ClimberDHexMods

That is the point

I had great luck unbolting the trans bushing and using a crow bar to wedge the front diff housing away from the crossmember (thus sliding trans back away from engine). This may work to get you the couple millimeters of case separation you need. You might not even need to unbolt the trans mount... but you will need the lower engine mounts to hold the engine in place for this to work. I don't know if this will help you, but it sounds like you're out of ideas. I read various accounts of this problem on various forums.

Working on it

I can modify 07. It's 08 and 09 that's a challenge.

The swap is what, a year old or more by now?

Camber and toe are going to be a mess with same alignment settings at +6" resting height change...

I see what you did there.

Yes, hopefully during 2012.

There is absolutely an FAQ coming, when I can block off a full day to write it. I've written small sections in no particular order, and will compile those in as well.

On the contrary, I just moved into a new place with far better garage setup.

Keep it coming guys. Thanks for those who have asked good questions. I can tell from some of the recent answers around regarding the 5eat that this FAQ will do a lot to get people a better understanding.

$1800 A rebuild is the only thing 99% of transmission shops can do. What else would they do... don't say a flush, because a flush can lead to a rebuild pretty quick, depending on the situation.

Good questions. Keep them coming

keep the questions coming I will try to make answers as simple as possible.

What do you want to know about the 5EAT and related systems? I'm going to write a big long FAQ, with answers to whatever people want to know. In the end this should save a lot of our collective time, since people keep asking the same questions, and we keep writing answers. Instead, people can just say, "Read the FAQ [link]". If I do a good job, hopefully it can become a sticky. Sample Questions: What are clutch packs? What trans cooler setup should I consider? What fluid should I use? How to do a flush? How much power is lost through the 5EAT? Ask away!

Appears you could skip replacing the coolant pipe and just run a length of hose, being sure to affix the hose clear of the header crosspipe. Just a thought. I have aspirations of needing more room down there.

I'm very late to the party. I skimmed the thread, didn't read a lot of it (experience suggests it's a waste of time). Order of problem solving. 1) Check fluid LEVEL and condition. Level is important (check while motor is running). Low level means you slip a lot. Too high means you're going to get crap performance (since you'll get air bubbles throughout the fluid). Condition is not as critical. These cars car run just fine on blackish or dark brownish fluid that has lost the ability to self-clean the transmission. Spent fluid is NOT GOOD for the transmission, but it's usually not the problem. If it sped up you getting to where you are, damage is already done, and changing fluid usually doesn't reverse course unless your existing fluid is SO terrible it hardly resembles the operating properties of ATF anymore. 2) Software. The TCU on these cars is very finicky. A reset can help if a car develops an odd, repeatably slam that is isolated to a specific driving scenario, not ever present. Sometimes the learning causes weird behavior (it uncommon), and a reset followed by passive re-learn can get you back to more normal behavior. This can be the answer, but it does not sound like your problem. 3) The transmission makes gear ratios (aka "gears", 1,2,3,4,5,R). The gear ratios are made by locking up certain clutch packs. The clutch packs are locked by hydraulically squeezing layers of friction disks against layers of steel plates, until the two differing rotating parts lock together. The whole thing is actuated by and bathed in ATF. These friction disks are wear parts, like the clutch on a manual transmission, or brake pads. After they've done their time, they wear out to the point where they need to be replaced. These friction disks can be replaced with new ones. That's a lot of what's done when a "rebuild" is done. It's likely you just need a rebuild. Cost of driving a car with ~100,000 miles. BTW, the valve body modification I sell makes the aforementioned squeeze a lot more firm / faster so you get less slip and more grip. But the transmission needs to be healthy for it to work right, aka you need your frictions to be in good shape. Yours most likely are not. So a transmission replacement or rebuild is the solution.

Maybe that will help the CV boot last a little longer... BTW the foam circle thing is the filter for the MAP sensor. You don't even need it to be there, but why mess with it. Separately, I take a course grit sand paper to all the hose nipples, and then degrease, then sometimes hair spray. Then zip tie or clamp. Almost any line coming off is either a pain in the butt, or a world of hurt.

It's the tan nipple off the black plastic valve, top left of this pic.

There are many different answers. Safest is to let the trans pump out fluid under its own power, and push in fresh fluid (low pressure) through the other end of the cooler plumbing. I just do it at home, engine on to pump fluid out of a cooler hose, then shut off engine and refill ATF via dipstick tube. This is so easy with a buddy, I don't know why you would ever pay to have it done any other way, unless you don't do any mechanical work yourself, or have no friends to start/stop the engine for you.

Yup the line off the blue T goes to the front side, where it plugs into the tan evap diaphram.

It would be great if we could take this to a trans cooler thread

I do not know the answer to whether it is of concern or not. I also never said it would cause damage if fluid is too cold for too long. My temp suggestions were guidelines. Your setup formula is: ATF out - cooler + radiator = gauge temp. If you get into a situation where the coolant in the radiator gets cool because the thermostat is not open a lot, then you're going to get cooler ATF cruising temps, and your cooler will make it colder still. This and warmup is when a thermostat would help you. I don't run a cooler. But if I were to, I would do what you did: measure resultant temp. I would also check the temps inside the trans via FreeSSM, and see what the difference is from your gauge, so you will better know what your gauge represents. If of concern after that, I would compare to temp without the cooler. You will need to loop out the cooler to do this, or try to block it with cardboard or something like that. From there, if through testing it turned out that a smaller cooler would be better, I would be happy to not have to spend money on a thermostat. But if a thermostat was necessary, I would buy it. In that order. Since I have not run a cooler, I have not tested to find the right setup. I am convinced the "consensus" is wrong on this site regarding how to setup a cooler. I believe you're on the right track. It may turn out your cooler is better suited for a race car or a F350, or it may turn out that you check the internal trans temps and they're pretty much fine. Do some temp watching and see what you get. Side note, cold fluid can make F1 shifts slam. If I was getting cold slamming for longer than a couple minutes, and I had a cooler, I wouldn't put up with it.

How quick does it warm up without the cooler? There's a bypass thermostat on SummitRacing by Derale. Will solve the problem. How is your cooler plumbed? Before the radiator? Which type of cooler?