Error404
photographer
My car is strictly a weekend pleasure car, and that usually ends me up in the mountains. I'd like to say first off, that I would rather have an automatic transmission for the ease of use, and because I flat out never learned to drive a manual very well! I enjoy the auto transmission when it works good on the flat roads! I'd like to see if my two issues here can be resolved through tuning, or something else? A manual valve body and a ratchet shifter would be my perfect solution! But I don't think either of them exists for my car yet, due to the transmission being computer controlled?
There are two main issues I have with the way the transmission is shifting right now. B&M's 'ratchet shifter' (if it ever hits the stores!) will take care of both of them I think, even though the lag between shifts would still be there. I want to see if something can be done about my issues with the shifting before the ratchet shifter arrives? Both of these issues I think would easily be solved by the shifter, because all I really want to do is keep the transmission in the gear it's already in! and not shift up or down shift while under part throttle! Under WOT it works like a champ, and I wouldn't be using the ratchet for banging through the gears because it's great at that already! I only want to hold the transmission in it's current gear (usually 3rd!) while in the mountains. Keep in mind, both of these issues are while I'm going up-hill in the mountains.
Issue #1. The transmission seems to shift (under part throttle) into the next gear much to quickly into 4th and 5th gear when I'm going up-hill, so that the powerband is lost.
Say I'm motoring along nice in 3rd gear (up hill!) and all is well. I give it a bit more gas to start accelerating (not balls out, but a good push!) RPMs are climbing in 3rd gear from 2500-3000 RPM with good acceleration and a moderately open throttle. It should keep climbing the RPMs in 3rd and pushing the car along, but then the transmission up-shifts to 4th way to quickly, ending up at 1500-1700RPM bogging up hill!! 4th gear drops the RPMs so low that I can tell the motor is struggling and bogging a bit with the throttle open a good ways!
Then naturally I have to press the throttle down farther towards WOT to get the transmission to shift again, THEN the transmission pops back down to 3rd gear (or even 2nd!) after a 1-2 seconds and I take off like a rocket, sometimes to fast because I'm now no longer at part throttle and a decent acceleration, but almost WOT balls out to get the transmission to shift. Kind of like the power is either all there, or not there (bogging 1600RPM in to high of a gear) when I get to the 3rd-5th gear range of the transmission. 1st and 2nd seem to do just fine, though probably because the 4.10s I don't really drive around in 1st or 2nd very often, mostly 3rd while in the mountains.
The screwy thing is, when the transmission bogs like that at 1600RPM or so in 4th or 5th gear, I glance at my boost gauge, and I'm at like 5+ PSI on the blower, and I can hear it whining away! The motor is trying to give power, but the transmission is in a higher cruising gear until it finally clicks and decides to pop me down a gear or two!
I have a funny feeling this is due to the torque converter locking up? I can feel the car lurch back and forth sometimes when it shifts hard and early like this, just like someone slammed in a gear on a manual transmission while popping the clutch out to fast under part throttle. And the lagging while bogging in 1600RPM before it down-shifts, I have a feeling this is because the converter is locked up and doesn't yet want to release it so the transmission can down shift for power?
Issue #2. Also while going up hill, say I'm in 3rd gear going around a turn, I let off the throttle (sometimes not even all the way off) to slow the car down a bit for the turn, then the transmission up-shifts into 4th gear (1600RPM again!) then as soon as I exit the turn naturally I want my power back!! So I press the gas down, it bogs for a second, then clicks back down into 3rd gear and I have all the power I want
Solutions? I think this #2 issue is just the way automatic transmissions work, when the car is no longer accelerating, it up-shifts to a cruising gear. Makes sense to me! So this issue I think will only be solved by the ratchet shifter. Issue #1, while solvable with the ratchet shifter, still seems a bit funny to me. Is this something that can be tuned out?
I don't really ever recall having this issue (issue #1) before the Whipple and the torque converter. So maybe the torque converter needs to be compensated for somehow in the tune? I'm going to have the car back over to Greg at RET to see if he can do anything with it. Unfortunately, his shop isn't anywhere near the mountains and we won't be able to test it right away! So I have a feeling it will take a few tries to get it right? Unless he has dealt with this kind of issue before. Has anyone dealt with this before? What needs to be changed in the tune to fix my issue? Is it related to the new torque converter?
Tests! I have tested this with the factory shifter, leaving the transmission in 3rd as I'm going up the mountains (RPMs between 2500 and 5000 under a good acceleration, right where I want it, when I don't have room for a WOT blast) and it works like a charm! Only issue I have, is that it would probably be way to easy to accidentally bump the shifter down into 2nd or 1st gear because there are NO hard stops on the shifter inbetween 1st and Drive!! So, I have only done this a few quick times to make sure that having a ratchet shifter with actual hard stops in between each gear would settle my issues.
