FireDemonSiC

I am writing this post today, livid and pissed, to tell you all about a little shop in North Carolina called Carolina Performance Transmission. Now, some of you may take this the wrong way, but I expect that. Opinions are like A-Holes: Everybody has one. I am sure there are at least a few members on here who have one of these transmissions in their cars. And if they do, That's great. I'm happy it worked for you. But unfortunately my experience didn't go that well. Here's why... Back in February of 2009, The original 700R4 in my 85 Z28 went south and lost ALL forward gears. I was originally going to get Dana at probuilt to build me a replacement, but he said he was going through some hard times and wasn't taking orders at the time, and personally referred me to Shane at CPT. I would like to take a moment to say that I am in no way bashing Dana or Pro-Built. All he said was that he had good experiences with Shane and recommended him as a builder. I understand that Dana cannot be expected to know him and his business inside and out, so I am not pulling him in the fire. I called and talked to Shane back in March, and got the details of the build and what needed to be done. Let me also state that from the start, Shane seemed to stray away from his warranty policies over the phone. On his website it clearly states, "Warranty covers any failures to the transmission with the use of an approved 10 inch converter". When I told him I would be using a 12" 2800 stall Boss Hog from ACC Performance, he said that was okay as long as it was "new". So, from the start it appears that he 'tells' the customer the most attractive policy, but if something goes wrong and he so chooses to not honor his word, your pretty ****** since he has the more convenient option in writing. May rolls around, and once again I contact shane to place the order for a level 3 700R4. The build sheet is as follows: Quote: CPT Front Pump With Hardened Pump rings and Blocked Pump slide .500 Boost valve Trans Go HD2 Shift kit CPT modified Reverse drum Hand Treated Sun Gear Beast Sun gear shell Raybestos Z Pak set to .025 for 3rd clutch Alto GREEN high energy clutches for other packs with Molded Steel Apply pistons Green Lined Alto WIDE band Corvette 093 servo for 2nd apply Fairbanks Billet 4th gear apply servo Borg Warner Dual Cage Forward Sprag Heavy Duty Low Roller New accumulator Pistons Precision Paper and rubber kit New bushings throughout Treated CPT Separator plate with hardened checkball seats All clearances brought to tight side of spec All new Thrust washer and bearing kit This transmission is Rated to 600 Flywheel horsepower and will carry a 1 year unlimited mileage warranty with use of a proper New or refurbished 10 inch converter. 2 weeks go by, and a gentleman named David calls me to inform me my transmission has been shipped out. David is another builder that Shane uses to ship alot of his transmissions. a few days later, the transmission arrives at the shop and is installed. I'm so excited to finally have my ride back after a 4 month Hiatus. I fire it up, allow 5 minutes for the engine to reach operating temp, and throw it in gear. I drive around the block about 5 times, noticing that the transmission was shifting abnormally early. as soon as you'd hit the gas to leave a stoplight, it would shift into an upper gear and you'd practically have to mash it to get any sort of acelleration. I realize that an improperly calibrated governer is NOT Shane's fault. I wouldn't expect him to magically know the correct spring combination to use since he doesn't know jack schit about my car. This is no big deal. Something that can be adjusted fairly simple. But from the start, I could have sworn I felt something starnge coming from the bellhousing area whenever I smashed the gas. I took it back to the shop, and we put it on the lift to check everything over. Everything looks good and nothing awry, so we lower it and I get back into the car and take off. I am giving the car about 1/3 throttle and currently have put a total of about maybe 5 - 10 miles on the transmission, when 30 seconds up the road from the shop, the transmission slips and the engine neutrals out bad. I said oh crap that can't be good so I figure since my fuel gauge is dead on E I'll make a quick pit stop and then head back to the shop. I coast down a hill and arrive at a stoplight waiting to make a U-Turn, when I notice a funny smell. I start scanning the interior of the car and the air vents looking for the source of anything burning, when I catch something out of the corner of my eye. I look up and to my horror, see BILLOWS of white smoke pouring out from under the car. So at this point I'm looking pretty godsmacked and notice the engine freerevs until about 4 grand when you hit the gas. I immdiately put on my hazards for fear of seriously damaging something by trying to move the car under It's own power, and push it into a parking lot. I shut the engine off and call for a tow, which brings me back to the shop where we discover the transmission has completely blown out the front seal. I immdiately called Shane and told him of the problem and the first words out of his mouth were, "Let me talk to the guy who is doing the work on your car". I hand the phone top Tracy and from my end of the conversation I hear, "Yes? R&R, about $400". He then hands me back the phone and says that he, "Will certainly be willing to cover the shipping and R&R costs if he determines it to be a failure caused by the transmission". Again, we are straying away from our written policy to get the customer's mouth watering since on his site it clearly states, "We DO NOT cover any R&R or shipping costs under ANY circumstances for warranty repairs". We box the poor broken 700R4 back into the transmission coffin and ship it back to Greensboro. Talking to shane the next day, he then starts blaming everything under the sun. Saying maybe It's the flexplate, or maybe the TV cable was improperly adjusted (Which was the first thing I checked when I got the car back). That flexplate was fine. It ran the old transmission for months before it died of old age, and I made damn sure the TV cable was properly set with the utmost importance by: - Pressing in the tab and moving the slider all the way towards the transmission - Releasing the tab and locking the slider into place. - Rotating the throttle all the way to WOT which caused the slider to click a few times. Here is the real kicker. Remember how I gave him the details of the converter I would be using and he said that would be okay despite the fact it clearly strayed from his warranty policy? He now starts bashing the converter. Saying that he had never heard of ACC and that it sounded like a fly-by-night company and that a 12" inch