Guys stage five is on the way, should be here tom.. But I am starting the removal tonight. Do any of you have any tips to help a bother out. Thanks again this site rocks:ro) .

Big thanks to Joe and Barry at SunCoast.

15mm 12pt combination wrench on the lower starter bolt, 3/8 rachet is too big to fit in there (at least mine was), and a 6pt wrench did not have enough play to slip on the nut. 2 of the upper converter housing bolts are easiest to remove from the engine bay....or a really really long extension from the back. Make sure to get all the electrical connections, should be 4 on the transmission, well 5 I guess if you have 2wd. Watch out for the transmission cooler lines as you are lowering the trans out, I slightly bent one of mine. I used a 1 ½ in wrench to turn the motor over from the crankshaft nut directly below the fan nut, you have to take off the splash shield. When you are putting the trans back in be very careful not to drop a tc bolt down inside the converter housing. It’s a pain in the balls to say the least. 2 Fuel line bolts and 1 nut, shifter linkage...transfer case and cross member. It’s a load of fun, enjoy!

Tear down has started...convertor bolts aare a pain.

keep me posted i am planning on mine in a couple weeks or so

So... Any updates??:)

Got delayed starting thursday maybe:mad:

Update.


T-case is out, Trans is only held in by a jack and a few bolts on the bell housing. Converter bolts suck, I found that the best way to get them out is to use around 30 inches of extensions (give or take a few) and a 3/8 or 1/2 drive, this will get you up near the front bumper and give you some room to get some leverage on the converter bolts they are tight. My trans fuild was a grape purple almost black, but did not smell burnt.

I have bought some cheap fuild super s dexron III is what it says it was only 60 bucks for 30 qts of the stuff, I think I will let it break in with this and then change it in a month or so, any recommendations on what I should replace the fuild with?

All in all I think the swap is going smoothly just taking my time and making sure I dont break anything. I am going to buy a trans jack in the morning and should be driving again tom. evening.

Do I have to have the trans put in fast learn or can I just take it easy for the first couple hundred miles?

I'd make sure that the "cheap fluid" is a name brand fluid.

Read somewhere that Suncoast says fast learn with a Tech 2. Good luck!

It is just called Super S its label is green.

Cheap is usually cheap, if I was spending 5k on a trans I wouldnt skimp on the fluid

Wade,

Saving a few $ on fluid just doesn't make sense. Any quality name brand
Dexron III (Pennsoil, Valvaline, Castrol, ETC) will work just fine, after approx 500 miles change the spin-on supplied and you are good to go.

Yes, you need a fast learn with Tech II or Allison DOC, you can avoid a lot of issues.
Smoop

i need the tec2? so do i go to a dealership for that i dont know anyone personally with one
cant do it with efi? please excuse my ignorance
have you taken any pics yet?

I am done now I am getting a shift range inhibit. I believe this is because the neutral switch not being adjusted?

what al tools did you use? anything you wish you did?or had?how long?

Okay background I am 20 yrs old I have wrenched on a lot of things but never a 40,000 truck:) . My good friend has a race shop with all the tools you could imagine, however, their lift was not big enough for my truck so we were stuck on the ground:mad: . A trans jack is a MUST, it was scary enough laying under that big momma with it properly supported, much less on two floor jacks.

You will need to jack your truck off the ground about an additional foot or so (the alli is pretty tall) four jack stands can do this. You need a good set of metric wrenches, 3/8 drive and sockets, 1/2 drive and sockets, and lots of extensions (see above post for converter bolts). All in all I have about 20 hours of labor in this swap I took my time as this was my first trans removal.


Once installed I filled it with 14 qts and let it idle for 2-3 minutes, checked and added another 5 qts idled, added another 3 qts (I also have deep pan and mike L cooler) I am still barely low (not enough to matter) It threw all kinds of pressure codes and one p 700 (all of this happened with the truck stationary). I Cleared all of those and test drove it being very easy the shifts seem to be fine, no flares or hang ups, shifts are a lot firmer and tcc lock up feels awesome. I keep getting aP 0853 (I think) efi says that it is an epa (emissions) code what is that all about? I think the swap went pretty smooth. I am going to continue to drive it easy until it learns my tune (it already shifts darn good, possibly better than the stocker witch had a lot of learn time with this tune) and hope and pray that I didnt mess anything up:o: .

thanks wolford being that my truck has a lift i think it will be enough that i wont have to lift it any more...just to save a little time i have all the air tools thanks to my buddy uo in smoke ill make sure i got lots of extensions though keep us posted

take the cat out and those torque conveter bolts are a lot easier to get too.

Yeh I undid the exhaust clamp so that I could completely remove the starter motor.

wolford
how is it so far?
do i need a tech 2?

do you have to take the starter out or can you just unbolt it and bunjy it out of the way?

It is great the shifts are really good and smooth, I have not dogged the trans at all yet (ok ok one wide open run about a week after I installed it). The shifts seem to go from good to okay and so on. I did not use a tech II, although I am considering upgrading my EFI for alli tuning just for that function. The alli with a deep pan is about 26 inches tall IIRC so measure your frame rails and add a few inches for jack clearance.

I dont think that you have to take it all the way out, I just did it for easy of reach.

Does anyone know if a stage V comes with a new converter or do you have to purchase that additional????:confused:

It is extra.

i have tcm tuning with my efi...however you can not do fast learn nor can you reset garage shifts it cost me 60.00bucks for gm to do this with a tech 11 and deep down im glad that i did, just letting her learn right now all seems good
also took apart the stock ally 3-4-5 all burnt, steel is heat scarred as well
sure do like the new one so far, this is only after 10000 miles of efi
just cant say no to increased power...lol