Less messy. Much easier. Faster. Not certain why they got rid of drain plugs, but I do know for a fact, Mercedes did around MY '99 because of costs. A few short years later, they realized that was a stupid way to save money and put them in again.

Fluids are so much better than they ever has been, but I am not a believer of a lifetime fluid. Sure, the new stuff is substantially better and will last longer, but lifetime is a long time for me. If the product life is about 10 years, why would you design it to go 100 years?

I am also going to drill a hole in the side of the oil pan so I can check/adjust the fluid level without using the stick [a lot like a differential] Why? Have you ever tried checking the level of the transmission after you have dumped oil down the tube? It takes forever. Is that residual on the stick? Is it the actual level? Is the fluid hot enough?

Ever see where the dipstick is on a 95 F250 5.8? Not blaming Mark K, but Ford should be ashamed of the location. I most likely I will be butchering the dipstick & tube so you can actually use it without burning yourself. I am not an engineer but I have worked with hundreds. Most of them were German and since I had a good working relationship with them, I understood there are many parameters that we the consumer/mechanic do not know about. I don't believe the engineer goes out of their way to design something stupid or just to pi$$ people off further down the line. I just cannot wrap my head around why Ford put the dipstick in the location it is. I suspect the only real answer is 'This is on the parts shelf, see if this fits.'

Most of what I did was an experiment. Will it work? How will it work? Will it last? What is this idiot doing? There are plenty of transmission tear down/build video's but I could not find any that show what you can do internally. Now that I know it works, I just got to see for how long.

 

I was there when the drainplugs were eliminated. Yes, it was cost. That was the only reason. Everyone agreed they were useful, but it was cheaper to eliminate them.

Good, because I had exactly zero input on where the dipstick was going to be located.

 

If you ever do find that person in charge of dipsticks, they got to be about 7'6", with a wingspan of double that. They must love cooking because their hands have to tolerate heat and tight places. They might have really skinny arms because their hands would have to have asbestos gloves on so they would not get burned by the hot exhaust and all the air injection hoses/hardware that is around there. Really good eyesight so they can see it under all that stuff. 10" longer and it would have been so much easier. Maybe, they were spending too much on drain plugs and did not have any money on dipsticks.

I purchased a van dipstick and it is much longer, but has the wrong bends. Too little time to screw with it. When I do put the stroker engine in it, I will mock up a good dipstick using the engine and the old transmission. Something that someone that is 5'11" can reach and not get burned. I believe the van dipstick would be ideal because of the length, tube, not so good.

 

I got the transmission in and I was able to back the truck out of the shop and go on a road test. For a few days, I drove the truck and as you expect, some of the shifts were too firm. I kind of expected that but was hoping for something that was perfect. With the few miles I put on it, I noticed a weird noise that was coming from first gear, only when the truck was moving. The noise was not that loud, so it could be there all the time. I raised the truck up on the rack and located the noise mostly toward the front of the transmission.

The problem I have is I'm taking this truck camping and towing a 5th wheel in a few days. I elected to take the transmission back out and inspect for damage. I did. Took everything apart, no metal debris, weird wear patterns, etc. What to do?

While the transmission was a apart, I elected to reduce the hole for the 3-4 shift and a slight reduction for the converter clutch. Put everything back together again and yes, the noise is still there.

Sucks to be me, but at some point, the only thing I can do is drive it and see what happens. I went camping and the first hill, I noticed the converter was not locking and the fluid was getting up to 200F. Short hill too. Maybe a mile or two. At the top of the hill was was puzzled why the converter would not lock. I pulled in to get gas and pulled out the laptop and checked the setting with the Tweecer. Sure enough, the values I entered was not idea for towing. I reset the values and now the converter locks. I kept going. The temps was mostly around 170F and no higher than 200F while going over Mt Rainier pass.

Long story, but two weeks later, we made it home without any transmission failures. The noise I heard is gone. The transmission does at times shifts really hard. I mean bangs so hard that I think something may break. Other times it shifts perfectly. On this two week journey, I was able to change the electrical settings and improve some things, but not everything. I also got a very small drip from the front pump area. Not certain what that is, but I will be taking this transmission out again. I was planing on doing this because I want to 'see' what this noise was and to see what's inside the pan.

