Hey guys, just put in a BTS trans and thought I'd give first impressions. You have to do a phone call with Brian before he sends you a trans. Took me about 5 weeks to get the call, then we talked about my driving, mods and how I use the truck. Got the trans 1 week later and put her in yesterday. Pretty straightforward install. The trans comes with all new sensors installed, a very cool looking 14" (I think) torque converter, and it's pretty to look at. It's about what you'd expect for what they're going for. I paid just under $6K, shipped to my state, which was $800 or so, if I recall (includes core going back). Brian includes 3 pieces of paper with the trans, a baggie of 6 TC bolts and studs (the nuts are already threaded on to the studs) and a pretty awesome shipping container special built for the trans and core return. You have to use his TC bolts/studs. There is a big warning that if you don't, you'll damage the trans. You hand tighten all 6, then you torque them to 35 lb ft. Pretty easy. Fill her with 13 qts of your favorite fluid (Brian didn't have a recommendation, but said, "You can use synthetic if you want with this trans", so I used Mobil 1 synthetic). Once you have 13qts in, fire it up and "IMMEDIATELY" add another 5 qts (6 in my case with the Mishimoto cooler). My original trans was still in the truck, @ 220K on her, and worked...but was fading. I would sometimes feel her slipping around 2nd/3rd gears under load. I'd let off the throttle, and she'd get back in line...but it was time. I'm running 180/30 FF injectors, JeliBuilt 'Modified Stock' tunes, a KC300 turbo, Adrenaline pump and whatnot. She is healthy, but I drive like the old man that I am. I noticed immediately that when I put her in gear, say to back out of our driveway up a very slight slope to the road, she'll pull herself out of the driveway with zero throttle. My stock trans would hit that same driveway slope and slow to a stop. I'd give her some throttle and she'd pull on out of the driveway. At traffic lights, my stock trans would almost sit there waiting for me to give it throttle to move. This one, not so much... Once you put her in drive or reverse, she wants to move. Not fighting the brake pedal, but once you let off that pedal...she's moving. I love it. Brian said the shifts would feel like a 'fist closing', and that's about exactly how they feel. Firm, but not harsh at all. I took my wife out this AM for a drive and she didn't notice anything about the shifting until I told her. My buddy put in a Sam Wyse trans and it's pretty harsh. I am sure that with the right top, my wife would expose herself if she was riding in my friends truck from the violent shifts. I told Brian that I am old. My wife is old. What I'd have wanted when I was young in shifting and watching her bounce around in her shirt, is not what I'm looking for at my age... That time has passed. He gave me exactly what I wanted. You'd definitely know she's firmer than stock, but not so much that it's unpleasant. My wife didn't notice until I told her. Pretty impressive. I noticed that the truck is solidly in each gear, where with the old stock trans, the TC seemed to be unlocked all the time. Give it some throttle, and the RPM would jump up and the truck would start moving. The BTS trans is firmly in each gear. When I lay in to the throttle, she is locked in gear and moving. I haven't given her a lot of throttle yet, as this turbo comes on pretty hard in the last few hundred RPM. I'm going to let her break in a bit and change the oil at about 500-1K miles or so. I have no doubt that after that first fluid change, she'll handle every bit of what my old 7.3 can give her. Right now, I'm just enjoying how much more power seems to be getting to the ground. I'm pretty sure my MPG will go up as just letting off the brake pedal moves the truck. She didn't want to do that before. I don't have many miles on her (@ 100), but they have been awesome so far. If she stays this way, I couldn't be happier with her for a daily driver and occasional tow vehicle. Brian and his gals in the office are as friendly and helpful as you could want, and I went with them because of you guys here on FTE. I'll update a few thousand miles from now, but I don't anticipate any issues....it's a transmission. I am looking forward to giving her some throttle after the first oil change, and seeing better MPG. Pretty sure that'll happen. Thanks to the guys at FTE for recommending BTS and Brian for a trans. They're not cheap (who is), but I think you get what you pay for with BTS.

