5EAT Valve Body modification time!

Well, I've finally decided to bite the bullet and do the VB mod from IPT. The sluggish shifting has really started to concern me, considering that I plan on keeping my suby for a long time still. Oh, and a little background info, my LGT has 51k on it, and I've been modded to Stage 2.5 since around 33k.

 

I looked around for pictures of someone removing their valve body, but I never found any .. so I decided to take some for you guys. Maybe it'll help someone remember which bolts go where

 

First up, after draining the fluid out, I removed the pan. Did they put enough 10mm bolts on this thing or what? After prying on it pretty hard (it was stuck on pretty good with silicon instead of a gasket), I was staring at this:

 

http://www.softwarepirate.net/pics/car/vbmod01.jpg

 

Not what I was used to seeing in a valve body, that's for sure! This one is a lot more complex than the other VB's I've played with on other (older) cars. After letting it puke out more fluid for a bit, I removed the filter. Talk about a fine screen .. it had a few specks of something or other on it, but nothing bad:

 

http://www.softwarepirate.net/pics/car/vbmod02.jpg

 

Now I was face to face with 82619423 bolts. Great. I probably should've asked IPT for some instructions on removing this thing!

 

http://www.softwarepirate.net/pics/car/vbmod03.jpg

 

Uh .. yeah. Not knowing which ones to remove, I just took pretty much all of them out until it began to drop More fluid gurgled out, topping off my drip pan:

 

http://www.softwarepirate.net/pics/car/vbmod04.jpg

 

At this point I figured out that the black bolts (and one gold one on the outer edge) held the VB in, the rest secured the whole thing together. Thankfully it had more bolts on top holding it together, if the VB had come apart I probably would've died. I dropped the beast out and started putting back in the bolts that I didn't have to remove in the first place:

 

http://www.softwarepirate.net/pics/car/vbmod05.jpg

 

Man, what a MESS. This was the messiest job EVAR! I plan on putting the OEM fluid back in (after filtering it of course) just long enough to get me down to the dealership for a full flush with Amsoil, but I'll most likely have to go grab a fresh quart to make up for all I lost on the floor! Here's the crater in the transmission left behind:

 

http://www.softwarepirate.net/pics/car/vbmod06.jpg

 

I toweled the VB off and proceeded to wrap/box her up for shipping to IPT. Stay tuned for part 2: The Reinstall.

 

.. If I remember how it went in, of course.

Thanks for the write-up!

 

I'm planning on doing the IPT VB modification within the next six to nine months.

Nice write up.....Interested to hear the review

Make sure you fill up with some Amsoil ATF also.

funny, we just did the same thing yesterday and didn't have time to upload my pics of the uninstall. We couldn't remember what bolts to take out either and took them ALL out (was told to take out all the #7's but that was WRONG!)

 

and a few little things in the filter??? that's not a good thing. Mine was completely clean. all fluids and everything looked as good as when we installed my IPT VB a year ago.

 

Let us know how the rest goes. Mine is off to Habitual Line Stepper and I'll be waiting for his in return.

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thanks for documenting this...been waiting to see this for a long time.

Don't forget to change out your 5EAT filter too. You don't want to push dirt back into your new VB.

Yeah, I'm going to drop by the dealership and see if they have that external filter available. I'm just going to wash out the internal filter, as it only had a few grains of dirt on it.. nothing to warrant a change, I believe. I doubt my dealership would keep those handy anyways, not many people dive into these things this deeply!

Yeah, I'm going to drop by the dealership and see if they have that external filter available. I'm just going to wash out the internal filter, as it only had a few grains of dirt on it.. nothing to warrant a change, I believe. I doubt my dealership would keep those handy anyways, not many people dive into these things this deeply!

 

Re-use your old filter, why take a chance? You are spending close to $700 for your VB, why not just get a new internal filter.

Well, my fluid arrived today:

 

http://www.softwarepirate.net/pics/car/vbmod07.jpg

 

Unfortunately thanks to UPS screwing the pooch on the early AM delivery on Wednesday, the guys at IPT didn't manage to finish my VB up and get it shipped back out until this evening. Looks like I'll be waiting until Monday .. d'oh.

Sooooo. Stage 2.5 for 20k miles. Any problems on the stock tranny? Did yours start to actually slip or did you just want the tighter shifting goodness of an IPT mod?

Sooooo. Stage 2.5 for 20k miles. Any problems on the stock tranny? Did yours start to actually slip or did you just want the tighter shifting goodness of an IPT mod?

