After visiting my friend Pat Barrett over at Level 10 transmissions this morning he gave me some good reasons why anyone putting in a performance trans valve should be very careful. He currently has 3 trucks in his shop now for repair from owners installing new power valves in their trannies. He said that there are three important things to determine if the valve will work well in your trans. the actual size of the valve and the valve spring plus the correct tension of the spring is extremely important. he says that an oversize valve or incorrect tension will cause big problems in these trannies. So everyone be careful if you plan to attempt this on your own tranny. thanks 95rcobra.

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2002 F250 SD SC SB Lariat V10.
1995 Cobra R model #185.

 

95RCobra,

Do you mean be careful and it may not work well as regards "do it yourselfers" or is the risk of premature tranny failure present even if Level10 does the installation?

Thanx Rockwell

 

The Diablo valve uses the stock spring so that rules out that factor. Also, some people choose hard shift valves rather than firm valves, then abuse the truck and wonder why they have problems. I steer people away from hard shift valves. FTE has sold many firm valves and has never had a failure... sold only one hard valve, and then only at the customers insistance after I tried to sway them. Also, I get lots of people with Lightnings, Supercharged 5.4s, etc., buying them. It stands to reason that they aren't buying them because they tow but rather because they play road warrier with their truck --- these are the type who usually want to buy a hard valve from us and even then I strongly try to sway them. They probably wouldn't like the results anyway. :-)

There are good valves, and then there are not. I don't think that being a DYIer has much to do with problems... a valve is easy to install and isn't rocket science. Of course a tranny shop is going to see the problem trucks but will never see the hundreds without problems. I have yet to meet a mechanic who says "boy you ought to see all the vehicles that don't come into my shop." :-) Its just like someone at a tranny shop saying Ford transmissions suck and Hondas don't.... well Ford sells 10 times as many vehicles so it stands to reason the shop will see 10 times more Fords.

I believe it boils down to two things:

1. following the instructions
2. choosing a quality product. The tolerances are very small so a good alloy and precise machining are a must. I've seen some valves as cheap as $29.95 and I stress the word cheap.