No love for autos these days … but fear not 2 pedallers
this free mod is a seriously worthwhile mod for anyone stuck with an auto.
What plus sides does this mod have for any one with a stock KA?
higher line pressure means longer wind out … basically will allow you to redline shift an auto without having to “manually” shift your auto, which will eat the tranny in no short time, and not make you any faster.
Firmer shifts, less slop …
basically, you’re modding everything the factory set within the transmission.
When a car company sets up an auto, it’s like a ticking time bomb.
To appease a nation of people that don’t want to feel a shift, hear a shift or ever be aware of a transmission, they intentionally set it with a lot of slop.
All of this “softness” is murder on the transmission. By setting the line pressure so low, you constantly get a “floating” of “hunting” when cruising. The car say at 50 km/h keeps dropping out of 4th, into 3rd, then give it a bit of pedal to climb a hill, shifts into 4th, then drops to 3rd, maybe 2nd …
All of this shortens the life of your tranny.
Kickdown is also reset. The kickdown is what forces the transmission down a gear. With the line pressure up, it will allow it to kick down harder, crisper and where it needs to go, right away.
You know when you stomp on it in an auto, it pauses, downshifts 1 gear, hesitates, downshifts 2 if your lucky, runs out for 400 rpm in that gear, upshifts?
All of that gone. You stomp on it, and it gives you the lowest gear instantly, no hesitation.
Tire chirping shifts 1-2 is nice too.
This mod was pulled from a turbo 300ZX making over 500whp, and he stopped blowing up transmissions just by doing this mod.
Ummm Auto sucks, why not spend the money from this to do a 5spd swap :roll:
Even if it works better, your car is still gonna be slow.
5spd swap and work on the motor.
because this is a FREE mod which’ll work until parts for a tranny swap are found/Sr swap can be done
No, you won’t be slow.
A well-tuned automatic shifts way faster than a manual.
An automatic will allow you to launch a lot more effectively too.
A 5 spd is great if you’re not making much power, because they have a steeper 1st gear.
Drive enough manual cars with serious power, and you grow to hate them.
1st gear is so short it becomes useless. You end up either blowing off your tires or having to launch at idle.
With a 4:1 first gear and 4.10 gears out back, the torque multiplication is getting extreme. By the time you’ve got everything sorted out, you’re grabbing second.
An auto in front of a turbo, believe it or not is a godsend.
Brake torquing allows you to build legitimate boost when staging. An auto tranny that’s allowed to keep high line pressure will stay in boost all through the gears.
It all depends on what you want to use your car for.
Everyone runs out and tosses autos for 5 spds. Problem is you actually have to be able to drive a manual car properly to benefit from it.
I know everyone likes to think they’re a wizard of the stick, but watching 9/10s of the 5 spd drivers out there … they would be faster with an auto.
Trust me, an automatic with a high stall convertor and a valve body mod will leave you bleeding in the intersection.
I’m not suggesting one is better than the other. I prefer 5spds, but I own a prepped auto car too.
If I had a slow automatic, I’d mod the auto and get to work on making more power, rather than drop the $$$ to convert to a 5spd. Unless the 5spd is coming with a motor. But I’ve done enough manual conversions, and have never really felt it was worth the effort involved.
Then again, that was dealing with 400+hp N/A V8 cars.
I’m just saying this is a good idea for anyone with an auto transmission that wants their car to actually do what they want it to.
Downshifting is the real advantage to a 5 spd. Unless you have a manual valvebody, manually downshifting your auto will hurt it.
This is all drag tech … if you actually intend to track race your car you’ll really want a 5spd. But a track car relies on a hell of a lot more than just putting the power to the ground. Go to a drag strip, and watch the fast cars. They’re almost all autos. Check out any of the fast 2.2/2.5 turbo cars … hell, even the Shelby bible lists converting 5spd to auto as a necessary step in the upgrade path to go faster than 14s.
How to make an Auto 240 fly?..Tie it to the back of a 747? :lol: I once saw a 12.5 second 1/4 mile Automatic Eagle Talon tsi, it had easily over $7000.00 in modifications. Yes it’s possible to make an auto 240sx fly but is it worth it? I don’t think so. Your first modification is to get a 5 speed conversion done and build from that. Otherwise you will have to spend big bucks to get an automatic 240sx to fly…then there is always the tie to the back of a 747 option…also keep in mind an automatic transmission can not handle as much power as a 5 speed and an automatic is way more to fix.
FACT: Automatics are faster for Drag cars than standard if they are geared properly. Period.
This is going so far off topic it hurts.
For our stock ka24de, we need the manual.
The suggested mod is a good idea if you’re stuck with an auto though and want to play with it a bit.
If you want to get into drag racing (which is the wrong discussion for this forum) you need an automatic or a sequential.
Your choice won’t always be manual or automatic anymore anyway. New technology is a lot better. The new paddle systems that use computers to operate clutch and blip throttle do it 100x better then a human ever could. Not to meantion those systems can shift up and down 6 gears faster then you could make a single shift.