 

I just wanted some tighter shifts, my tranny acted fine. I found a minuscule amount of stuff stuck to the magnet in the tranny pan, but nothing serious.

 

Anyway, to finish my story. I got the VB back in and reinstalled it this week. Unfortunately I've been unable to really try it out, as I'm having some sort of other problem now

 

Here's the deal. Every time I put the car under a moderate load in any gear, it sputters and backfires and just doesn't wanna go. It might hit 10psi or so before it falls on it's face. It did this to me several months back, and I shrugged it off as simply a bad tank of gas, since it eventually went away and stayed away. However, after having ran perfectly before I parked it for a week, it's now doing it again. Another bad tank of gas? I really don't know ..

 

Last time this happened, the CEL never came on. But this time, after a sputter-fest, the CEL came on and flash 2 or 3 times, then disappeared. I tried to pull codes, but there were none. I've since used up that tank of gas, poured techron injector cleaner and heet water remover in, and added chevron gas (I've been using BP .. but no more). Unfortunately the problem is STILL there, so I'm going to go reset the ECU and reprogram it completely.. hopefully this will fix things. Gonna go log now, actually.

 

Our drivetrain really gets on my nerves sometimes..

yikes! hope it's just something simple.

Sounds like misfires to me?

Yep, it was misfires. As soon as I got on it in 3rd it started up again and my CEL started blinking at me.. ecuexplorer caught the code for me this time, and it's the lovely P0304 - Cylinder 4 Misfire. That's the drivers side rear, right? Looks like I either have a bad injector, coilpack, or plug .. i'm guessing injector. Wee. Anyone know the part number for the stock injectors?

 

Loggage of the incident - http://scandepot.net/viewscan.php?pk=4951

any updates?

 

curious on both the sputtering and the vb mod ....

Ah yes .. I forgot about this thread. Oops.

 

Well, everything ended up fine (the sputtering problem i was having turned out to be a bad coilpack), although I have to admit that the result wasn't nearly as dramatic as I had believed it would be. Maybe my memory of the way the stock trans shifted is fuzzy, but it really doesn't feel a whole lot different. The only thing I noticed that was fairly obvious was that it shifted smoother when cold, but I imagine that's mainly due to the Amsoil fluid, not the VB itself.

 

I can't say I'm overly happy with the results given the ridiculous costs, but hopefully it will end up increasing the lifespan of the transmission a decent amount.. I guess there's no real way to tell for sure, though.

So how are the shifts under WOT near redline? When the tranny goes from one gear to the next, is the shift not snappy and precise?

Not particularly. In all honesty, it doesn't really feel any different than before to my butt dyno. Maybe it's miscalibrated

Not particularly. In all honesty, it doesn't really feel any different than before to my butt dyno. Maybe it's miscalibrated

 

Well, I will say this, having heard you drive off at WOT after the mod, I can tell you its shifts are immediate and could be no quicker, IMO.

I know when I did mine, it was a huge difference. sometime people can't tell, while others can. don't know why... I know if I hadn't had the VB in mine, it would not have held 18psi torque launches.

I know when I did mine, it was a huge difference. sometime people can't tell, while others can. don't know why... I know if I hadn't had the VB in mine, it would not have held 18psi torque launches.

 

You launched the auto at 18lbs with the VB? You are my hero.

 

I can't wait to get this mod and get back to the track!

well, I'm also at 70' sea level with very cool dense air, no humidity. May not want to try that where you're at. remember, here, 65 F is hot.

well, I'm also at 70' sea level with very cool dense air, no humidity. May not want to try that where you're at. remember, here, 65 F is hot.

Now the big question is if you were doing this before the VB work or doing at a lower PSI and what not? What differences you saw if any and if you think the feels like room or you went too far on certain parts? I'm putting in a 5eat with my EZ30R swap(Sometimes you REALLY just don't want to deal with the damn clutch on days and/or fiance can't drive manual) It will be a while after it's running before i would go for this but I want to hear all I can. I've seen 1 bad experience over on NASIOC with a 4eat that he got back with issues but I've also seen like 4-5 good ones. Yet at the price I'm putting enough into the car as it is.

-Gaddis

yes, I launched the car prior to the VB, however never over 5 psi if that. the 5EAT does not like lots of low end torque and while i was stg 2, I tracked the car. I know this is the root reason why the VB upgrade was necessary. and if you have the tranny out of the car already, it would be easy to have IPT do the modification so later you would not have down time or cost more money.