 

That’s PURDY 👍🏻

 

Congratulations! There is a reason that is the gold standard for the 4R100.

Harsh shifts are dumb. Brian’s transmission shifts just like you’re seeing even at 600hp. It’s dreamy. Also smooth at 22k lbs gross pulling my Toy Hauler with the hammer down!!

I think he recommends 1rst fluid change at 30k miles? Might check on that.

 

I am soooo jealous....It is THE mod I have wanted for a LOOOOONG time. Congratulations to you sir. You won't be disappointed.

 

Brian is in Arkansas. My mom's side is from AR and I spent a lot of time there growing up. There are two kind of people in AR, from my experience. Funny as hell, and serious as hell. I spent about 20 min with Brian and I think he might be the latter. I felt like I had a reasonably good handle on how these transmissions work in general terms. I was a tech for 15 years and built 1, installed hundreds, but in 5 minutes he fixed that thinking. He has probably forgotten more about the 4R100 than most people will ever know. He asked me the typical questions about my driving and mods and you could hear that he had a good idea what he was going to do. He told me to call him after I drove it for a while just to let him know how it works. He specifically told me to take it out, get up to some speed, then downshift it a gear and let off the throttle. He said, "You can use my trans to help brake the truck, but you need to go see for yourself. Once you do that and the truck slows, let it get slower and drop it into 1st. You'll see the nose of the truck dip down. It'll help coming down a grade or hill when you're towing." I was gonna tow this next weekend, but we're about 30 miles from the fires in CA. My buddy had to use my house yesterday for laundry and food as he was evacuated. I was really looking forward to it, but considering my last camping trip resulted in an evacuation last weekend for these same fires, I reckon 2 weeks from now it'll still be shut down, or we wouldn't want to go there anyways. The grade we drive up is about the steepest grade around, and it's brutal. The fires are about 30 miles out, and they don't appear to be coming my way, but this is what it looked like this AM coming to work at 630. Just 3 weeks ago, it would have been bright and sunny at this time of day. That ain't fog....

 

I'll ask him when I call him next week, Jason. He insisted that I call back and give him a report, so I'll see when to change the fluid.
Thanks HK. I had to commit to this truck to put that much $ into it. I have been very tempted over the last year to add a 2005-6 Dodge MT cc, 4wd to the mix. I've wanted one for years, and after a continuous flow of cash and blood in to this truck, I was feeling a little down about her. It will never, ever, end. I'm paranoid, **** about maintenance and preemptive fixes, and have mental problems. It's a bad combination. I talked to my account manager (wife) about my dilemma, either get into a 100K mile Dodge manual trans for $25K, or finish what I started with this truck and just accept that every year there will be a requisite financial and blood investment. She said she'd go with whatever I wanted to do, but she said, "I know you love that truck. If you get a Dodge, it'll be the same process of changing stuff and doing all the maintenance/fixes, so what's the difference? I think you should keep going with this one and we'll make it work so long as you can make sure it gets us home." No pressure... At least the trans part is good.

 

“No pressure”

 

I hear you. I won't even tell you what my dad just spent on a TOTAL body and frame restoration on his '02 SC 7.3. It would make your head spin. Yesterday we just put 8 brand new Alliant 160's in it. It is always something. My'03 is intermittently not starting. I have a new (less than 5,000 miles) starter which is a gear reduction unit and built by one of the most reputable places around my area, but every once in a while it just locks up and there is no rhyme or reason to it. Needless to say, I have low confidence in the truck right now until I get it worked out. Good thing it is no longer my daily driver. It's ALWAYS something, but I love these trucks, and I would have a hard time selling it and getting another.

 

same. I wonder how much more power I would realize if/when I get a BTS. Currently if I roll hard into the throttle the 160/80s spit out the fuel and the 364.5 spins, but the trans just slips for a few seconds. I bet with a BTS is would just rip!

