ManyMods

Sweeeet! I have one too but it is not integrated like yours is. I hope yours is bright. I use an 1156 bulb but it is really the housing reflector that makes the difference. The DOT requires that it be on the right side (USA) and it is really bright ... blindingly bright. Actually, you can get a ticket for having it on if the visibility is not impared by fog, driving rain or snow.

Biff

They actually work in conjunction with the brake lights and the turn signals. With the kind of drives arounds me I need every light at my disposal. I have heard I could get a ticket, the the extra visability is worth the risk.

When you added your s/c did you put all the TRD emblems on your rig?

ManyMods

I want to say thank you to who ever did this great writeup. I know how much work it is to document something like this and I do appreciate the effort.

I do not want to slam anyone but find it curious that you changed out the springs after you got the VB back and drove it for a while. Most of the complaints I have heard about Level 10's work is that the customer did not get what they wanted and the shifts were always too hard. Sure Level 10 would stand behind their work but what a PITA. I also want to say that IMHO installing the sensor in the pan is not going to give you the most accurate reading and unless the NPT adapter is brazed to the pan there is a likely hood, not that you had bad luck, that the adapter will weep. I really want to see how we can install the sensor into the cooler line just as it leaves the tranny, if that can be done.

FYI, John (IPT) says he does not use synthetic fluid but uses an additive instead that he feels is better for the Toyota style tranny. I asked him about synthetics only because of the heat issue, but I had a Mobil factory tech rep tell me that he would suggest going with the OEM Dextron Mercon III fluid over synthetics in most cases, because they are better suited overall. Interesting?

Thanks again for providing the great writeup.

ManyMods

No, because I personnally did not care for the design. I gave them away. I think you can buy them or probably get some from TRD. I bought Japan only emblems for the front fenders and rear hatch and then had the reflective black sticker made for the front --- real subtle don't ya think.

derrick92130

Rod,

I paid $59 to ship it UPS Ground, and it was returned $49 USPS with next day delivery. That is all I paid in addition to the cost of the rework by IPT. Let me know or PM me if you have more questions!

ManyMods

It's 11:30PM and I am dog tired after a very long COLD day, but the deed is done. I went to Hanover NJ this morning in the middle of a snow storm to get my valve body recalibrated at Import Performance Transmissions. It was not easy finding the place because John Lombardo had just moved his business and had not put up a sign yet. He has partnered up with another man who worked for Level 10 about 7 years ago before going out on his own. John is an interesting young man and clearly knows what he is doing. I think he could rebuild a tranny with his eyes closed. It was unfortunate that the weather was so bad because it canceled out the pre recalibration test drive --- we got right down to it, drained the fluid and dropped the pan. The valve body in my 2002 was different than others that John had worked on, but not unusual. This just proved once again that there is no consistency to the parts Toyota uses on the assembly line. This valve
body was more like the Supra VB’s but not as sophisticated. My application did not have a Throttle Valve cable. I wanted to change the filter but it too was different and John didn’t have that particular model, nor did the local Toyota dealer carry it. We discussed putting an additional in-line filter in the cooling line but he didn’t have that either. We also discussed my desire to install a junction block in the cooler line for a temp gauge. I said this before but will say it again --- the pan is not the wise place to install a temperature sensor BECAUSE you will not get an accurate reading. However, the cooler lines are 10mm which means that fittings are going to be very difficult to find. John said that with the TRD cooler I should not have any problem with overheating the tranny fluid. I still want to install a gauge and will plumb it somewhere into the tranny cooler line. The recalibration I had done would be considered on the mild side and I am still road testing it but so far I think I am pleased with the results. The shifts are quick, deliberate and firm without being offensive or jolting. We took the car out after the work to test the results; however, even though the storm had passed and the roads were clean-er, we could not get enough road to run on or decent traction.

I recommend Import Performance Transmissions to anyone with a supercharger who wants to extend the life of their transmission or have more extensive work done. John and I had lunch together and he told me his life story. He is a very bright guy and easy to talk to.

ravencr

Awesome Peter! I'm glad you were pleased!

Chris

MTL_4runner

That's great to hear!
Well, when I get my S/C I know where to go next.
Let us know as you do some more road testing.

ManyMods

Well, after 250 miles of HW driving I am back home and totally perplexed about what is going on with my tranny. The shift firmness really increased between the time John and I test drove the truck at his shop. Also, the vacuum pressure in the final drive gear or in 3rd under load has drastically declined. This happened at the same time that the shift firmness increased. John says that he thinks the ECU learning accounts for the increased firmness. BUT, I thought the ECU does not have any bearing on shift firmness? I can tolerate the firmer shifting because that is what I wanted but this lack of responsiveness at speed under load is not making me happy. I could try to describe it to you in more detail but it would end up being a blithering rant since I do not claim to understand how these damn things work. From what I saw, John only drilled 3 holes and shimmed one piston so it has really got me stumped. Am I alone here with this enigma?

ravencr

Explain further!

