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  #46  
Old 10-01-2010, 02:17 PM
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kwren kwren is offline
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Re: Transmission Mods

I think Huskymaniac pretty much has it worked out... 16 hours every day, siting at the computer pursuing his quest to get extra life out of a transmission that actually quits working whenever it chooses... instead of driving the car around town...
Never taking it out for a fun drive but just letting it sit all the time while he sits at his computer and "researches" this, sounds like the answer to a long transmission life to me.

Keith
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  #47  
Old 10-01-2010, 02:19 PM
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Manarius Manarius is offline
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Re: Transmission Mods

Quote:
Originally Posted by NeedForSpeed View Post
If the above statement is your only true objective, you should immediately delete your entire list. You can not be 'sure' of any of it. Items 1,3,5,6 are considered 'performance' mods, usually for those that drive accordingly. Items 2 and 4 are considered reliability/maintenance mods, but not everyone agrees on the cooler or on synthetic You clearly and correctly stated, the list is based on 'what people believe'.

To my knowledge, other than maintenance, none of the six items you listed has ever been proven to add reliability to a ’96 SVX transmission under normal road use. Most items on your final list have been tested sparely, and for relatively few miles, with mixed reviews.

You have taken the biggest step known and observed in increasing transmission reliability in an SVX, namely, driving a post-92 SVX. I believe that nearly everybody agrees on that. These later transmissions, when properly maintained according to Subaru, will easily approach 200,000 miles without failure. In fact, how many here have had a 96-97 transmission fail?

By 96, Subaru engineers had enough years and miles to correct early reliability concerns in the SVX. That is what you risk by making changes to a car you consider a 'daily driver'. I do not believe that any advice given here regarding reliability, other than periodic fluid change, is conclusive.

If you are looking to change the performance of your transmission, the 'safe' question is a different question entirely, with many opposing opinions.
I think with the mid-94 to 97 transmissions, not driving like a race car driver is the best way to keep the transmission from breaking.

Also, I remember Trevor saying that driving in 3 was a good way to help. That's kept me with my stock tranny and 190k miles.
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  #48  
Old 10-03-2010, 09:45 AM
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Huskymaniac Huskymaniac is offline
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Re: Transmission Mods

Quote:
Originally Posted by NeedForSpeed View Post
If the above statement is your only true objective, you should immediately delete your entire list. You can not be 'sure' of any of it. Items 1,3,5,6 are considered 'performance' mods, usually for those that drive accordingly. Items 2 and 4 are considered reliability/maintenance mods, but not everyone agrees on the cooler or on synthetic You clearly and correctly stated, the list is based on 'what people believe'.

To my knowledge, other than maintenance, none of the six items you listed has ever been proven to add reliability to a ’96 SVX transmission under normal road use. Most items on your final list have been tested sparely, and for relatively few miles, with mixed reviews.

You have taken the biggest step known and observed in increasing transmission reliability in an SVX, namely, driving a post-92 SVX. I believe that nearly everybody agrees on that. These later transmissions, when properly maintained according to Subaru, will easily approach 200,000 miles without failure. In fact, how many here have had a 96-97 transmission fail?

By 96, Subaru engineers had enough years and miles to correct early reliability concerns in the SVX. That is what you risk by making changes to a car you consider a 'daily driver'. I do not believe that any advice given here regarding reliability, other than periodic fluid change, is conclusive.

If you are looking to change the performance of your transmission, the 'safe' question is a different question entirely, with many opposing opinions.
OK, I will grant you that no one can be sure that any of them will work. However, items 1-4 have never been said to cause damage or possibly make the reliability decrease. But you are right in that, in every case, someone will argue that it doesn't help reliability. I guess I am putting up that list as items that have been widely claimed to be beneficial while not harmful. However, item #6 is the most debatable in terms of whether it will help at all. And item #5 is probably the item that will get the most claims as possibly causing more harm that good. In my mind, though, it does increase line pressure but not to the point where the original intent of that resistor is completely removed. Personally, I am planning to do items 1-4 over time.

On the cooler, there is some debate as to its necessity but it is widely believed that the improved FLOW is, in itself, a help for reliability. Whether the cooling capacity really helps is what is debatable. And whether either is needed for a later model SVX is also debatable I suppose. But I don't see how it could hurt with the only possible exception being that it can restrict air flow to the radiator if placed between the condenser and radiator or in front of the condenser. That can raise engine temperatures. Also, if the cooler is too big and the climate too cold, one might never lock up the torque converter and that will cause poor gas mileage. So, for my car, I am thinking of getting a smaller, lower flow resistance cooler. The estimate I came up with for the cooling capacity of the stock cooler was around 2000 GVM. Any cooling above that is a bonus but the main goals are low flow resistance and small size.

The folks at Hayden were kind enough to send me actual data on their Model 676 cooler. For the size, it is quite efficient at cooling and I can estimate the flow resistance from the data they gave me. I compared that with a flex-a-lite 4110 cooler. I calculated the flow resistance from equations for laminar flow. What I don't know is how turbulant the flow is and how much higher the actual flow resistance is. Flex-a-lite has not supplied data per my request. That alone makes me lean toward Hayden.

Here is a summary of the evaluation thus far:

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1996 Polo Green Subaru SVX LSi, 168,XXX miles, Redline D4 ATF, Redline 75W90 gear oil, K&N HP-4001 Oil Filter, Mobil 1 5W50 FS (3qt) and 5W30 High Mileage (4qt) Oil Blend, Motul RBF600 Brake Fluid, AC Delco A975C Air Filter, NGK BKR6EIX-11 plugs, Centric Rotors, Power Stop Evolution Carbon Fiber Ceramic Brake Pads
2005 Gray Acura RL, 165,XXX miles, Redline D4 ATF with Lubegard Platinum Protectant, Mobil 1 5W20 High Mileage Extended Performance Oil
2009 Red Toyota Venza, 123,XXX, Mobil 1 5W30 High Mileage Oil
1992 Red Ferrari 348 ts, 82,XXX, Redline everything

Last edited by Huskymaniac; 10-03-2010 at 09:47 AM.
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  #49  
Old 10-03-2010, 11:39 AM
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kwren kwren is offline
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Re: Transmission Mods

Could we please get Trevor back??

Trevor had a way of enlightening folks that were completely out of the realm of reality in a way that they could understand

Keith
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  #50  
Old 10-03-2010, 11:58 AM
NeedForSpeed NeedForSpeed is offline
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Re: Transmission Mods

Quote:
Originally Posted by kwren View Post
Could we please get Trevor back??

Trevor had a way of enlightening folks that were completely out of the realm of reality in a way that they could understand

Keith
Keith,
Your second meaningless post about Trevor in this interesting thread

Why continue to hack huskymaniac's excellent thread ?

If you need to continually bring it up, please start a thread to discuss Trevor, and see if anyone cares
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  #51  
Old 10-03-2010, 05:11 PM
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Re: Transmission Mods

Quote:
Originally Posted by NeedForSpeed View Post
Keith,
Your second meaningless post about Trevor in this interesting thread

Why continue to hack huskymaniac's excellent thread ?

If you need to continually bring it up, please start a thread to discuss Trevor, and see if anyone cares
back
Sounds like a plan!

Keith
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