idea of these costs. If their products aren't 'marked-up' with a profit-margin, they go out of business in a short time. If their products don't perform or don't answer our needs, they go out of business, sooner or later--and, if that happens, you'll really start whining.

Oh, I almost forgot. You have a Corvette now . Why not go flog it to death? I hear their aftermarket parts are really cheap.

AND, nobody is holding a gun to your head, making you buy anything!

Dan

 

Rob,

I know Greg makes great products and I'm not disputing that. He is also selling products just like all the other vendors. That is his write up that was written quite a while ago. I have paid close attention to see if I could see a trend of failures where one stood out over the other. I have to say I can't.

There are plenty of people on this forum who had his valve body when their tranny went out in a year as he stated above that would happen with just the line mod valve. I don't make this stuff up. It's just the plain truth. There are no guarantees.

The fact is everytime you smash the throttle your transmission is wearing out. A lot of people are in the 400/500 club meaning it's just a matter of time before the tranny gives up. I don't care if you put a magic wand in the pan it's just a matter of time before the stock internals give up.

If you were lucky you got in on the Monster Box or FTVB before the 25% price increase. It's just a matter of supply and demand any good businessman knows this.

In my case, I bought the line mod valve around the time the valve body was in it's infancy. There is an old saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it. The only difference I can tell in the valve body and line mod valve is the harshness of the the shift at part throttle with the valve body being harsher. I don't see how a harsher part throttle shift is going to protect my transmission any better.

BTW, the line mod valve has been around for a long time. The first time I heard about it was from a guy that put one in his 88 Mustang GT. He had 3.73 gears and nitrous running in the 13's. He had no problems with it.

I've been on these forums since Sept. 2000. I've done a lot of reading and taking it all in. I know who installed parts then posted about them and those who have parts listed in their sigs and I pay attention when they have failures. I haven't seen any evidence that the FTVB will protect your stock tranny and better than a line mod valve. I've read about them both in fried trannies that weren't that old.

Read all the forums, especially the vendor forums on NLOC and pay close attention. You'd be surprised at what you'll learn over time.

I signed up for a giveaway of the competitions valve body on another site which I will install if won to see what I think about it. I won't expect any added protection out of it but if it's free then what the hey. Like I said above I don't see spending good money to fix something that's not broken.

 

Rob,

You are are right about the filter. If it works the same why pay more.

 

Man I wish Monsterboxes were still 1500

You know, I was thinking this the other day. One of the main reasons I bought the L was because of its growing aftermarket. MMFF was praising the L aftermarket as growing as exponentially as the 5.0 had. However, I guess they forgot to mention the HUGE price difference!

Take a look at the ads in MMFF sometime. Even the same company that makes near-exact products charges 30% + more for Lightning products. Case in point: MGW offers AC ***** for Mustangs for 35 bucks but they charge 45-50 bucks for Lightning/F150 AC *****!

At the time of purchase, I was torn between a C5 and a Lightning. I guess I didn't realize the aftermarket prices were around the same! (except a C5 can get into the 11s for a LOT less!)

 

I just saw this. Interesting. I think the statement that a line mod valve will burn up your transmission is a little more than I meant, but I do think that doing the entire valve body is better for it. I see the insides of a lot of transmissions and see the long term affects of a lot of mods. It's quite common on an L to see the intermediate plates hlaf burned away and the owner didn't yet notice that anything was wrong (loss of trap speed is a dead giveaway, though), I also know as a certainty that if you do a line mod valve and don't calibrate the valve body to it, it's not right, whether that causes premature damage is for you to decide. I will stick to the statement that doing the whole valve body is better. I must say that seeing my article quoted that way was kind of shocking, I said it, I admit, but the emphasis added makes it out to be pretty strong. I also am very much against a .500 line mod valve, I just think it's too much pressure, and you can get the same effect at a lower pressure by more carefully controlling the lower circuits. As to the statement made that several people have blown up they're transmissions with a valve body, I know of only 3 and none of them were related to the valve body.

 

Hey Tech
Don't scare me with that loss of trap speed,
Mine seems to be down a few MPH

I'm the guy running 12.0's with juice on a 100% stock tranny,
what I'm noticing lately is even with my shift points set at 5500 RPM the sucker is going all the way to 6000 RPM before shifting on the juice.
( I call it, STRETCHING MY RODS )
I'm told thats because I have massive torque and HP when juicing it with 4 or 6lbs of extra Pulley and my other Mods.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ???

I know my tranny is perfect and shows no signs of anything wrong YET, but these shift points are starting to scare me.
I got 2 new program's coming in todays mail, I'll see if they help.
WIll your VB address these issue's ???
And can I get one with softer shifts ???
Remember I'm an old fart who likes Fast,
but quiet and smooth
Stock Exhuast
Stock Suspension
Stock Tranny
NOT STOCK MOTOR

 

Well, wich I had better newsd, but you've got burned plates I think. The long shift is one sign, the loss of trap speed is another, it's quite common not to really notice it. What happens is on your intermediate plates (2nd gear and almost always the first one to go) you have 3 frictions. The middle one will always wear faster than the to outboard ones, and it'll burn all the way until there is no friction at all left before you get a no second gear thing, but when it happens it'll just happen, you prolly won't get any more symptoms than you have already, or maye it'll get a little worse. You're too far gone for a valve body to correct it I think, at this point you may just want to drive it until it dies and then have it rebuilt. It's all soft parts, not to expensive parts wise to fix it stock, I'd guess around $200 worth of parts if yoe do a factory spec rebuild, but the labor will kill you. I can tune you a valve body however you like it, but I think you're gonna need clutch work soon.

G

 

I'm hoping it's something else G, I've had this problem since day one ZERO MILAGE "one way or another". It may be a computer issue because it's happened many many times with many differant programs (I'm on my 10th Chip Program now.)
and my second Chip in 1 yr, even the first Chip did it when it only had a few hundred miles on it ? Did it meaning it went way pass the programed shift points even when BRAND NEW ???

The reason I think it may be Computer related is because it also doesn't shut down on the Limiter when it happens even know I'm past where it should kick in. WAY PAST SOMETIMES. With slipping or bad plates the Limiter whould still shut it down right ??? and it's not ??? It seems the computer is not seeing the correct Shift Points and Limiter settings. IS THAT POSSIBLE ANYONE ???

I truly see or feel no signs of tranny trouble and hope because it's been doing it forever MAYBE I have another issue. But the way your talking I wouldn't feel anything til it was too late. I'm not ready for a tranny yet, that would suck. I'll continue to drive it and monitor it to see if it gets any worse, but I'm HOPING it may be a Computer/Chip Related Issue. Not that I have a way of fixing that one

Lets see what these two new programs do, I addressed the shift points with the tunner and asked him to double check them.