Chris

FattyCBR

Hmm, if I understand you correctly you're saying that the shifts have increased in hardness and the engine vacuum has decreased? Are you saying you think the two are related?

About the tranny. . . because it's an ECT tranny (electronically controlled transmission) the ecu does control the shift points, firmness, and decreases timing during the shift. From what I understand (and if I'm wrong someone please correct me) firmness is controlled by how long the clutches are not allowed to be in their fully clamped state (that's electronic) and also by how much hydraulic pressure is applied (whether to the clutches or during the shift I'm not sure, but this is where the VB mods come into play). The electronic part that controls shift speed is written into the ecu's program so that can't be changed, unless you use a standalone, and because the 4R is a "luxury-" type vehicle it has softer shifts.

So what I'm trying to get at is that it may be possible for the ecu to change the shifting, but the only change I've ever noticed was it becoming softer once I installed the SC.

ravencr

Hey Milan! Good to hear from you again!

At any rate, it sounds like his adjustment to your tranny(from what you said) was performed to increase shift pressure by opening up the channels in the VB to allow for more fluid to pass through. This is the same way he did mine, if I'm not mistaken. I remember you saying that the weather was bad when you were there, so could it have effected your ability to really feel the change if the tires were slipping at all? I don't know if they were, but I was just thinking about that.

You can loosen the throttle kickdown cable on the throttle body, which will result in a softer shift, and the opposite will also hold true. Let us know what's really going on!

Chris

ManyMods

Chris and Milan,
John said he did my modification the same way he has done others, so I assume he did yours this way too (three holes and shims), although you may have had him change the accumulator springs (?) He also has done one other VB that was configured like mine, that being in a Tacoma --- at least that is what he said. When he and I test drove it, we did have clean although sporadically wet roads for the most part and I did not feel the kind of harshness that I am feeling now. Don't misunderstand me when I say harshness, because I like the feel of the shifts; it is very much like my GM 4L60E and that is a complete race built transmission with perfect PCM tuning. Maybe firmness is a better word. It is too bad we cannot use something like the B&M ShiftPlus shift improver. I spoke to John about that and he was under the impression that it made shifts way too hard, but in my experience with the stock 4L60E in my PU truck, it works great and has three settings --- normal, firm and firmer. Actually, it makes my GM tranny feel exactly the way the 4R tranny feels now and it only costs $40.00 to increase line pressure electronically. YMMV

Okay, let me describe exactly what happens: In one instance, accelerating from a stand-still on a 5% incline at moderate to light throttle and shifting through all gears, when final drive gear is reached it feels as though I am in too high a gear for the load and vacuum goes down to between 5 – 0 InHg in order to continue accelerating. On the highway, when traveling at speed (65-70 mph) and encountering a 25 – 30% incline, after the inertial speed scrubs off and I start to accelerate to maintain speed I have to get into the pedal far more than normal and the vacuum drops off to anywhere from 2 to –5 InHg.If I hit, blip, tap or push down on the accelerator hard enough to feel some sort of down shift or transition change that used to happen automatically and a lot more sensitively under load, the vacuum would go up to about 8 – 10 InHg which was normal before. So, that is what is happening and all I can say is it feels like a lack of responsiveness.

Milan, it is good to hear from you and I thank you for taking your time to think about this. I looked in my FSM , but it does not give me information that I can even begin to understand. I am going to send this email to John and he has asked me to call him so we do not have to go back and forth with e-mails. John is very concerned about trying to help me figure out what is going on. The possibility always exists that this could be a coincidence and there is something else going on, but it is just too ironic to me that everything has happened simultaneously. I am also going to send him the specifications sheets for my tranny.

Chris, are your light throttle shifts firm too? I have experienced firm light throttle shifts too but not consistently. I just cannot help but think that something is sticking and not moving freely within the throttle body as if there is a line pressure imbalance that is not allowing a piston to move to where it is suppose to at the appropriate time --- but what do I know.

derrick92130

It sounds like John made the exact same changes to your transmission as mine (4Runner with a valve body that is similar to the Tacoma). When I first installed the valve body, I had to drive it a bit and top off my fluids before the shifts stabilized (as you would expect). I now have several hundred miles on the 4Runner and have softer shifts under light throttle and firm/very firm shifts under increasing throttle pressure. I have spent a lot of highway and city driving, and have not noticed the characteristics you describe under load, tipping into the throttle. I'll do some driving today and do some more testing, but have not noticed anything abnormal at higher loads.

ravencr

I may be totally stupid here, but what are the characteristics that this vaccuum issue is creating while driving? What's actually happening outside of the gauge? What is different than before the VB was adjusted? What has been changed since the VB upgrade was performed? Have you altered anything on the engine since the upgrade? If so, what?