Back on topic please.
Oh one more flame. The comment that manual cars with a lot of power have a really short first gear? Wtf are you talking about? The new ford GT with the old-school manual can hit 60mph in first gear (of course … that’s done to hit it’s 0-60 time). Most other supercars can come very close (40-50).
uhm, I said it, and I would have been as upset had it been any car Tsi, or Yugo. But, I spend a lot of time with serious DSM cars, and I also know more than a few that are sitting up on blocks with blown up 5 spds.
Why do you find autos funny? Why would you laugh at someone for having one? Especially someone that’s touching Viper territory with $7,000 worth of mods. While you’re in the stands …
And if you really are so ignorant as to think that drag racing is “pushing pedals and shifting gears” … I will make a serious effort to watch you go down the 1/4.
No it’s not my Dad’s Charger … and it sure as hell doesn’t scare me to drive it.
What am I doing posting in an import forum? :roll: Trying to share information … trying to help. And sick of being mired in silly comments that muddy up posts where there is valid information.
I have an import too, an S12 in fact … a turbo 5 spd.
You wanna meet up for a drift off Charger vs 240? Sure … solid axle, 3.91s … big block torque, drag suspension, pinion snubber, frame connectors, quick ratio tough box, AUTO …
I was planning to bring the Charger back to the Driftnation event in Brampton, if there is going to be another one. I didn’t have a spare set of tires last year, and after being insulted all throughout the parking lot for showing up in a domestic … I really didn’t feel like sticking around.
But I keep forgetting, muscle cars don’t handle, autos are slow, and you and you friends will laugh at me because I’m not rowing gears. I mean come on, everyone knows a car has to be Japanese to drift.
And if you want to get your uncle’s, father’s mother’s sister’s roommate’s Chevelle and race me … please do. I’m not afraid to lose a race to a faster car. Come to Cayuga look for the big FJ6 (that is Go-Green, the one in my avatar) Charger, I’ll be really happy to see you.
I think one of the main reasons import drag cars are 5 spds is due to the relative youngness of the sport. As well, the successful Import drag cars are usually late model. Those cars in particular have electronically controlled automatics or even those weirdo CVT trannies. There is just no room for modding without some kind of reprogram.
And as for the “shift kit” in the domestics, that’s what this is. But instead of paying money for a valve body that has been modded, you just do the same thing to your existing one.
Auto trannies can get expensive to fix, this is very true. And you’re right, torque convertors, clutch packs, etc etc can fail. But 99% of the time that an automatic transmission is due to neglect on the owner’s side. No one changes the fluid and filter, people drive around in O/D all the time, shift from reverse to D while the car is rolling.
The 727 that’s in my Charger came out of a 76 Ramcharger in the scrap yard. It was flushed, cleaned, I modded the valvebody, installed a part throttle kick down, TCI convertor and buttoned it all back up. 5 years later it still shifts like it did the day I put it back together.
The auto tranny in first gen S13s (not entirely sure about the last … will find out) is the same transmission that was offered in the 200sx, which was also offered in the 300zx turbo. And drag Z31s pushing over 500hp seem to really like it. So I thought maybe this would be of interest.
Regardless of your opinion of automatics vs 5 spds, this mod, the reason this page even exists, will make your auto 240 faster for free.
And which is why this is a good FAQ post. As I said ^^^ the other stuff is OT and a waste of bandwidth, IMHO
Sorry, was in the middle of the rant and didn’t see the “back on topic part.”
And no, the comment about powerful cars was directed at taking a not so powerful car (like the 240) and modding it to make decent power, you will find your 4:1 1st gear to be too short to be very useful.
Then we are in agrerment
Agree’d.
Keep it calm, I’ve blown up a 5spd before.
Just because I own a 240sx doesn’t mean i want to drift. However if I owned a “Mustang”, heaven forbid i mention a vehicle other then a 240sx, doesn’t mean I want to drag. Too many stereotypes, and to much stereotyping ourselves. There’s a wide population of 240sx owners and to the general puplic we drive a “girls car” (People make fun of me for this all the time), to us we have a diamond in the ruff.
These “girls cars” we drive kill these stock lowered civics with a fart can that all the ricer kids like. Not to mention the fact that the when the s13 came out it had decent power compared to it’s competition at the time.
Ugh, im gonna do some cleaning up. If you think your post was valuable and i deleted it. PM me.
so basically this guy cant drive stick for s**t so he’s made up some obscure theory, that is most likely true none the less, but is stupid and rediculous because gentlemen…
“real cars have three pedals”
bottom friggin line… i’d sacrafice point eleventeen seconds for the pure joy of downshifting on some honda on the DVP and leaving him in my 5spd dust.
Can we not make this a Automatic vs Standard Transmission thread?
Thhis thread should be to help yuo if you have an automatic and would like to have it perform better.
Start another thread if you want to debate.
Real OLD cars have three pedals
wheres the skill in drag racing an auto
WAit for the light
Press the gas
All you have is reaction time