Gang - After about a week delay I finally got all my parts ( T/C & recalibrated valve body ) from Level 10 into my G Coupe. Please bear in mind that I only have 1900 miles on the V-6 so it's barely broken in. I could feel it getting stronger with every extra mile before the tranny ( & other ) work. Initially, I'm disappointed by the T/C itself. It does stall at 2950 rpms but the holeshot I've come to expect from a high stall T/C doesn't feel like it's there. That said, I spoke at length with Gurgen last night & he felt ( after his brainstorming session with DaveO ) that it's going to take the Techno Square reflash to realize the true performance gains from the converter. I also installed Borla headers/test pipes/Borla true dual exhaust & the Crawford plenum while I had the G in the shop. Also keep in mind that I have 275/35/18 Nittos on 10" wide iForged Evolutions in the rear. I couldn't break those loose before the mods & still can't ( not necessarily a bad thing ). The car DOES feel more responsive off idle so perhaps as the miles pile up I'll be able to spin the Nittos. The valve body recalibration feels as expected. It won't snap your head back when making WOT shifts but I can tell that they're crisper & quicker. Downshifting has the most dramatic effect. Those shifts are pretty firm & extremely quick. In the 2 days of driving with these changes I've had no "CES" codes nor is partial throttle shifting any different that before - smooth. I did this tranny work as a foundation to build upon for future mods ( nitrous and/or twin turbos ). Level 10 feels that these 2 upgrades will allow the Infiniti/350z tranny to handle 400-425 flywheel horsepower. Without them they feel that forced induction will damage the tranny. They did NOT try & sell me a full upgrade ( stronger clutch packs & discs ) so I don't think I was handed a line just to sell parts, FWIW. Personally, I would consider doing without the V/B upgrade ( $698 ) if U don't plan on going F/I. For now, the jury's still out on the "bang for the buck" the T/C gives us. I'm planning on shipping my ECU to TS next week & hopefully that, coupled with more miles on the engine, will give me the kind of results Gurgen got ( he has the reflash ). Maybe I'll remount my factory 17's this weekend & see what that does for me. I'll post back at a later date if the T/C awakens the G.

Good post Gene

I will still be working on optimizing this mod....

My pingingis a symtom of a tripped up ECu, as it now sees more load due to better coupling in the T/C (about 3% loss instead of what I can estimate to be 6-10% loss). Now, our car behaves mre like an MT with respect to being "connected" to the wheels more...

I, however, can break my Kumho ECSTA KH-11 (which are extremely sticky according to objective testing ans Survey results on TireRack.com) very very easily when I break torque and sometimes even if I don't!

This mod is just more complicated then we thought. Just another reminder that our cars are very ECU - centric, which makes sense. The ECU is just a must once you get into major modding.... as we run out of fuel map whenever we add more air or more load... Rememeber, we have 3 fuel maps in the ECU, 'optimum', 'normal', and 'safe'. The MAF, by detecting so much air, switches between these maps, but only between these maps... ad tunes the timing accordingly... There is no "continuous" adjustment of air/fuel mixtures depending on how much air is coming in.... it just switches b/w these sets of parameters to accomodate the prevailing conditions.

The reason that I mention this is that these settings (A/F ratios and timings) are all a function of LOAD, which has now changed on our cars.... The engine sees a "heavier car" now b/c of less slippage....

Gurgen


The reason that I mention this, is that

Thanks for the review.

When you say it shifts faster, is it:

A: Still the same delay after you push the shift ****, but then once it shifts it's quicker... OR

B: Shifts sooner with less delay once you push the shift **** and also takes less time to go to the next gear.

EK - It's" A -" !! Not trying to be funny but it's closer to your "A" option. The Tiptronic response is marginally quicker but the biggest change is the actual shift. I think it'll take some form of modified tranny ECU to make the Tiptronic shifter respond faster but the V/B recalibration works on the mechanical ( actually hydrodynamic ) shift itself by allowing more fluid volume & pressure thru the valve body. It still gets its' signal from the factory ECU tranny programming. I know that Swift Racing has been working almost 2 years on a tranny ECU for the Lexus models but haven't cracked the Lexus codes yet. Maybe Nismo or Techno Square can help us ( although I know that the majority of ya'll R running M/T's ).

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by MeanGene on 11/22/03 09:27 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Do you anticipate a tranny fluid temp issue with these mods? Is there a tranny fluid cooler mod in your near future? Please kindly advise. Thanks.

'03 G35 5AT Sedan, Garnet Fire/Willow
18x8 SSR GT1/Bridgestone S03/Eibach

I have got one - it's like 60 bucks...

Bullseye - I neglected to mention that I installed a Perma Cool thinline trans cooler ( 20k GVW ) inline with the factory setup. I've run the same cooler on my GS400 w/2800 rpm T/C
for 3+ years & no burned fluid yet ( even with Louisiana's 100+ degree summers )!! I got mine at www.jegs.com/ & it's #771-1013 for $35.99 + S&H. Enjoy!