Those of you who have done military service will probably get the joke about the subject.

Anyway, my E4OD (E-4 - corporal - get it? Is that groaning I hear?) is making some strange noises in reverse and 1st gear. The noise is like a hissing sound, the kind that you hear when there's a small high-pressure leak, or high pressure hydraulic fluid going through a very small orifice.

It makes this sound only in reverse, and when I put the shifter in the 1 position. The odd thing is when I put the shifter in D, no hissing sound. It's only when I force the first gear, and as mentioned before, Reverse. All of this was observed with the truck not moving.

I replaced the filter and fluid late last year. The old fluid was somewhat brown, but looked normal, as did the pan. It shifts nice and firm (with the addition of the shift improver) and doesn't slip at all between shifts. Once in a great while, mostly when it's cold, when I put it in drive, it doesn't seem to engage well or want to go, but once it's rolling, it acts fine. It's only actually done this a few times, and there's no real consistency to pin it to a given condition, like below a certain temperature, etc.

So is this an indication of a failure, something wrong in the valve body, or is this just the nature of the beast?

 

Delayed reverse engagement was fairly common in the pre-95 E4s, and is one of the biggest resons why ford decided to go with a larger dsplacement pump for 1995 and later (and I thought they were conserned about cooling or lube flow). Since you mention there is a new hissing noise however, and the fact that this is a recent development there is probably something else going on in there (or at least is also going on).

Do you know if the trans is as old as the truck?
What did the pan magnet look like when you did the fluid/filter change?
Does the sound change if you rev the engine a little or allow the truck to drift forward/reverse while in gear?
You say there is no real consistency to the condition, does that include the hissing noise?

 

When you did the filter change, do you remember if the old filter pipe seal came out of the body with the pipe.

 

The hissing noise is consistent, and does not seem to get louder or quieter when I allow the truck to drift forward or back. There's too much road noise to hear it while I'm driving.

It's not new, actually, it's probably been doing it all along, I just didn't notice it until last year when I parked next to a wall and the sound reflected off of it. Since then, I've been hearing it and the sound has remained the same.

The soft engagement is the one thing that's not consistent, and it's not so much of a delay as it is just a very weak engagement. Ordinarily, when I shift into Drive, it engages firmly and the truck does the typical torque heave from the power transfer to the transmission. When it does the weak engagement, it still engages just as quickly as normal, but the truck body doesn't move at all and then when I accelerate, it doesn't seem to want to get up and go. Once I get rolling, it shifts fine and everything seems normal.

When I replaced the filter, the transmission pan came out clean. No metal chunks, just the typical grey residue stuck to the magnet that I've seen in just about every transmission I've serviced.

I did remove the old pipe seal and replace it with the new one. The hissing noise predates the new filter/fluid.

I'm going to try to record it this week and post a link to it so you can hear it.

 

I don't suppose the noise changes with the shift improver removed? Also did you try to rev the engine while in gear and holding it with the brake (not much, just enough to see if there is a change in sound).

 

rev uses higher pressure to apply whitch puts more load on the pump, this may be what your hearing esp. if the pump is worn. try to listen more closely and make sure theres not a "buzzing" noise to go with it whitch would indicate low/insufficiant fluid. also you should have the deeper pan on yours, sometimes you get sold a filter for the reg. pan and things don't work so well. i always try to get a filter made by SPX Filtran, they mnfgr. for OEM's. if your fluid was really that mucky looking you may try to flush out the system.
your B&M really jacks up the opperating pressure and solinoid opperation whitch is why you have such a hard shift. i consider them to be more of a street/strip company.
there are other companys that offer improver kits although probably not as easy to install as yours
your initial delay as you call it is most likely convertor drainback from sitting overnight. there is a mod. to be done to the v.b. that helps, also SONNAX makes update/improver componants tha let you address each area of your complaint

 

I tested it this morning and when I turned off the shift improver, the sound went away. So it seems that it has something to do with the higher pressures from the shift improver. This could be completely normal, for all I know, maybe just a noise from higher pressure fluid going through the same passages. I'm going to send B&M an email to ask if that's the case.