One weird issue is that the transmission shifting was similar with the old transmission. The only parts that I swapped over was the shifter selector switch [starter lockout/neutral safety] only because my supplier sent me the wrong one and the actual linkage that goes through the case. The core transmission did not have it and I could not find one for sale. It is highly possible that the switch is causing the problem but I have not tested that. No matter what, I plan on replacing the switch just because of the age of the part, but I like testing parts before I load up the cannon.

So, some success' some failures but the camping trip was good. Next year, focus on the engine. The goal is a 408 but leaning on a 418. Keeping the Kenne-Bell supercharger. Aluminum heads, camshaft, and possibly long tube headers.

I'll throw in some pictures when I disassemble the transmission again. I will post the changes with the accumulator. Right now, I am leaning on removing the Tugger springs or installing the smaller boost valve. I'm thinking I cannot lower the EPC pressures low enough or that the springs are too strong. The harsh shift is intermittent and happens on a manual upshift, light throttle. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

The computer uses the PRNDL switch to know what gear the shift lever is commanding so it might be possible that it could be messing up sometimes and that's causing the computer to command maximum line pressure due to a fault. Maybe this makes it slam shift once in a while.

 

That is what I am suspecting. I hate to replace parts without testing but the goal of this rebuild was to do a complete swap, as in nothing from the old transmission was going to be installed on this one. Since my supplier was sending me the wrong shifter switch, I had to use the old one. It certainly would make sense but it would be just my luck that the only part I did reuse was the part that was faulty.

I will post what I find. Right now, I got other cars to resolve.

 

I just looked at my notes on my transmission with the Tugger kit. The holes sizes that worked for me are .094 2nd, .100 3rd and .094 4th. This works very well and the shift quality is excellent loaded or empty. On my pump I went with .093 for the converter lockup firmness. When it goes in and out of lockup it feels just like another shift. Not harsh and not mushy. Just right. I think that all of this shift quality adjustment has to be done by trial and error with some fine tuning in the software if possible. I did some of that and the only hole I had to change was for 3rd gear. I went from .078 to .100.

 

That is what I am looking for. Thanks for the information.

I ended up closing the 3/4 shift hole to .082, when I had the transmission apart the second time. I suspect there will be a third time, mostly to confirm that the noise I originally heard can be sourced and to triple check the modifications/adjustments are looking good. That and to find out the source of the front pump leak.

 

I was also thinking about the small block stroker with a blower that you've got. One thing to consider is the thermal loading of the pistons. Most "truck" engines are designed with a fairly short stroke compared to the deck height of the engine. I think that this is done to give the pistons more mass so that they can cope with the loading and the duty cycle of a heavy duty application.

About 10 or 12 years ago I built a 505 Chevy for a customer, 9.800 deck height, 6.385 rod length with a 4.250 stroke. It was built with a flat top piston and an open chamber head for a 1 ton 4 wheel drive pickup that he used to haul stuff, tow a trailer as well as horse around. Power and torque were great, it ran excellent and while it did burn a lot of gas it ran on the cheap stuff and it didn't seem to be worse than the previous engine that was in the truck.

He ran it for several years and then decided to use the engine as the basis of an engine to do some mud racing. He had me rebuild it, make it high compression and swap to a roller camshaft. When I tore it down everything looked fine but the pistons really had a lot of caramelized oil underneath the head, all around the pin bosses and those areas. The pistons were not junk and the cylinder walls were fine but they had been worked hard.

 

I have a complete core 5.8L roller engine out of a 94 van. It's been checked out at the machine shop and rough bored to .030. Once I get the pistons, then the rest of the machining will be done.

I will go with a forged pistons but get the ones with the high silicon content [4032]. I really do not need to be concerned about how much the pistons will expand because under load, I suspect it would be a fair amount so I do not want to get the regular/stronger pistons[2618]. Still researching that project. I am certain I will go with the AFR heads and they recommended the 185, if I recall. I have no idea on the cam but I got time.

Before that happens, I would like to get this shifting correct. The engine tuning is fairly good right now. I still am playing with the fuel mixture at full throttle/low RPM's, it's a bit leaner than I want. The rest of the places are doing well.

 

I don't know if a 4032 or 1018 piston is better or worse about handling a high heat load and duty cycle. The 4032 will expand less and require less cold clearance so it might be more effective. The compression height was about 1.250 on my big Chevy example. 4.100 stroke 6.200 rod length ends up with about the came height piston as in that engine.

