Hi All,
looking ahead to some planned upgrades to my truck. I'm curious about the cost of an E4OD rebuild and improvements vs. the cost of a 5 speed conversion. This will not be a DIY job. I'm a B- mechanic with 2 jobs. I need my truck up and running in reasonable time. This will be done by a shop. Anyone have an idea of costs ? I've considered a new truck but at $ 70 k, I'll rebuild mine and buy a new camper ( or vacation cabin).

 

I burned up two E40D's so I spent $5,200 on a John Woods. No problems now!

 

Thanks Glenn, I figured $4000 plus for the E4OD. A John woods $ 5200. How 'bout a 5 speed swap, any idea of cost?

 

I don't know about a 5 speed swap. John Woods has a trans for less then I paid but I wanted the heavy tow one.

 

Save some cash.check diesel site on that trans.great price AND warranty.
That's going to be the route I go.
I have called and talked and had more questions and called again and they are very friendly knowledgeable people. They have my vote though I have not got their product...yet.

 

I did a 6-speed swap in my super duty a few years ago. found a complete 6-speed, tcase, pedals, & slave cylinder on craigslist for $800. bought a stock clutch for $300ish, flywheel $150ish, and then some odds and ends like shifter boot, clutch dust shield, flexplate bolts etc. swapped the whole thing over in a day. There are write-ups on PSN that make it super easy. I never really finished it, IE removed column shifter and PRND21 indicator. i fabbed up a tunnel cover that worked nicely.

In all honestly, it is not all its cracked up to be. I drive my truck daily, and in traffic it sucked. I didn't like the shift from 1-2 with the extra detent while towing heavy leaving a stop. Also the 3-4 shift really took the truck out of the power band when towing heavy, so you would have to ring it out in 3rd to keep the R's up for 4th....among other little things, i just didn't think it was all that great. So after about a year and a half, i had the auto rebuilt and swapped back to the auto. MUCH BETTER!!!!! You cannot compare a stock tranny to a built one with a good converter!!!!! now it is point and shoot

my money is on building the auto and call it a day....

 

I tow heavy and I agree Sean!!

 

Interesting...

 

ok then,interesting stuff (and BTW thanks Sean, you wrote a lot so i did not want to quote you as well and run out of space). You guys tow big and prefer the auto? I've got no tranny issues at all. This has become a lost season for me already with my old camper. I'm looking to next year already and want a new camper and good tow rig. I had not taken my camper off Long Island since I got the '97 PSD. Our roads are flat and I'm not sure I trust my stock Motor/ tranny on the big roads. my old camper is close to 7800 lbs. I'm gonna look for a newer one, maybe an ultra light under 6000 lbs. What do you think?
Regards Vinny

 

Hey Glenn, Looking at the mods in your sig. is mind numbing ! What kind of power #'s is that thing putting down?

 

Not a manual guy here either. I like my auto towing my load too. Nothing against a manual, I've got one in my ranger, just don't want one in my tow rig.


If you are only towing 8k ish, you don't need a lot more power than a stock truck. I say maybe put a chip in it with some gauges and a fresh auto and you would be fine. Heck if its in good shape it should tow that 8k pretty easily without a chip. Make sure all the normal wear and tear parts are in good shape. You are going to look at 2500-3k for a decent auto, not bulletproof by any means, but if you drive like a normal human and not beat on it it will last.

 

Its only 2800 for the diesel site one without converter. I have a local converter shop that can do a billet front triple disk with torrington bearings and furnace brazed fins for under 500$
In my opinion that's a great value for 3300$

 

My personal opinion is that there is no comparison when towing with a manual. I'm not letting a computer decide when my truck should shift. Yes there is some loss of power between shifts, but with the right combo it comes back pretty quick. My conversion cost about 2700. It can definitely be done cheaper. We did e fuel at the same time so it was 3k total. I didn't know about dieselsite at the time, so there were no built auto options that I could fit in my budget. All that being said, I have a very stiff 500hp clutch and it is terrible in traffic. Pure awfulness. Normally I'd big rig it and let 1st do it's thing through traffic, but the idiots around me have to cut over and in and out. Blah blah blah. If I had to do it all over again, I may go with a John woods or BTS. However, if I ever get my DD fixed, I may feel differently as I won't be driving the truck every day.

 

Thanks, yeah I was able to tow my 31' Nomad (Skyline), 7800 lbs. I'm not sure if you read my first post. I've never taken it off LI, roads are kind of flat. I used to pull it out on the beach and it did pretty well. On the road I could have used a bit more acceleration, but not bad. I want to go off Island and I don't want to find out the hard way that she can't pull on long grades. We go out to the Kentucky Horse Park every summer and I want to bring the camper next year. Not sure she'll like pulling through West Virginia. If you've been there, you know what I mean.

 

Agreed 100%. I have/had both. Its nice to have the boosted shifts, but other than that I'd never want the auto for towing to be quite honest, built or not. Sorry 5k for a built trans with warranty is way out of my budget... 3300 Thats not all too bad, but I still can rebuild a ZF twice and drop in two 400 hp clutches for that... rebuild lasts 100k-150k with a new clutch towing like I do...will a built auto of any kind take that abuse for 200k???? I'm just going to put a bit a doubt in thinking it would.... but could be wrong

I'd think an auto would be quite a bit more fun to drive if the truck was a toy or hot rod, but thats not what my DD is. It tows heavy and quite often, and especially in the mountain passes gear selection is vital to uphill and even more importantly down hill.