I guess what I'm getting at is what do you feel is causing the vaccuum pressure to change any differently than it did before the VB was upgraded? What driving characterstics have actually been changed?

Chris

ravencr

As you probable know Peter is that our trannies and ECM's are not really programmable to speak of as you might already know with the hypertech chips for example. The only things that can really be adjusted with our computers are fuel and timing by using something like the SMT-6 and FTC1-E. As far as the tranny goes all we can do is the VB upgrades as John does by either increasing fluid pressure, spring rate, etc. I guess I'm unclear on what you are saying as far as what you perceive the difference between shift firmness and harshness??Where are you monitoring this vaccum? What did it do before the VB upgrade? When installing the S/C the motor has more power across the board, so the engine can comfortably ride in a higher gear at a lower speed and still be fine. But, this isn't the issue you are encountering, right? When this vaccum goes down, what's happening on your boost gauge? So are you saying that it's not downshifting as quickly as before? Are you running with or without the ECT button on? How do you feel the vaccum correlates with the boost of the S/C and the shift characteristics of the tranny?I'm 100% positive that if this is a tranny problem, John will take full responsiblity for fixing it. But, let's be honest with each other and tr to determine what's actually going on here. Personally, it sounds like this is a engine problem, but I could wrong. I don't think we're anywhere close to determining the source of the vaccum issues until we hear more about it. This is where we can only rely on the experts of whicn I'm not. But, I'd like to think that I have a pretty good sense of what's going on as others probably do on this forum. As far as my shifts, here's what we all have to understand. There's a lot going on in the tranny to make it shift through all the gears. It's not simply fluid pressure and spring rates? But outside of all the technical details, here's what we have to understand. As load on the tranny increases such as an incline or a trailer in tow, the shift firmness or harshness is going to be less, period. But, as the throttle depressed further, whether it's electronically or by the cable on the older models, the shift firmness will again increase to compensate for the increased load on the tranny. A good way to prove my point(which you don't want to do for a long period) is to take a model such as mine with the throttle kickdown cable and disconnect it. You will soon realize that now the tranny shifts a lot less firm as throttle is increased, because the fluid pressure has stayed at the same level it was under light throttle. This is also synonmous with going up a steep grade starting off from a stop. Obviously you probably aren't flooring it up the hill. You're probably easing into the throttle which is telling the tranny to keep the fluid pressure less, but you'll immediately notice that the shift from 1-2 gear is seamless with almost no harshness or abruptness. But, on the other hand, starting from a stop on a downhill you'll notice something totally the opposite. You'll feel the shift happen because there's virtually no load on the engine or tranny.

I hope this all makes sense. I'm not clear on what's exactly happening on yours, so a full explanation would be great.

Chris

MTL_4runner

I think you guys are referring to momentum and intertia.
It is the inertia which resists the abrupt shifts (such as towing a trailer or carrying a full load of people) and thus must affect a change in momentum to do so. Momentm is just (mass x speed) where inertia is a slighly more complicated formula.

I would guess Peter is taking the vacuum from the OBD reader?
Under load the vacuum should drop but excessive drop may be a bad sign. Sounds like overall it is shifting too quickly and not downshifting that way you would expect it to?

ravencr

All these engineers wear me out! Let's talk in pplain old english if we can, because I'd say most don't understand all the physics terms, or maybe it's just me!

Chris

MTL_4runner

No problem dude!
Just wanted to help you out with the correct terminology if you want to join the nerdy engineer ranks.

ManyMods

First off, I will respond to Chris in a separate post --- I had to print his out so I could conscientiously address it line by line.

Derrick, your statement about driving it and topping off the fluid makes a good point. We ran it in the shop to get all the air pockets out, then ran it on the road and checked it again for leaks and fluid level but I have not checked it since then. John used Dexron Mercon V ATF with a friction additive instead of the Dexron Mercon III the mfg recommends. We could not find anything like Amsoil, RedLine or Mobil-1 synthetic and John said his was a blend. I have to ask John what I am suppose to use now for fluid. I think he said this was a Penzoil product.

The shift and vacuum characteristics changed after about 60- 70 miles of driving. I even thought I smelled something funny at one point and stopped to check for a leak but saw nothing unusual and attributed to the state of my mental deterioration. I will go out and check the transmission fluid as soon as I can just to be sure this is not the culprit. Thanks