Automatic transmission track preparation questions

[rmatthew987]

I've recently purchased an auto 1g tsi and would like to take the car to the 1/4 mile track. What upgrades can and should be done prior to going besides standard maintenance. I would like to know what people are doing to their transmissions to make them stronger and work better.

 

[awdmonster1904]

I would look for atdsm forums

For what I know.
1 blue wire mod
2 end clutches
3 some guys install a ratchet shifter of get that fancy shift box
4 shift kit
5 trans oil cooler

All depends how much power you plan to put to the auto
http://www.importperformancetrans.com/mitsubishiauto.shtml

 

[Darksun280]

Shift kit makes the most sense. Finding out how healthy the trans is should be a priority though.

 

[danl]

Make sure the trans has full line pressure when in boost, that is the most important thing. Second most important is a trans cooler with fan. Also run a good trans fluid that can protect when hot.

 

[rmatthew987]

Oh wow thank you for all the replies! I was expecting to get flamed. I've done some research and noticed most people with "track cars" are running

Torque converter
Kiggly flex plate
Kiggly clutch packs
Shift kit
Quality fluids

I'm not sure how much of this is needed for a stock turbo stock cam car. I would like to get some seat time and be a little more productive than just rolling into it. Any recommendations for a stock engine setup for the above mentioned parts?

 

[CSFX8588]

See this:

tech data

 

[SonySlave]

What are your plans for the car? Street driving? Drag only? Both?

Keeping the stock turbo, the only things I'd do with the trans is install a shift kit, do the blue wire mod or get a ForcedFour shift box, and a decent trans cooler. The shift box will give you full fluid line pressure like the blue wire mod but also adjustable shift points, etc. Skip the re-stalled converter and Kiggly stuff for now. It's amazing how well even a tired trans will hold up when you give it some extra fluid pressure and a nice fluid cooler. I personally ran close to 50 10-sec 1/4 passes with a junkyard 150k mile trans when I first converted my car using nothing but the blue wire mod and a nice cooler. That included a ridiculous amount of dyno and street tuning time and slower 1/4 mile testing passes beforehand. I eventually wore out the clutches but never broke anything. A simple rebuild with new clutch packs and valve body mods from Metro Transmission and I was back racing a couple weeks later. I wouldn't open the trans til it needs it.

Now, if you are going to upgrade turbos, etc., my recommendation would change.

 

[bscharch]

Ok I speak with complete experience!! STAY AWAY FROM IPT I didn't get 1000 miles out of my trans and the front diff explodes

Second a better converter is needed precision industries in tn makes the best 9.5" billet converter second get the Kiggly stuff front diff support saddle and his clutch plates and get the translab shift kit slt-175 hp is the part number
And last but not least they are right about the forcedfour.com shift boxes they an amazing piece and the Kiggly rewire can be done for $4 at home and gives you the best shifts

 

[Kapok6]

SonySlave is right on.

Blue wire mod on a toggle switch. A chip from Dave at EFI Specialties is awesome too. I have a chip in conjunction with the blue wire mod on a toggle switch so I cant go between 100% pressure no matter what, to switching back to the TCU determining shift pressures.

I have a stock restalled converter, 90K+ trans that has never been opened up, (stock clutches, stock valve body, etc), a B&M cooler with a fan, Oreily's ATF +4 with some black lubeguard, and the trans shifts fine. I have an HTA DSM76 and am pushing 30psi.

 

[SonySlave]

SonySlave is right on.

Blue wire mod on a toggle switch. A chip from Dave at EFI Specialties is awesome too. I have a chip in conjunction with the blue wire mod on a toggle switch so I cant go between 100% pressure no matter what, to switching back to the TCU determining shift pressures.

I have a stock restalled converter, 90K+ trans that has never been opened up, (stock clutches, stock valve body, etc), a B&M cooler with a fan, Oreily's ATF +4 with some black lubeguard, and the trans shifts fine. I have an HTA DSM76 and am pushing 30psi.

