1. Got that one and have done it.
2. Not a problem
3.This one I have problems with as the car has a couple of times "jumped" on me.
4. Still working on that one - but hey, who isn't! LOL
5. Now this one we have to discuss. I am smacking the rev limiter at about 6800 (if memory serves correctly) so per the earlier part of this instruction - I may have some issues with those shift points. Correct me if I have mis-read that part.

 

What gears are you manually shifting. Just the 2-3 or are you also doing the 1-2? At least in my 03, manually shifting the 1-2 at full throttle doesn't work well. Either I hit the limiter or there's a lag before the car fully shifts into 2nd. If I let the car shift itself on the 1-2, there's no lag or hitting the limiter. I don't know how your 04 behaves, but I wouldn't try to manually shift the 1-2, if you were orginally doing it. If you tag the limiter on a run, that will instantly suck out .2-.3 seconds. It's pretty detrimental to the run.

On the 2-3 manual shift, you need to firmly move the shifter up and hold it for a second once you see an indicated 6400rpms. If you just slap the shifter forward, the tranny doesn't seem to upshift as quickly and you may tag the limiter. I think this has to do with poor electrical connections in the manual shift gate. Shifting at 6400rpms in my 03 always results in a 6800rpm shift with no tagging of the limiter. Experiment and see at what rpm it takes to shift to keep your car from hitting the limiter. Anything is better than the stock Drive shift program. It shifts way too early going into 2nd and it will shift into 4th at ~89-90mph. That's far from ideal and it will slow you down, especially that early 4th gear shift. As I'm passing the finish line in 3rd, my MPHs indicate 99-100mph and then I tag the limiter maybe 50-100' after the finish. That means that 3rd is good to around 101-102mph. Judging from the dyno plots and calculated ideal shift poiints, that also means that in Drive the tranny is shifting about 10-11mph too early.

 

Out of my handful of runs I have only used the manumatic shift twice. I HATE THAT THING! IMHO it is a bastardization of a manual transmission. LOL. On the first run that I used the shifter I honestly don't recall when I shifted RPM's wise. I did use it for all shifts from 1st to 4th. Now on the second time (which was my most recent run) I was again doing all the shifts manually and I shifted at about 6300 RPM's from 1st to 2nd. However, on my shift from 2nd to 3rd I had a brain fart and hit the shifter WAY too early (around 4000 RPM's). On that run I strung it out in 3rd but had to shift again into 4th just before the line because I was pushing the limiter a little too much for my taste.

I appreciate the info greatly by the way.

One question really quickly - would getting new grounding wires help with the shift issue? I am assuming it would help with response from the manumatic but what about the tranny in general.

 

If you don't get clean shifts at the right times, you'll never be able to pull a good ET. I know the auto-manual isn't the best thing, but it's halfway useful and better than not having it at all. Using the manumatic function to delay the 2-3 shift and holding 3rd the entire run is mandatory if you want to make the best pass possible. If ran a 15.1 by just letting the car do it's own thing then I'm certain you can land at least 14.8 doing what I suggest and probably a 14.6-14.7 using the other pointers I outlined. Taking the car to the rev limiter won't do any damage, that's why the limiter is there.

As for ground wires, the general consensus is they help the manutic shift response greatly. That could be a big plus in a 1/4 run. I don't have ground wires on my car.