I got as far as putting the valve body and the other parts removed back together. I also cut the wiring from the speed sensor and added wires that now protrude from the tail housing. I haven't put the box on yet since I don't know what wires do what. Rest assured I'll be finding out soon after I get it up in there. I put a quart of the Amsoil ATF in the converter and it slowly burped air out. The way the wiring and casting worked out on the tail housing, I had to put the wires through a hole towards the bottom instead of the top like I wanted. It is full of high temp RTV to seal it up. I put a light near the goop to get it nice a dry prior to tomorrow (hopefully).

I'll be putting it back in tomrrow morning along with adding the Yellowbox to it and then go for a test run. For the first few miles I plan on not changing the speed sensor output at all so that I can see if everything works "normal". After that I'll be trying it out and we'll see what happens.

So more to come on this thread. For scr38 (?) the line closest to the front of the transmission is the return line, I think. Both take paths through the valve body but that one eventually dumps into the pan. The other line (towards the rear) eventually winds up at the pump so this is a pretty good indication that it is the pressure line to help get it going to the cooler.

Thanks for the cooler line identification. That info will be very handy if someone wants to add an additional cooler.
It will be interesting to see what the yellow box will do. I think you will be able to change the indicated speed to fool the max speed cut off. But I think this will also raise the transmission shift points. Could possibly cause the rev limiter to activate before the shift point is reached? I'm sure you will find out!

Actually I'll try to get it to read what it's supposed to with the smaller tires so that the speed is actually correct. I don't think I'll ever get to 116mph, even on the track.

Anyway, I'm munching a burger so I thought I'd report that the install was much easier than getting that thing out of there. It runs, no trouble lights. I'm about to go back to the Yellowbox and get it going. I tried it earlier in the driveway (long writeup coming) and it didn't work. But neither did the speedo when I was messing with it. Apparently the truck must be moving for the speedo to work because I tried it with just the front drive shaft in and nothing worked. Once I got the truck moving, it did. More to come on that. It definitely has a stall in it. And the shifts would probably be noticeably stiffer other than the fact the higher stall speed cushions it at normal speeds. No leaks so far. And I only had 3 bolts left over. Just kidding. But there were a few things that I didn't put back on (some brackets) on purpose because they get in the way.
Back to the driveway...

thanks keep us updated! :D

thanks keep us updated! :D

Yes, definately, Head!

Actually I'll try to get it to read what it's supposed to with the smaller tires so that the speed is actually correct. I don't think I'll ever get to 116mph, even on the track.

Anyway, I'm munching a burger so I thought I'd report that the install was much easier than getting that thing out of there. It runs, no trouble lights. I'm about to go back to the Yellowbox and get it going. I tried it earlier in the driveway (long writeup coming) and it didn't work. But neither did the speedo when I was messing with it. Apparently the truck must be moving for the speedo to work because I tried it with just the front drive shaft in and nothing worked. Once I got the truck moving, it did. More to come on that. It definitely has a stall in it. And the shifts would probably be noticeably stiffer other than the fact the higher stall speed cushions it at normal speeds. No leaks so far. And I only had 3 bolts left over. Just kidding. But there were a few things that I didn't put back on (some brackets) on purpose because they get in the way.
Back to the driveway...

Can't wait for the final report! I want to hear if that thing will give you a 2nd gear scratch. :) BTW - Is your truck a 4X4? You said "Front Drive Shaft"?

OK a few notes on the install.
It was a real pain picking up the transmission (one end) and pulling it onto the tranny jack. Once it was on there, then I had to hoist the torque converter up and carefully put it on without damaging the front seal. That was the hardest part of the whole thing. I did notice one thing when putting it back in. The torque converter actually bolts on to a thin plate behind the flywheel. The flywheel itself is only for the starter. The thing that makes me wonder is that this plate is about half the thickness of the flywheel. I’m just wondering how much power it can take.
I put anti-seize on the bellhousing bolts and they were easy to put on. I had to use a hydraulic jack to get the crossmember on. It was this tight coming out and even though I greased the sides of it for installation, I just used a jack with a 2x4 and it was no problems. The rest of it went back together pretty easily with the last exception the rear driveshaft. There is a Teflon coating on the front shaft where the rear one engages it. I must’ve had it crooked because I had to take a razor blade and trim some off where it had scraped up into a pile and wouldn’t allow the shaft to slide in. I made sure that the marks I had made earlier were on.