converter with a 2800 stall was insanity. He said he believed the hub was improperly welded on and that caused it to beat the pump bushing and knock the seal out. So, right off the bat BEFORE I give him my money and to get my mouth watering, he says It's okay. But as soon as the **** hits the fan, he changes his words to benefit him. From the time I sat in the car, I noticed nothing strange such as a clunk, thump or vibration. (Except for that strange bump I felt from the bellhousing area, which felt more like it was coming from the transmission and being transferred through the car, rather than something smacking the underside of the car directly). On top of this, he has just technically voided his own warranty since right on the warranty page it states, "We have a no questions asked policy of fixing transmissions but the warranty procedure must be followed". So, over the next week Shane places several calls to transgo and Dana as do I, and JUST TO BE SAFE even though I felt most of what he was saying was speculation, I RGA the torque converter, order a new flexplate, and have long dowel pins installed into the engine block. I call shane and ask him what went wrong with the transmission, to which his asnwer was, "I don't know. The bushing looks fine and the seal does appear to be completely blown out". Let me also say, that right before I sent the tranny back, he said that he would, "Certainly!", replace the front pump. When I asked him if he had replaced the front pump like he said he would, his response was, "I didn't see the need to and only replaced the front half". I also told him SPECIFICALLY to check ALL clutches, bands and internals for damage. He says, "Well that is certainly something I would want to do". OK, so from that line I should get back a fixed transmission that runs great and pulls like a mofo, right? WRONG!!!!!!!!!! BTW, Shane refuses to accept blame for the failure and claims he cannot determine what went wrong. He refuses to cover the labor which after a brief argument, we reach an agreement that he will pay half. I didn't pay a dime for the shipping costs, since he screwed David out of that money. He is still insinuating that it was the 'fly-by-night' torque converter and even tries to sell me one of his own recommended 'excellent' converters for under $200 :smackhead:. What he doesn't know, is that I know ACC is not a fly-by-night company. Alot of people use these converters including our very own five7kid. I contacted ACC a week after I shipped the converter back for a replacement and they said that upon cutting it open, they could nothing wrong and there were no signs of an improper install so they welded it back together and re-sold it. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. I have about 600 miles put on the transmission and a cooler installed, so I figure It's had plenty of time to break in and get situated. Time for fun. Smash it in first gear. Car practically wants to eject you through the back window and pulls like a mofo. Cruise at about 40 MPH on city streets and smash it, downshifts into second and pulls hard. So, time for the final interstate test. I hop onto I95 and bring the car to about 70 MPH. It's cruising along nicely in 4th like a sleeping giant. So I push the throttle in about 3/5ths of the way and it downshifts into third and starts pulling. So I'm like, "OK b**** Let's see what you got", and mash the pedal into the carpet. "VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!". A face of sheer horror strikes me as the car quits pulling and the engine neutrals out to 5500RPM. It shot up so hard I thought I had the seal out again. I immediately lift off the gas since I do not have a Rev limiter on the engine and the transmission latches onto third. It upshifts into fourth and my heart is pounding the rest of the cruise home. For the rest of the night I am trying to determine what happened. Did it try to downshift into 2nd? Normally on a downshift the engine would immediately jump to that RPM range of that gear. But it all happened so fast I didn't have time to observe. So today I finally work up the courage again... I'm on the freeway in 4th gear doing 70MPH, and mash the gas, I watch the engine go straight to 3500 RPM, then within a fraction of a second neutral out and watch the tach quickly climb from 3500 up to 5000 and feel the car quit pulling just as if you had taken your foot off the gas completely. It does this with every mash of the acellerator without fail. I called Shane and told him of the problem, to which he blames, surprise! The TV cable. I tell him that that was the first thing I check and properly set when I got the car back. He says a defective cable would cause the transmission to slip like this since it is not getting enough pressure to hold the clutches. I'm pretty dumbfounded at this point so I told him I'd take his word for it and replace the TV cable. I go outside on lunch break, pop the hood and reset the TV cable (Was still properly adjusted BTW), and just as I close the hood realize I am being played for a fool. If it was a line pressure problem, wouldn't it make sense for the transmission to slip in all gears with the pedal mashed instead of an isolated incident with only 3rd gear? Shortly thereafter I get a call from David stating that Shane contacted him and wants him to handle the warranty repair, but states he will in no way be responsible for shipping or R&R. I told him that was understandable and not something I'd expect since it was not his build in the first place. This whole ordeal has got me completely livid and pissed at Shane and his company. I think he is dumping the repairs on David because, A) He is tired of being bothered with me or, B) He knows I can't hold David accountable for any costs other than repairs, which Shane will probably screw him out of that as well. This makes no sense to me and gives a VERY unprofessional image. Tell me what you would think if your neighbor who was an experienced dog breeder sold you a puppy and when you discovered it couldn't walk without falling over they told you to take it to the vet to see what was wrong? Again, form your own opinion on this. The really sad part is people all over the Impala SS forums are buying CPT transmission and running them at the strip behind 500 and 600HP engines with zero problems. I appear to be the fluke. But I guess I am the one who shows that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. So, now I have completely washed my hands of Shane and disputed the charge of $1650 with AMEX, which should be plenty to cover the repair costs with a local builder which I should slap myself for not going with in the first place. Shane's website is www.cpt4l60-e.com and his username on this board is dustman.