Ah yes! I forgot about the chip from EFISpecialties if you have an EPROM TCU! Funny because I had one for awhile before I got my FF shift box. It worked great! I'd recommend the chip if you can't afford the shift box over the blue wire mod. The chip makes things seamless. He can set up new shift points in the TCU and line pressure increases by throttle position, which would make using a toggle switch for the blue wire mod useless! Also since you have a 1G, he can setup dual TCU maps that are adjustable based on the POWER/ECO button on the center console.

http://www.efispecialties.com/ - TCU Chips
http://www.forcedfour.com/ - FF Shift Boxes

 

[Kapok6]

Ah yes! I forgot about the chip from EFISpecialties if you have an EPROM TCU! Funny because I had one for awhile before I got my FF shift box. It worked great! I'd recommend the chip if you can't afford the shift box over the blue wire mod. The chip makes things seamless. He can set up new shift points in the TCU and line pressure increases by throttle position, which would make using a toggle switch for the blue wire mod useless! Also since you have a 1G, he can setup dual TCU maps that are adjustable based on the POWER/ECO button on the center console.

EFI Specialties & Performance - TCU Chips
ForcedFour.com - FF Shift Boxes

IMO, the chip does NOT render the toggle switch blue wired mod useless.

If I have the TCU control the pressure, it tells it to shift at 100% pressure at WOT, but the shift is NOT as crisp/fast as when I have the blue wire mod engaged and shift at 100%. I get better results when I have the TCU and blue wire mod working in conjunction with each other for WOT shifts.

 

[danl]

The main thing is to have full line pressure, there are many ways to increase line pressure when racing. Like sonyslave, I am on a junkyard trans, but mine has only 140K instead of his 150K! However I've been running mine for 3-4 years, probably make 100 passes per year between testing at home and actual passes at the strip. I've spent over 16 seconds on the stall a couple of times racing 19 second bracket cars (I didn't pay attention to their dial).

Full line pressure and good fluid that can handle temps. Back it up with a good trans cooler and keep trans temps in check and you just can't break these things, even on stock clutches.

 

[SonySlave]

IMO, the chip does NOT render the toggle switch blue wired mod useless.

If I have the TCU control the pressure, it tells it to shift at 100% pressure at WOT, but the shift is NOT as crisp/fast as when I have the blue wire mod engaged and shift at 100%. I get better results when I have the TCU and blue wire mod working in conjunction with each other for WOT shifts.

Fair enough but Dave can setup the 100% line pressure at any throttle percentage... 100% pressure at >80% throttle, etc. I did also notice that shifts were a little lazy with the chip but not terrible. I never noticed a difference in shifts between the blue wire mod alone and the chip. But, every car is a little different! The shift box improved shifting drastically compared to the chip though. Much, much quicker. Regardless, it's all good info for the OP!

 

[Kapok6]

Fair enough but Dave can setup the 100% line pressure at any throttle percentage... 100% pressure at >80% throttle, etc. I did also notice that shifts were a little lazy with the chip but not terrible. I never noticed a difference in shifts between the blue wire mod alone and the chip. But, every car is a little different! The shift box improved shifting drastically compared to the chip though. Much, much quicker. Regardless, it's all good info for the OP!

Yeah, my chip is set to 100% sooner than WOT, I was just using that as an example. Shifts across the board were firmed up across all throttle positions though, which I REALLY liked.

I am sure the shift boxes are nice, I just can't justify the cost of one right now when the chip was so inexpensive in relation, and I am happy with it. I may explore the box down the road though.

 

[Kapok6]

who in here runs 12's?

 

[rmatthew987]

My intentions are for 1/4, 1/8 track car only with the very very rare street adventure.

Ill continue to research the things y'all have mentioned. I have dsmlink and plan on running that (not sure if this negates the chips you are talking about) I have looked into the FF shift kit and plan on picking up one of their products.

My future goals will include a 6466/e85/slicks/etc.

I want to get the seat time while I'm building the rest of the setup so I will have some experience before the bigger turbo and power.

Anyone have any opinions on the trans cooler that STM offers?

Also I'm working with an 80k original mile 91 tsi I hope ill have good luck with these low miles

 

[SonySlave]

Well since you're wanting to work your way up to your big turbo setup then I'd stick with my recommendation above. Once you upgrade turbos then specific motor builds (2.0L-2.4L), trans builds, high stall torque converters, nitrous, etc. will come into play. I have some combinations for different scenarios that I think work well depending on the situation and goals but I won't go into all of those right now. You can always get a hold of me through PMs here if you're interested.

