Guys, I installed the new Factory Tech Valve Body in the E4OD yesterday. All and all went down without a hitch, what a nasty mess getting the factory tranny pan down. Even at the Ford house here which have any and all things to use and up on a lift, I still made somewhat a mess.

I did weld a drain plug in the pan so next time when just changing oil and filter in tranny, it won't be nearly as much a mess. What a joke not putting a drain plug in the tranny pan.

The shop manager told me they have a bladder machine now that they can use to change out the tranny fluid. They do this every other time a customer comes in for a tranny service. You don't change the filter when doing this and thats whey he told me they do this every other time.

They load this bladder with 16-18 quarts of fluid and hook it up to the small cooling lines of the tranny. It pushes the new fluid through the tranny and they watch for the color change in the fluid as it is returned to the other compartment of the bladder. Really kind of cool how it works.

After I changed the valve body out, I also dropped the oil from the torque convertor, that takes for ever as it drains out slowly. while it drained out I painted both tranny pan and the convertor cover plate. The cover plate for the torque convertor was never painted on my truck so it was rusty. All things I have done now under the GWE has left the two driveshafts looking really bad now, they were never painted from Ford either. You can see this in some of the PIC's in my Gallery. I will be sanding them as well and painting those soon as well as finishing up the frame repaint...

I have added to my picture gallery a few new PIC's of all this. It has been raining here for the last few days, so yesterday I really didn't get to do much testing with the truck other than drive her home. Has a way better shift and lock up for sure though. I hope to get to driver her around and futher check all this out since the roads have dried and the sun is out today. Hope you guys have a great Sunday...

 

Ok please tell me what this new valve body will do for the truck?? How much did it cost?? Will it also help the tranny last longer when pulling loads??
The bladder idea sounds cool, what will they think of next??... hahahah

DR JOE

 

This valve body changes the pressure in the tranny basically, a little different approach from the springs and plunger shimming for approx. 80 bucks...This valve body cost me 227 bucks for my tranny and I have to send my old valve body in as a core for this price.

The mods on this work at shift points and pressure the tranny uses to lock the clutches and wear plates together. From what I have seen so far it shifts are more sudden as a distinct shift, instead of how the E4OD sort of slide from one gear to the next slipping the clutches as it did this.

The tranny now has the first two gear changes really crisp and from one gear to the next. Then with how it shifts from 3rd to OD(4th) it makes two more distinct shifts even though its only one gear. What happens now instead of a long slipping action as the tranny slide from 3rd to 4th before real easy and with the torque convertor finally locking up, I now have the tranny make a torque convertor lock up of four in two stages. For a lack of a better way to describe this, its like putting a fifth gear in the tranny sort of.

The tranny goes into a stage one of locked up 4th while speed and RPM's are still coming up as you power on up and then a secondary locked up situation once you get to the certain balanced point the tranny senses with power and speed requirements of load and amount of throttle given the truck.

Its really kind of cool how this tranny does this now. Its just like a fith gear added if I didn't know better LOL...I never did like how this tranny technology slipped from one gear to the next. It just didn't make any sense to me how a tranny clutch pack was going to live with all that going on all the time. Well now I don't have the what everyone calls a nice smooth shift. It does like the auto tranny's use to do, just simply go from gear to the next. Just that quick too. No transition period between gears except for the four gear which as I said it has two locked up periods in it now which works fine for me since things are not slipping as they use to be.

I still have not drove the truck on good dry roads yet so that I can stand on her a little. Yesterday it rained on and off all day keeping the roads wet. I will report on how things work later today soon as I get to run her down the road a little. I like how it works so far. Heck the tranny may go out on me first thing. I honestly don't see how its ran 132K slipping as Ford designed it. I will post results later...

 

Rowdyone

Thank you, As I have had my PS for a year now I am still learning all kinds of neet thing about this truck. Where did you get the Factory Tech Valve Body from?? Dealer or one of the vendors one this web site?? Also what tranny fluid did you go with??

Thanks for the info,

DR JOE

 

Does the built valve body do any more then a Sonnax set-up on a stock valve body? It only takes 5min. to install the valve and springs, can't see spending $200+ for the valve body when I can go the Sonnax route for $50, is there more to it then this?

 

Guys, the Factory Tech valve body is different way of doing things in the tranny. You guys look at their web site and do a little reading you will see his approach to this is on purpose and done this way as its a better way. Sure the springs and plungers can make changes in the hydralics of the tranny, the way this dude does his IMO is a more consistant way to control the hydralics than the increased spring tensions the others do.

I talked to this guy on the phone at lenght about this too before I bit the bullet and bought one for my truck. Now with the drive I had yesterday on dry roads sold me on the final thing, which is me sending in my original valve body as a core so I don't have to pay for that too. I tried to make a post last night about my little drive I had yesterday, but the site was too busy LOL...

I must say this site does rock. Best site for good info and no BS I have seen or been on. Credit really is due to those who run the ship here keeping the machine here with paper for all us to post on, even guys like Rowdy who burn off lots of paper LOL...My new tranny mods ROCK too guys, this tranny of mine now is unreal with how it goes through the gears and locks up. Absolutely awesome tranny mod, even at 227.00$$$

The oil I used was the synthetic Ford Tranny fluid. Its all I have ever used too. All of Fords fluids have been changed to Synthetic blends now for quite sometime too. Some of which ain't cheap either. I know their gear oil I put in my limited slip axles last weekend when I serviced those out, was 20 bucks a quart, plus the friction modifier they have that you add one small bottle to each axle. Still with what things cost these days the price of good synthetics, its cheap insurance using them. I don't use a full synthetic engine oil in my diesels though, but everything else is. I like the Shell Rotela T 15-40 motor oil for the diesel... You guys have a good day, the site link for the Factory Tech valve body can be seen by a search on Yahoo for the name Factory Tech... This site doesn't do hyper links or allows hyper links or something way different about this on here, so do a seach and you will find this, or Email me and I will hyper link you on the site...

 

I also did the factory tech valve body along with a after market T/C. The combination makes a big difference in what you get to the ground.