Transgo Kit for 5AT
 

I dropped my car off Saturday at Mac Autosport (Welcome to MAC Autosport) to get a Transgo reprogramming Kit (RE5R05A-HD2) installed. I purchased the kit from Summit Racing (TransGo Performance RE5R05A-HD2 - TransGo Performance Shift Kits - Overview - SummitRacing.com). While the car was there I also had them install my fathers day present, a Stillen Gold Performance Series 25 row oil cooler (http://www.stillen.com/product.asp?i...&model=G37 2DR).

I picked the car up yesterday and I am very happy with the performance of the Transgo kit. My transmission was tuned via Uprev when I had my SC installed. This definitely made a difference but the shifts were still fairly slow, especially between 1st and 2nd gear which exhibited a lot of slip (flair). With the Transgo kit the shifts are extremely quick and strong. I get virtually no tranny slipping during shifting. The car breaks the wheels loose on 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 shifts easily now. The transmission still exhibits a little hesitation in Manual Mode at times when you use the paddles but when it does decide to shift, the shift itself is lightning fast. I would definitely recommend this modification for anyone with the 5AT.

As far as the oil cooler goes, Adam (Skip) the tech that did the installation said it was a nice kit. His only complaint was that they provided much longer lines than was required. However, the connectors on the lines are designed to be removed and replaced so that you can cut the lines to fit and minimize the length used, which he did. Other than that, the kit went in without a problem. I don't currently have any way to monitor my oil temp so I can't compare before and after temps. The oil cooler increased the total oil volume to right at 6.75 quarts.

My original plan was to purchase the 19 row Setrab core kit from Stillen since my car sees mostly street driving. However, the kits were on sale and the Stillen 25 row kit was less than the price of the Setrab 19 row. Even if the core is not as efficient as the Setrab I ended up with 6 additional rows of cooling and additional oil capacity for less cash. We will see how the kit holds up. Other than the core, the kit is identical to the one with the Setrab core.

Once again, I have nothing but good things to say about the guys at Mac. They are closed on Sunday and Monday so the got me in and out in 2 working days (Saturday and Tuesday) as promised. I highly recommend these guys to anyone in the Denver area.

My original plan was to have a new smaller SC pulley to install with these mods. However, it has been a total cluster trying to get a pulley fabricated. I sent my original 8 PSI Stillen Pulley to Jim at Reichard Racing after speaking to him on the phone. He said that he would use it as a guide for fabricating a new, smaller diameter pulley. Jim told me that it would take a couple of weeks and cost me around $150. I sent him the pulley in December of 2011. It is now July of 2012 and I still have no pulley. Jim does not respond to e-mails and rarely answers the phone. I call at least once a week. When I do get him on the phone he always has some excuse. The biggest problem is that I can't even get in touch with him to get my old pulley back. I would advise against doing any business with Reichard Racing as their customer service is non-existent.

Transgo kits work!!

The first time I installed a Transgo kit was on my 69 Mustang, back in 76.
The instructions said to drive easy for a few miles to let the fluid circulate. When I was done, I went to a freeway on ramp, and jumped on it. The shift was so hard, I blew a u-joint out, and my driveshaft was laying on the side of the on ramp.

I am definitely a believer now!

Cool i have an 08 coupe auto and was thinking about this mod, so i think i may do it finally. Im N/A so it wont be as impressive as a sc one though but none the less. thanks for this thread/review!!

Transgo is definitely worth it for all the AT guys. Love it.

Seriously interested and honest questions:
(Anyone with this kit please add your opinions)

1.How does it effect normal driving? I understand that it shifts better when you are on the throttle hard (appearantly hard enough to break the tires loose). But does it shift hard when you are only at part throttle?

2. Are the shifts "faster" or "harder"? I know what I want to hear but I don't want to lead your answers. Do the shifts happen quick or is there an overlap between gears and then a hard positive shift?

3. Whatever your answers for question 2 are, is this the same for both part and full throttle shifts?

4. Does it change the down shifts at all?

5. Is there anything you do not like about the shifts?

I'm sorry your driveshaft was on the side of the road glad you where not hurt, But on of the funniest things I have read, LOL, At work, An needed it already this morning,

On the reveiw ,Thanx man, I really think I'm going this route the UPREV tuned shift is good but still slow, Slides into gear like you said yours did.. I'm still trying to figure the difference in this and the VB upgrade? Thanx

dal1307 did you have to have your UPREV TQ tables changed after? Thanx man

same question!

i just tuned my car and i got the TransGo couple of days ago....do i need to re-tune it?

Hows you car shifting? I would worried about it banging into gear no?

Sorry guys, I just got back from a trip for the 4th of July holiday. I did not have the tables changed after the install.

In D the car still shifts pretty tamely unless you are really on the throttle. The shifts are quicker in D than before but not really hard unless you are flogging it.

In DS and M it shifts really aggressively. In DS there is no delay between gears when the tranny shifts. In M, there is no delay between gears when the tranny shifts, however, there is still sometimes a slight delay from the time that you actuate the paddle to the time that the tranny actually executes the shift. I tend to notice this when driving at half throttle or less and not so much at full throttle. I believe that it is related to the tranny computer and can't be addressed via valve body upgrade or tranny tune, just the nature of the beast IMHO. There is no delay between gears, just a delay from paddle actuation to shift execution.

ANMVQ, the Transgo kit is an upgrade to the valve body. It has stiffer springs and has a set of different balls along with drill bits for opening up the orifices in the VB. I believe that Sam at GTM installs the Transgo kit as part of his valve body upgrade and then does some other fine tuning to the VB that he has come up with beyond the Transgo kit. You could probably PM him and get more details on what is involved in GTM's VB upgrade.

^^ Well said. My experience exactly. The trans tables in Uprev accentuate this even more.

Timing of the paddle or manual shift is entirely dependent upon a trans ECU. To date no one has figured out how to tune/modify this. I am ever hopeful. These mechanical modifications do a great job, just be prepared to shift early.

Coop

Perfect thanx man, No all I have to do is fine one for a 7SPD, Is there one? An after my SC gets rebiult or replaced, YEA something happened to it Friday night or Saturday am, not sure, I have thread going, :dunno:

This is good news! The only thing I hate about my G is the lag between 1st and 2nd w/ my AT (couldn't get the manual - I have a wife, so . . . ).

Under $300 for the kit isn't bad - but what's the cost for installation???