Which tranny should I go with E4OD 4R100 ... Auto or Manual

[skeetdawg03]

I have an E4OD in my 97 PSD ... third one in the last 4 years... I don't want to do it but one more time... whats the best route to go... are the Manuals any better... I Like to drive hard and fast... usually empty but every once in awhile I'll drag my 5th wheel camper somewhere.... 6" lift , 35" Bfg's hypertech progammer level II (which is hardly anything) DIY Cold air intake....

Better to beef and rebuild The E40d or swap out to something else... what about cross breeding with an allison or dodge or anything ... anyone ever done or heard of anything like this..... I'd like to hear any possible ideas if they are plausible... no daydreams... i have plenty of them ... the last one i had supposedly to handle 750 ftlbs of torque... and i never came close and it still fell apart...

[7.3powerr21]

well i got the stock manual trans in my 350 psd and it just went out at 195,000miles with a basically stock truck. i've been told the manual trans is bulletprof and will outlive the truck. not exactly the case obviously. if you like to get off the line fast and drive like you stole it manual isn't really the way to go...don't get me wrong i love popin the clutch in mine and puttin down some scratch but i have a hard time believein that a manual trans would keep up with an auto in a race. But the good thing about manuals is that they cost less to replace when you blow them up!hehheh

never thought about cross breeding....seems like a good idea in theory but i doubt it can be done or else i'd of heard of it by now.

good luck!

[AD5GB]

I vote for direct belt drive! LOL...... JK. From what I understand the E4OD uses (from the factory) many hard cast and forged parts where the "stock" 4R100 uses 'stamped steel' parts.... (booooo) That said I just rebuilt my E4OD and while I can't say which is better in stock form, I speculate that neither of them are up to High-Performance use out-of-the-box. I stuffed a bunch of $$ into my E4OD just a few months ago, so I'll see what happenz. It will 'chirp' the tires on a 1-2 shift yet give you a smooth ride if you keep your foot out of it. Getting BIG clutch packs, quality valve bodies and good shift programming are essential to the livelihood of any HD automatic. The thing I always hated about the ZF manuals was that there was friction material cemented to the blocking rings...... which always seemed to fail........ but then that was years ago.

[OregonStroker]

Originally Posted by AD5GB

I vote for direct belt drive! LOL...... JK. From what I understand the E4OD uses (from the factory) many hard cast and forged parts where the "stock" 4R100 uses 'stamped steel' parts.... (booooo) That said I just rebuilt my E4OD and while I can't say which is better in stock form, I speculate that neither of them are up to High-Performance use out-of-the-box. I stuffed a bunch of $$ into my E4OD just a few months ago, so I'll see what happenz. It will 'chirp' the tires on a 1-2 shift yet give you a smooth ride if you keep your foot out of it. Getting BIG clutch packs, quality valve bodies and good shift programming are essential to the livelihood of any HD automatic. The thing I always hated about the ZF manuals was that there was friction material cemented to the blocking rings...... which always seemed to fail........ but then that was years ago.

indeed. you gotta spend about 3-4 grand. it wont fail for a long time.