To back up a bit, when I had everything in except the rear driveshaft, I put the ATF in it and rolled over the engine. I did that a few times and added more, eventually putting 11 quarts in (the book called for ~11.75). After that I turned the key on and started measuring voltages on the wires I had sticking out for the speed sensors. I found the ground (black) and the other two had about 12 volts. Weird since one is a return signal line. I got the Yellowbox wired in and decided to pick white as the main voltage and gray as the signal return. I started the truck up and put it in gear (remember the rear driveshaft was not in yet) and watched the speedo read zero. I went under the truck and tried to measure voltage but the white and the gray were reading oddly. I even tried the a/c volt setting on the meter and it showed a signal on both wires. So I killed it and then swapped the white wire as the output signal and the gray as the main voltage. Again, nothing on the speedo. So I removed the Yellow box altogether and tried again – zero reading. Hmmm.. At this point I put the rear driveshaft in. I backed out of the driveway and went down the street and the speedo was working. I came back and put the Yellow box back in, white as the main and gray the return. I set it for 28% negative so that I could see obvious results if it worked. I went out and noticed that I couldn’t put it in manual mode. In fact, the transmission was in 4th gear and wouldn’t downshift. So I carefully limped home and swapped wires, white for return and gray as the main. This time the tranny worked normally, but the reading seemed to be the same. So back I came and reset the box to 28% positive (a 56% shift) so I could really tell if it was doing anything. Again, it read the exact same. I let the Yellowbox do a self test and it was working fine. So I went ahead and put it back to stock wiring, albeit with wires out of the tailshaft housing. In a way, I’m not surprised this happened. Yellowbox sells a box for cars and the one I had was for motorcycles (it was free to try, you know). So I’ll do some more shopping and see about getting just a plain Jane box that are readily available and see if I can get that to work.

If you’ve never driven a car with an increased stall speed, it takes some getting used to. The engine revs a little higher and you don’t seem to “take off” as fast. It’s nothing major, but you do notice it. The shifts feel about the same as stock under normal driving. The time it takes to shift seems about the same. Up until about half throttle, I’d say it was the same. Once you give it about half throttle things are different. The engine revs to about 3200rpm and you’re off. Shifts are a little quicker but not as fast as I would expect. The downshifts are a lot quicker. Due to massive traffic around here I never had a chance to really punch it from a stop. I did get to slow down for like a 15mpg turn and then nail it a little after that and it was a big difference in acceleration. Gone is the short delay until the engine starts really pulling. Of course, this is because you’re at about 3200+ rpm and it’s pulling hard. Shifts under full throttle didn’t seem to be that much faster than stock. Maybe that will change over a little time, but I was kinda hoping for more. It is quicker, but not “shift kit” quick to me. The only exception is the 3-4 change and it is firm but I only had enough room to do that once. The lockup function is good and anything over 45mph give or take and it was at the normal cruising rpm. Put it to the floor and it definitely takes off a little quicker. I have noticed when it dis-engages, though, more than stock. Nothing annoying but definitely something I’ve noticed. Other things I’ve noticed is that the shifts are even more barely noticeable due to the stall speed. You can get into 4th gear with light throttle and maintain about 2500-3000 rpm with no noticeable drop in rpm. This is a pretty normal characteristic with an increased stall. So really, I think the stall is a major difference but the valve body mods left me feeling like I wanted a little more. But, and it’s a big but , I wasn’t able to mash the pedal and keep it there for any length of time. So tomorrow at the track I’ll pass more judgement on it.

Now for the credits. I went with IPT in New Jersey for the work. www.ipttrans.com John is the owner and that’s who spent a lot of time on the phone with me very patiently putting up with a lot of questions and concerns from me. He took a couple of days longer than expected but I didn’t mind a whole lot. He sent the stuff back 2nd day so that I could have it for the races tomorrow. John did tell me he wasn’t going to go overboard with the shifts or the stall and I feel that he didn’t. The truck is most certainly capable of driving anywhere under any conditions (well, here in Houston anyway). I did not notice a change in transmission temp according to the gauge in the dash (it was the exact same). I am running Amsoil universal transmission fluid. It is synthetic.

I’m sure there will be questions and comments.

Can't wait for the final report! I want to hear if that thing will give you a 2nd gear scratch. :) BTW - Is your truck a 4X4? You said "Front Drive Shaft"?

Right now it will not chirp the tires at all when changing gears but that remains to be seen under race conditions.

I have a 2WD. The driveshaft is a two-piece "propeller shaft".

That's some great reading head, I hope it turns out to be all that you wanted. Believe me, I know how disappointing it can be to spend money, time, and blood, to not get what you were wanting or expecting.....i.e. headers... :cry: My fingers are crossed for you and I can't wait to hear how it does on the track as well as the driveability around town. May the force be with you... :lol:

Great report! Thanks for taking the time to give us all the details. Looking forward to reports after the runs at the track.

P.S. Its good to know that the fail safe feature in the transmission worked. When it doesn't get a speed signal from the transmission it puts the transmission in 4th and gets the speedo signal from the wheel sensors.

Good deal Head! I can't wait to see your times at the track with this setup. Your definately a pioneer.

Can't wait for the final report! I want to hear if that thing will give you a 2nd gear scratch. :) BTW - Is your truck a 4X4? You said "Front Drive Shaft"?

Right now it will not chirp the tires at all when changing gears but that remains to be seen under race conditions.

I have a 2WD. The driveshaft is a two-piece "propeller shaft".

I gotcha.