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I've been running a Transgo and SC 1050-3 converter for about a year. This is a lly without the new cutback valve and I replaced with new stock clutches where needed. Mobile 1 syn.fluid. Just tore the tranny down and said I'd post findings and thoughts good or bad. Might get flamed, but here goes.
History:
Ran the truck with propane and the biggest tune at the time daily, then added N20 at the track. Maybe two months and 25-1/4 mile runs(107mph).
Installed second turbo and installed the lastest and greatest tunes. Dyno'd over 500hp. I drove the truck hard with tuners stacked daily at over 500hp up until I tore it down today.
I ran somewhere around 100-1/4 mile high boosted passes. The tranny never limped or set any codes. I did have slow shifts at the track, sometimes terribly slow, easy to tell it was defueling on 2/3 shift and sometimes 3/4 shift.
Findings:
Fluid smelled and looked like new.
C5's looked like new(think they always do)
C4's were about 95%.(edit. after looking at pics, I'd say worse) Had just some darking on a couple of frictions
C3's were very discolored, some frictions were almost totally black. The outer frictions were not nearly as bad(maybe lack of fluid to cool the inner ones?). Steels had hot spots on them. Frictions showed no sign of delaminating or coming apart.
C2's were about 98%. No discoloration on the frictions or hot spots on the steels.
C1's frictions were dark. Steels looked good. Frictions were dark but not glazed or delaminating, but still showed heavy signs of heat.
Thoughts:
I've had many people ask me about the cheap route that I took. I wanted to post my findings, because I've never heard of anyone posting test results of transgo/converter before.
My bill from Merchant auto on everything at the time was $1725.00. Add $100.00 for syn. fluid and $50.00 trans jack rental, and maybe some misc. for a total of less than $2000.00.
Conclusion: Not so hard to R & R a allison in your garage, gets easier the second time):h But I kind of enjoy the punishment. I'll let the findings speak for themselves, and not add my opinions. My time was about 4hrs for removal, 5 hours on rebuild, 4 hours on install.
I do have pics of the clutches on my camera, but haven't figured out how to load them(new camera)
Rob
History:
Ran the truck with propane and the biggest tune at the time daily, then added N20 at the track. Maybe two months and 25-1/4 mile runs(107mph).
Installed second turbo and installed the lastest and greatest tunes. Dyno'd over 500hp. I drove the truck hard with tuners stacked daily at over 500hp up until I tore it down today.
I ran somewhere around 100-1/4 mile high boosted passes. The tranny never limped or set any codes. I did have slow shifts at the track, sometimes terribly slow, easy to tell it was defueling on 2/3 shift and sometimes 3/4 shift.
Findings:
Fluid smelled and looked like new.
C5's looked like new(think they always do)
C4's were about 95%.(edit. after looking at pics, I'd say worse) Had just some darking on a couple of frictions
C3's were very discolored, some frictions were almost totally black. The outer frictions were not nearly as bad(maybe lack of fluid to cool the inner ones?). Steels had hot spots on them. Frictions showed no sign of delaminating or coming apart.
C2's were about 98%. No discoloration on the frictions or hot spots on the steels.
C1's frictions were dark. Steels looked good. Frictions were dark but not glazed or delaminating, but still showed heavy signs of heat.
Thoughts:
I've had many people ask me about the cheap route that I took. I wanted to post my findings, because I've never heard of anyone posting test results of transgo/converter before.
My bill from Merchant auto on everything at the time was $1725.00. Add $100.00 for syn. fluid and $50.00 trans jack rental, and maybe some misc. for a total of less than $2000.00.
Conclusion: Not so hard to R & R a allison in your garage, gets easier the second time):h But I kind of enjoy the punishment. I'll let the findings speak for themselves, and not add my opinions. My time was about 4hrs for removal, 5 hours on rebuild, 4 hours on install.
I do have pics of the clutches on my camera, but haven't figured out how to load them(new camera)
Rob