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FireDemonSiC

!!!UPDATE!!!

Since my last post, I did take the car to a trans shop to see what they thought. A guy very experienced with 700R4's took the car for a test drive with me in it. It was actually a little spooky he was naming half of the parts that were in it as he was driving BEFORE I showed him the build sheet, so at least I know Shane is using what's advertised. When we got back to the shop, the guy said it wasn't neutraling out in 3rd. He said what was happening was when you mash the gas on the freeway at 70MPH, the governer is allowing the trans to downshift into 2nd. This immediately redlines the engine at around 5500RPM which makes it seem like a slip, and Tuned Port Injection (In stock form) falls flat on It's face after about 4800RPM so that would explain why the car feels like it quit pulling. When we first got the trans, it was shifting so early you would leave from a stoplight and by the time you hit 15MPH it would be in 4th gear. After it blew the front seal and I sent it back for repairs I addressed this problem with Shane and to rectify it he installed a corvette governer.

Now, I am not sure off the top of my head if the governers between a 700R4 and a 4l60e are interchangable (I don't see why not since a 4l60e is an ECM controlled 700R4), but it would seem feasable that this is what shane did. Had it been a governer from a C4 corvette (80's and 90's), these had TPi engines as well so I don't understand why it would allow the engine to rev past 4800 RPM when in D. If he had put a governer in from a C5 vette (LS1), this would make sense as these engines make power beyond 6000RPM.

The guy at the trans shop also said that if he were me, he would back the stall down. I have to say, if you really hammer the gas you can feel the converter yank you back in your seat but for daily driving when your only using light or moderate throttle, the power just doesn't seem there like it used to be. I agreed with him so in the fall I am swapping the 12" 2800 stall out for a 10" custom 1600 - 2200 stall.

All in all so far except for all the setbacks I do have to say this has been a good trans. It pulls hard and doesn't slip, but still has some minor bugs to be worked out. I just don't like the way Shane handled the whole situation. To his credit, I know he has been going through some health issues. Unless It's a life or death matter I don't see how this excuses you from running your own business and following through with your obligations, but I always like to think people have a good reason for the negative things they do. As for Dana, i don't want to start flaming him because I think his reputation speaks for itself. But I will say since Dana put so much praise in recommending Shane it does kinda make him look bad.

I contacted AMEX the day after I made that post and cancelled the dispute. If it still acts funny after we back down the stall AND adjust the governer, then I'll re-open it.

I'm just trying to be fair to all parties with this situation.