DSMLink is an EPROM chip for the ECU (Engine Control Unit). EFISpecialties' chip is an EPROM chip for the TCU (Transmission Control Unit). No negating there. If I was to just give you a tip, I'd really just buy the shift box from ForcedFour. You'll never have to buy another shifting device again. The higher end models have adjustable shift point control as well as a number of other cool features so you could set your shift points for the smaller turbo setup now and adjust them as you upgrade. Plus, you can keep your TCU with the shift box and switch between them at will.

The STM auto cooler kit looks pretty nice. I built my own trans cooler 'kit'. STM's kit looks like it has all of the parts necessary and is a decent sized cooler. There are much larger coolers out there that you could get and others that have fans attached to them like a radiator but STM's looks like it would be sufficient for quite some time. You could always get a bigger cooler or fan later as the lines and everything else would bolt right up to the new cooler.

 

[ExtremeDimensions]

Just a heads up OP, a successful 1/4 mi and a successful 1/8 mi car can vary vastly as far as builds go. Since you are FWD, I'd say the 1/4 mi would be easiest/ funnest for you, since you can make up for any spinning you may have done at the line.

Sony slave has given you VERY good advice, and I think if you follow that, along with reading up on all the information available here on the forums, you will be on your way to kicking butt.

 

[rmatthew987]

I think there is a little confusion ^^^^ I have an AWD model not FWD.

I will grab the FF shift kit most likely the one that sells for ~300$ with all the features and be done with it. I have looked around for other coolers an like the completeness of the STM unit as well as the quality of it. If anyone has any other recommendations as far as oil coolers go please chime in. I'm open to all suggestions if they will point me in the right direction.

 

[pacn91]

man, all of this info is great i knew about the shift kit. i wish that i would have come across the other tips before i blew 550 on a rebuilt tcu. another learning curve

 

[SonySlave]

I think there is a little confusion ^^^^ I have an AWD model not FWD.

I will grab the FF shift kit most likely the one that sells for ~300$ with all the features and be done with it. I have looked around for other coolers an like the completeness of the STM unit as well as the quality of it. If anyone has any other recommendations as far as oil coolers go please chime in. I'm open to all suggestions if they will point me in the right direction.

ForcedFour doesn't build the $299.99 Shift Box COLOR anymore. The $199.99 Shift Box PLUS is still available though. Shawn has been working on an Android version of his shift box but there hasn't been any new information about it in quite a while. He's pretty busy with the other pieces on his site. The PLUS has most of the COLOR features anyway.

The STM kit looks great. I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. You'll only need to come up with a mounting solution. I only built my own because no one like STM had a kit like that yet.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Yeah, my chip is set to 100% sooner than WOT, I was just using that as an example. Shifts across the board were firmed up across all throttle positions though, which I REALLY liked.

I am sure the shift boxes are nice, I just can't justify the cost of one right now when the chip was so inexpensive in relation, and I am happy with it. I may explore the box down the road though.

How is 100$ for a chip and 150 ish 175$ for a shift box not feasable..Just wondering?

Ohhh I totally forgot,,Replace the ecu with a manual ecu, or else there is no reason to even think about drag racing.Why Because an auto we brake boost on the line, The auto ecu is gonna retard timing making your launch look like grandma was driving.

 

[rmatthew987]

I have dsmlink v3 full to throw in along with the speed density conversion harness and sensors as well as an innovate lc-1

 

[1G Eclipse94928]

How is 100$ for a chip and 150 ish 175$ for a shift box not feasable..Just wondering?

Ohhh I totally forgot,,Replace the ecu with a manual ecu, or else there is no reason to even think about drag racing.Why Because an auto we brake boost on the line, The auto ecu is gonna retard timing making your launch look like grandma was driving.

+1 new ecu with dsmlink if you can

E: XD You beat me to it.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Im Pretty positive there is no option to input into link that would change the ecu parameters to manual..

Correct me if im wrong someone please..