This is probably just the ramblings of a guy who really should just trade in the car for a manual, but I want to see if something can be done before I even start thinking about that! I didn't seem to have this issue before the torque converter.
There are two main issues I have with the way the transmission is shifting right now. B&M's 'ratchet shifter' (if it ever hits the stores!) will take care of both of them I think, even though the lag between shifts would still be there. I want to see if something can be done about my issues with the shifting before the ratchet shifter arrives? Both of these issues I think would easily be solved by the shifter, because all I really want to do is keep the transmission in the gear it's already in! and not shift up or down shift while under part throttle! Under WOT it works like a champ, and I wouldn't be using the ratchet for banging through the gears because it's great at that already! I only want to hold the transmission in it's current gear (usually 3rd!) while in the mountains. Keep in mind, both of these issues are while I'm going up-hill in the mountains.
Issue #1. The transmission seems to shift (under part throttle) into the next gear much to quickly into 4th and 5th gear when I'm going up-hill, so that the powerband is lost.
Say I'm motoring along nice in 3rd gear (up hill!) and all is well. I give it a bit more gas to start accelerating (not balls out, but a good push!) RPMs are climbing in 3rd gear from 2500-3000 RPM with good acceleration and a moderately open throttle. It should keep climbing the RPMs in 3rd and pushing the car along, but then the transmission up-shifts to 4th way to quickly, ending up at 1500-1700RPM bogging up hill!! 4th gear drops the RPMs so low that I can tell the motor is struggling and bogging a bit with the throttle open a good ways!
Then naturally I have to press the throttle down farther towards WOT to get the transmission to shift again, THEN the transmission pops back down to 3rd gear (or even 2nd!) after a 1-2 seconds and I take off like a rocket, sometimes to fast because I'm now no longer at part throttle and a decent acceleration, but almost WOT balls out to get the transmission to shift. Kind of like the power is either all there, or not there (bogging 1600RPM in to high of a gear) when I get to the 3rd-5th gear range of the transmission. 1st and 2nd seem to do just fine, though probably because the 4.10s I don't really drive around in 1st or 2nd very often, mostly 3rd while in the mountains.
The screwy thing is, when the transmission bogs like that at 1600RPM or so in 4th or 5th gear, I glance at my boost gauge, and I'm at like 5+ PSI on the blower, and I can hear it whining away! The motor is trying to give power, but the transmission is in a higher cruising gear until it finally clicks and decides to pop me down a gear or two!
I have a funny feeling this is due to the torque converter locking up? I can feel the car lurch back and forth sometimes when it shifts hard and early like this, just like someone slammed in a gear on a manual transmission while popping the clutch out to fast under part throttle. And the lagging while bogging in 1600RPM before it down-shifts, I have a feeling this is because the converter is locked up and doesn't yet want to release it so the transmission can down shift for power?
Issue #2. Also while going up hill, say I'm in 3rd gear going around a turn, I let off the throttle (sometimes not even all the way off) to slow the car down a bit for the turn, then the transmission up-shifts into 4th gear (1600RPM again!) then as soon as I exit the turn naturally I want my power back!! So I press the gas down, it bogs for a second, then clicks back down into 3rd gear and I have all the power I want
Solutions? I think this #2 issue is just the way automatic transmissions work, when the car is no longer accelerating, it up-shifts to a cruising gear. Makes sense to me! So this issue I think will only be solved by the ratchet shifter. Issue #1, while solvable with the ratchet shifter, still seems a bit funny to me. Is this something that can be tuned out?
I don't really ever recall having this issue (issue #1) before the Whipple and the torque converter. So maybe the torque converter needs to be compensated for somehow in the tune? I'm going to have the car back over to Greg at RET to see if he can do anything with it. Unfortunately, his shop isn't anywhere near the mountains and we won't be able to test it right away! So I have a feeling it will take a few tries to get it right? Unless he has dealt with this kind of issue before. Has anyone dealt with this before? What needs to be changed in the tune to fix my issue? Is it related to the new torque converter?
Tests! I have tested this with the factory shifter, leaving the transmission in 3rd as I'm going up the mountains (RPMs between 2500 and 5000 under a good acceleration, right where I want it, when I don't have room for a WOT blast) and it works like a charm! Only issue I have, is that it would probably be way to easy to accidentally bump the shifter down into 2nd or 1st gear because there are NO hard stops on the shifter inbetween 1st and Drive!! So, I have only done this a few quick times to make sure that having a ratchet shifter with actual hard stops in between each gear would settle my issues.
This is probably just the ramblings of a guy who really should just trade in the car for a manual, but I want to see if something can be done before I even start thinking about that! I didn't seem to have this issue before the torque converter.
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haha!
I currently have an auto, and I'm going to see if my issues can be resolved (with the shifter and some tuning) and still keep the auto 
