Alright, I was wondering if the Trans Go Shitf kit was worth to buy. Whats everyones expierences with this product and is it worth it? Does it essentially raise the pressure in ones transmission and then change the shift points? If it raises the transmission pressure would it wear the seals down faster? This would go on a daily driver.

Thanks, Mike

 

No personal experience, but have read very good reviews on product. Some tranny shops offer the Trans-Go as part of their 4L60e upgrade package. I believe the shift kit does raise line pressure, but I'm not sure about shift points. I thought the PCM controlled the shift points, but I could be wrong. You can change line pressure (shift "firmness"), and shift points with most of the hand-held PCM tuners like Hypertech, Diablo, etc.

The major advantage to installing a shift kit, is that it allows you to manually shift your A4 without damaging it. The stock, OEM A4 valve body is not designed to allow manual shifting. I've heard that once in a while it's okay, but if you make a habit out of manually shifting a stock OEM A4, you'll eventually damage it.

The 4L60e does not tolerate a lot of engine HP/TQ increases very well, nor does it stand up to regular beatings like, say, a TH400. The stock, OEM 4L60e internals are not well-suited for hi-performance applications. There are a lot of aftermarket parts available for the 4L60e that are better-designed and stronger than the stock internals. There are also a large number of tranny shops that specialize in race-prepping the 4L60e, making it a pretty good automatic, over-driven transmission for hi-performance use.

 

Actuallyt the stock internals of the tranny can take quite a lot the problems are in the valvebody and this shiftkit takes care of a lot of them, it does much more than raise line pressure it gewts rid of some little things GM either did wrong or as compromises like for instance not on your 94 but the 95+ stuff has the torque converter lockup pulse in instead of just locking this creates extra slippage and heat. There are also some passages known to plug or wear parts that the kit adresses. There are a lot of springs to help accumulation work better etc. The boost valve to increase line pressure is like under $10 there is a lot more to the kit than just that.
It will not affect the shift points as noted that is all in the pcm.

 

In the meantime, a Trans-Go shift kit will certainly do one thing very well...It will definitely cause your 2-4 band and your 3-4 clutches to go out alot quicker. TG kits are a great way to ruin a perfectly good transmission.

 

my computer lagged out and made 2 posts so just look at the other post below.

 

First off, thanks for all the replies, I really apreciate it.


Secondly, what do you mean by this statement, if you could elaborate more on it that would help out a bunch, thanks.

 

I installed a trans-go shift kit in my car about 5 months ago. About 3 months after it was installed, guess what? Yup I had to get a new tranny. This was my second tranny that had about 40,000 miles on it. During those 40,000 miles my car sat for about a year so maybe it was just a coincidence?

 

Ok. Yeah I had mine recently rebuilt and I should have looked into transmission upgrades before I got it repaired but I didn't know about the majority of the sites online. So now that I am starting to upgrade my car a bit I am looking to make my tranny last a little bit longer, herd this was prominent in the fbody world so I figured I would ask about it.

If anyone else has anything to chime in on this subject that would be great.

 

Let's see those of us here are for the most part doing to be rather demanding of our cars. Knowing this we look into upgrades to help known "weaker" parts such as say Oh the tranny. Then when someone blows one after the shiftkit is installed they blame the shift kit everyone else says helps and all but one of the sucessful 4L60E builders I am aware of us and it is the kit's fault . The one big shop I am aware of that does not use the Transgo is Level 10 and they basically just make their own Transgo and charge a lot more, look into the exact parts once, they also resell a downright BAD 9.5" billet TC I had a 2600 that drove like hell compared to my much cheaper 2800 Edge.
The as delived Transgo kit does leave a little to be desired but if you7 buy from the right sourece like say pro-built.net they can help you decide on exactly what options of the kit to use and where in the acceptable range of hole sizes to drill. Might cost a few dollars more but the tech help available from somewhere like this is hard to put a value on and is definetely worth the few extra bucks.

 

The shift kit puts too much apply pressure on the 2-4 band and causes it to crack because it can't handle that amount of force. Once the band cracks, its starts to slip when its applied to the drum. Then everything goes south from there.

96capricemgr is right in saying go to pro built and get your transgo. Only a very few parts are worthy of using, and the others just cause haerm in the long run.

 

Ok, because I was talking to my mechanic later today and he said the kits are fine depending on what your going to use them for. I am planning on just getting some more durability out of my tranny as well as for street use only, not track or anything. I will check around and see what else is out there and such.

 

There isn't much else out ther the B&M only jacks line pressure and I have heard mostly bad with just a few good reports about the TCI, as mentioned the Level 10 crap was just reinventing the Transgo for higher markup.

 

Yeah I could find that much else, next time I get something big put in my car I will probably, like headers, I will get the kit installed and talk to my mechanic about it. Hopefully mid to late november on the the headers...can't wait

 

A shift-kit alone will not cure the known weak points of the 4L60e, as used in hi-performance applications. Most places integrate the shift-kit into a package that includes AT LEAST a few internals upgrades.

Do a Google (or whatever search engine you have) search for "4L60e racing transmissions", or "4L60e race-prepped transmissions", or "4L60e transmission upgrades". You won't have to browse through too many sites to see that just about every internal component from a STOCK 4L60e is subject to failure in hi-performance applications. Just a few re-designed/strengthened aftermarket internal parts for the 4L60e:

re-designed sun gear shell
hardened steel converter clutch apply valves
5-pinion planet gears
re-designed band drum & bands
stronger 3-4 clutch packs
hardened input shaft/drum assembly
stronger 1-2 & 3-4 accumulator springs
re-designed accumulator piston
stronger reaction carrier shaft

I could go on and on, but this should give you a picture of STOCK 4L60e internals strength for hi-performance applications. You can buy complete, race-prepped 4L60e transmissions (will handle up to 600HP/450TQ), and torque converters, or, if you have the ability to do the work yourself, you can buy the parts. Just browse a few of the sites to get an idea of what's out there for the 4L60e. If the STOCK internals weren't so prone to failure in hi-performance applications, why are there so many shops offering better parts/complete transmissions?

TCI also offers stand-alone controllers....kind of like a separate PCM for the tranny. I am not sure if these can be used with factory A4 applications, or if they are just meant for "transplant" usage into vehicles not originally equipped with electronically controlled transmissions.

 

Thing is a lot of aftermarket stuff is created just because it can sell.
The 5 pinion planetary thing has proven a mistake guys are swapping them in and breaking several in a year when they never broke a single 4 pinion. What GM did there was go from 4 highly machined expensive pieces to 5 cheaper ones.

A lot of places will just throw money at a tranny and say it is high performance when all it is is high dollars to build. I know guys running 12s and even below on stock trannies in b-bodies others blow them with grocery getting duty. Think of the shear weight of a b-body and their much better than f-body hooking ability when considering how much abuse that is.

The aftermarket is about selling parts be they necessary or not so what is offered has NOTHING to do with the actual weaknesses. The 3-4 clutches are one of the more common failures in a stock tranny but the clutches are not the weak point it is the stock valvebodies inability to efficiently and properly apply them that causes the failure. I had one rebuild done with the increased coult Alto clutches but the shop failed to do the valvebody work I requested so 16 months later the tranny puked in a big way and I ended up ordering one from the above mentioned pro-built.net, I am making a lot more power now and launching on ET Drags with his more basic rebuild and have been doing so for going on 2 years with the power but the tires were just this summer. This tranny needs a quality builder more than it needs the latest wizbang parts, the good builders are the hard thing to find.