Hi... If someone knows about tranny's, could you help me out here? I don't know anything about them and the guy I just bought my iroc from supposedly did the following mods to the tranny. Was wondering if it is a good thing or not? BTW this is what HE wrote down so if anything is wrong, it isn't my stupidity... LOL GM18AF HS Converter Raybestos clutches .500 Boost valve 13 vane pump rotor Sonnax band (15% wider) Custom valve body kit 5 pinion output planet assy. New bigs(?) and bushings throughout Complete seals and teflon rings High flow filter Beast Sunshell He SAYS that this is supposed to be like the TCI Streetfighter, but again, I know NOTHING about tranny's. Any info would be GREAT!!! THANKS!!!! :hail: :hail:

I know you guys are busy, but could I please at least get some opinions on these mods? THANKS!!

:hail:

GM18AF HS Converter, What stall?, and is it new from GM?
Raybestos clutches, Which ones? Blue Plate Specials? etc.?
.500 Boost valve, OK. What size is the intermediate boost valve?
13 vane pump rotor, No gains!
Sonnax band (15% wider), If it is the redlined? OK. Kevlar, junk!
Custom valve body kit, Whose valve body kit?
5 pinion output planet assy. , More expensive? not needed.
New bigs(?) and bushings throughout, OK.
Complete seals and teflon rings, I hope so.
High flow filter, What's wrong with the "factory" filter?
Beast Sunshell, More expense! Late GM works fine, & less money.
What else do you want to know?

Thanks for your time and input, although I guess I really don't know any more now than I did before. Guess I will just drive the car until something quits. *L* Like I said, that was everything the guy wrote down, so I can't really reply to your questions/comments but thanks anyway!! The guy does tranny work and built this one for his son's car (which I now have) so I am HOPING that he did a really good job. Thanks!

I guess this is where we differ:


13 vane pump rotor - Suppose you tore down an older pump that had the 7 vane rotor. You can't tell me that you'd re-use it. If 7 is bad, and 10 is good, how does 13 become bad again? GM switched to the 13 vane pump assembly in 1997. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I don't see GM spending the money on R&D and production if there wasn't something to gain.

Custom valve body kit That could be scary, I won't even go there

5 pinion output planet assy. Somebody made a valid point that although it can handle more torque, there is also one more pinion to lubricate and generate heat. But once again, I don't see GM spending the money to put them in the 4L65-E if there wasn't something to gain.

Beast Sunshell Here, I feel that bigger is ALWAYS better. Even though GM switched to better shells w/ large torrington bearings instead of a thrust washer, were still seeing them fail. On non-dealer rebuilds, I won't use anything BUT "The Beast"

The main purpose of going to a 13-vane setup was to get a "quieter operation" out of the front pump, some smoothness in the pump pressure readings was gained also. One thing that all of you who (I think that this is a better idea) forgot, the "stator half" of the front pump has leading edges to bring in and displace oil machined into the housing, without this modification you will flow "less oil" than with the 10-vane setup. Remember when the "7-vane" setups were breaking rings?, how did GM solve this, by adding more vanes to even the load against the rings and this somewhat stopped the ring breakage, but they did not solve the problem with the 7-vane pumps. In the mid 1980's Trans-Go made up chrome plated steel rings (No-Yo-Yo) that would not break with any setup (7-10-13 vane). If you blueprint the pump (any pump) rotor, vanes, and slide to minimum clearences, along with the steel rings, you will get a quieter & smoother pump. If you look at displacement of oil the 7-vane flows the most oil. SURPRISE, I use the 7-vane in almost all of my mid 10 thru low 11 second 2004R & 700R4 transmissions, (but the 7-vane rotors are getting very hard to find though). By the way there is a builder in Mogadore, Ohio who builds nothing but 2004R's that run in the mid to high 9 second (mostly Gran Nationals) and in all the units he builds (especially the multi-disc lockups) he uses 7-vane setups with the steel rings. The 5 pinion should be stronger, but I have had no planetary problems as of yet due to lack of strength. How many times have you heard of plantary failures, due to lack of strength (not lubrication problems), I haven't.

Very interesting. Grasshopper learn...

Thanks fellas! The only other thing I can seem to remember right now about the
valve body kit is that he said he uses several different kits and chooses certain
parts from each kit. He said he uses this setup in all of his personal vehicles
too. Who knows... Like I said, I will just have to wait and see if something breaks! *L*
I mean, the tranny was already done when I got the car and I didn't buy the car
because of it so I guess I am no better or worse off either way. Maybe it will
last long enough for me to be able to afford an LT-1 conversion... *LOL*
Gee... I still know nothing about tranny's. *LOL*