 

After all these changes in my transmission, the icing on the cake was to use my Tweecer to adjust the EPC pressures lower [by 50%] so I could get the shift to be firm, not harsh, or down right neck breaking.

Those pressure adjustments were located in 'Engine Torque for TQ_Net Calculation'. I lower all the numbers by 50% and some as much as 75%. I finally figure things out when I installed a pressure/temp gauge in the truck [replaced the trans temp gauge].

Those that want to strengthen the E4OD, need to understand, if you cannot adjust the signal to the EPC valve, then you might have problems with shift quality. Using my Tweecer, I was able to get the shift timing dialed much better for towing. Including converter lockup/unlock timing.

Still waiting for my engine to come out of the machine shop.

 

The converter drain plug got my attention. And Mark said yes to cut costs. I suppose that is the same reason for getting rid of bolt together torque converters as well. Imagine the cost savings of those and not needing hyper expensive machinery to rebuild a torque converter.

 

A followup to my build.

So far, this transmission has handled a lot of towing miles. One thing I have had a problem with is tuning. I have a Tweecer and I can change most of the transmission settings. Changing shift timing is fairly easy and self explanatory. Changing the quality of shift, not so easy.

I eventually got a temperature/pressure gauge and installed in in place of just the temperature gauge. With that data, I can see that the changes in shift quality was not doing anything with the line pressure. I kept at it and found if I change the engine torque data that the transmission was using, the pressure did change. Now, I finally got something I can use.

After several months of tuning, I finally got the transmission to shift a bit softer, still firm, but softer. Basically, I had the engine torque reading 10. What does 10 mean? I can only guess that is the amount of torque the engine is actually making. I know the stock number is as high as 398, so I suspect it is the actual calculated torque the engine is making. This works. I can change the settings so when I have my foot on the gas pedal more, it will raise the line pressure accordingly.

I also had a problem with code 628, you know the dreaded converter slipping code. There is no way the converter is slipping, but I know, I have to convince the transmission software that it is not slipping. With that code, I can instantly see the line pressure go to full when the code is set. Full line pressure at shifting is something that will cause a really hard shift, especially with what I got. Thanks to Mike @Tweecer, I was able to get a couple options I can try. One setting is to raise the amount of slip before it detects that it's slipping AND another to actually turn that feature off. I have yet to use these setting. At this time, I want it off. It's hard to deal with the hard shift while going up a pass, then pull over when you are at the top, clear codes, then get back on the road. The wife gives you funny looks and we are suppose to be enjoying our time alone.

I noticed that my line pressure could not be changed lower than 90psi. With all the updates I did, I was wondering if I could put in a stock pressure regulator spring and get the pressure back to stock. To save you all the time/effort, nobody makes a stock spring. The springs you can buy new have higher pressures. You just got to get a used pump to get a stock spring and hope nobody has gone through the pump. That is what I did. I purchased a used pump, took the spring out and installed it in my pump. With the transmission out, I had my converter guy go through the converter again. I asked him to check for any issues so I would know if I did have a slipping issue or not. His response was there was very slightly signs of slipping, but nothing out of the ordinary. So, I have the rebuilt 3 clutch converter refreshed.

I finally got the transmission/converter back in and went on a quick road test. With the tune the same, the line pressure dropped about 20psi. What is more important, the transmission now shifts perfect. That is with my tune for the softest shift possible. With my tune, I can always go firmer, but I can only go as soft as the pressure regulating spring. So, when I am not towing, it shifts great. With a click of the ****, the tune will change with the towing requirements.

Right now, with very limited driving and no towing, using the stock engine torque settings, the transmission is shifting firm. I like it. With engine torque settings lower, the transmission is more like stock. I'm towing the 5th wheel this weekend, but it will be mostly flat. That means, I will have no 628 codes [that only happens on passes] but I can also dial in the firmness where I want it.

What I have learned and I have not read anyone else saying this is.....If you update/change every part and valvebody for firm, the transmission will eventually shift harsh. It seems like you are just compounding the level of firmness with each upgrade. I won't be doing this again, but if I had to do this again, I would not install the upgraded pressure regulating spring and do the rest.

The only way I would use this upgraded spring is if I was building a stock transmission with no other mods. The use of the spring with all my mods is way overkill. Let the pressure solenoid do it's thing and have a tuner to dial in the pressure to handle your set up.