 

You would definitely be going forward quicker. I have the HD4R100 from Ford, a GTP38R and 160/30's. Mine moves pretty good.

 

It 'feels' like I got a little off the line push, well before there is any boost or I even touch the throttle. It just feels tighter, if that makes any sense. Very hard to explain, but it's a lot like Brian said, "You want each shift to feel like your making/squeezing a fist". I'm absolutely positive that my old TC was on her last legs. Like I said, when I leave the driveway, which is level, I've got about 30' before it connects to the road with maybe a 6" rise in grade. Practically nothing. Every single morning, backing up, she'd slowly start idling backward, then as soon as the little driveway ramp hit, she'd stop. I'd have to give her 20% throttle to wake the neighbors and push up over that rise and onto the road surface. Now, when I put her into reverse, she is moving, at idle, just like if I were giving it 20% throttle. When I'm at a light, I notice I have to put more brake pedal on her to hold it. If I don't, she'll creep forward 3x faster than she used to. Not at all hard to control, but it's already wanting to go just by letting off the brake. I haven't goosed her yet, and with this turbo, I don't even know how that'd work, but at least once after a few hundred miles, I intend to try it from a stop and see what happens. Brian said, "The one thing you'll notice is how much more power you're now putting to the ground compared to this stock transmission", and that's about right. It just feels like it's putting it to the ground, even idling, way more efficiently than stock.

 

You mentioned a few tranny slips in your turbo posts, after disconnecting the red line. If those 3rd gear slips were noticeable enough for you to mention in the turbo thread, do you mind elaborating on those experiences in this thread on the transmission itself, and then later let us know what Brian says about them in any follow up conversation with him?

 

Will be my next trans hands down. The JW trans didn't work out and really bad customer service with this guy. BTS all the way!

 

Yessir. I had about 210K on her when it started happening, after the turbo and tuning, I knew it wouldn't be long before she (stock trans) quit, even driving like I do. Basically, once the KC was boosting hard and hit 35psi in a 3rd gear pull (I'm guessing 40-50 to 70mph with the TC locked up), the engine RPM shot up, but the truck actually slowed down. Hard to describe, but I call it 'slipping', kind of like a manual trans clutch slipping, only when it came back down and locked back in, there was a hard jolt. It happened very quickly, but my butt on the seat and eyes on the tach said there was something 'slipping' badly. I let off the throttle and coasted down to the 40-50 mph and tried it again. Same situation. Under that 'extreme' tune, the truck would pull steadily until she hit about 2600-2900rpm (I don't remember exactly), then the RPM would surge up just past 3K and if I let off, drop back down 'in to' gear. I drove it very lightly until last weekend when I had to tow my trailer up a very big grade (@ 10K lbs) and tried it at 60/65mph. She was moving along fine in the tow tune, then on the steeper parts (100' heat), it would do the same thing. The truck would momentarily slow, while the engine would suddenly rev. Tap the brakes, which with a load on that grade was a quick deceleration, then slowly roll back in to it and she would hold at 50-55. This happened 2-3 times on the way up, and I had no issues on the way down. Once or twice this past week, on a flat road, when I was in about the same gear (2-3 or 3), I was accelerating to 70mph where two lanes merge. Both times it felt like it would shift from 2-3-2-3 really quickly, and resulted in a hard 'jolt' when it finally engaged 3rd. Both times I thought, 'Well, that's it. She's gone." But once I slowed down and cruised at 50-55, she worked fine again. Never had any issues before that pull with the KC at 35psi, and I knew it was coming one way or the other. Just an old trans and couldn't handle the testing runs.
And Bonanza you were one of the main reasons I went with BTS. I was set on JW. Sous pointed me to your thread (I think) and it changed my mind. I really appreciate you sharing that story as it helped me pick BTS instead.

 

Let's just say this is what more power going through a BTS does to your ring and pinion gears.