Yea, that scares me. I am doing a shift kit and servos at the same time as the converter. I know that's just putting a band-aid on a weak tranny. Acutally that is another reason that I had been thinking about going non-intercooled. I know if I have the power of a Radix, I'll use it. Non-intercooled would be a little cheaper, a little less power, but my tranny would stay together a little longer.

 

Bob:

I don't remember what type of regulator we bought, I'll take a look if you want. You will have to move the tranny oil cooler if you put it in front of the radiator or condensor. We ended up mounting mine at the bottom of the intercooler, down towards the bottom radiator support.

I haven't done anything to my tranny yet but I don't run the he!! out of my truck either. I just figured I'd run it until it shoots craps and then replace it with an FLP level V tranny or something similar. THEN I will put on a smaller pulley, take it somewhere and have a dyno tune done on it, and really start having some fun!

I plan to take the truck to Gateway for a 1/4 mile track day sometime and have debated on the best way to try to help assure the tranny doesn't take a hit. I've thought about running in Auto 4-wheel drive mode. It seems to me the whole driveline would be taking the stress then, plus you wouldn't have any traction issues getting off the line either.

 

You might want to contact blownchevy, or blown364, and inquire about getting the brackets to mount the heat exchanger down low, like on the Gibbs trucks. You might also want to mount the hx, and maybe even the fuel pump before the actual blower install. That way, you can get a little ahead of the game.

 

Shift kit, and servos would be a wise addition.

 

You can save your tranny with the custom tune. Be sure to do the tune in person, and not mail order.
Tell the tunner what you want and don't want. The tunner should be able to be conservative on the TM & line pressure before the trans shifts. Though at the same time giving you optimal power gains over the Radix kit's program.
That's the only way to be some what sure that you have enough cushion in the PCM program to give your tranny a longer life.
Hope all turns out for the best.
Wish I was allowed to buy a Radix .
I'm one example of why you need to do this before getting a certain someone in your life.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Jim

 

Jim you have the kind of truck I would never dream a 62 year old would drive I agree with the others, for the best out of the box kit you definitely can't go wrong with a Radix, if I weren't a slacker and had a job I'd definitely have one. Good luck

 

The intercooler (or actually the heat exchanger for the intercooler) could be more of a problem that I was thinking. Where do you have it mounted? I can't easily move the trans cooler, it's a GM cooler with steel lines and the mounting bracket made to it. It mounts if front support bar that the hood release is mounted to. If the intercooler mounts between that bar and the radiator I think I would be OK, if not it could cause a real problem.

I really appreciate this advice in advance. I'm still not 100% on the Radix but I'm strongly leaning that way if there are no major issues with my previous mods. I was afraid the the body lift was going to cause big problems with the piping but never thought about the TOC causing a problem.

Does anyone think the body lift is going to cause a problem? In effect my engine sits 3" lower in relation to the body, radiator, air box, or anything else that mounted to the body instead of the frame.

Bob

 

...on the same topic, can someone tell me the aprox. size of the heat exchanger that has to mount in front of the radiator? I have no idea, it may not be a big issue to make some brackets to mount it where I have room.

Thanks

 

Here's some pics of mine. Had to mod the hood release and the supplied mounting brackets for the Avalanche install. Sits in the same place as your tranny cooler. Didn't really want to mount it down low and use it as a skidplate.

 

Thanks for the pics. Your right, that's exactly where my TOC is mounted.

That was my thought too. I don't do any hardcore off roading but it does from time to time see a dirt trail or a hill.