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John woods valve body

22K views 17 replies 6 participants last post by  ZombieSoldier 
#1 ·
Hay all. I was looking at putting a John woods valve body in my truck . I have 120000 miles on it from new . The truck has had an easy life as far as towing and it has a 6.0 cooler. Bypass blanked and a triple disc low stall torque converter . On daily running it runs around 145-155 f and towing 8000lb around 170-190. Is it worth me spending the money on this transmission or wait untill it gose and get a new one. I'm in Australia so I have to ship one from the states if it dose go. Thanks Tom
 
#2 ·
I don't think so,,, What a VB does for you is to eliminate much of the "slush shifts" your transmission will do (actually having it in Both gears for just a bit to soften the feel). With the crisper shifts it stops some of the slip, wear, and heat build-up a stock VB allows.

With 120K your frictions have already taken the abuse. Save your money and, when needed, do the trans right from the beginning.

btw, installing a JW VB gives you only a subtle change in how your transmission acts and I doubt anybody who wasn't a real "trans-guy" would drive a truck and notice it was any different than stock. It's not like it "bangs gears" or anything
 
#4 ·
i really couldnt disagree more with you. my transmission was banging into gear really really hard, then i added the john woods valvebody that i ordered through him on the phone. he set it up for my specific needs. it now shifts quickly and you barely even feel the shift now. you can definitely feel the difference now.
 
#6 ·
Well I should give some background. The truck has a jasper remanufactured heavy duty trans an they had a shift kit in the VALVEBODY. It shifted fairly hard when stock, then with the tunes it banged gears hard enough for the 35's to brake loose in the 1-2 shift. When it would shift. I replaced the solenoid block and the valve body at the same time. The valve body John woods and myself had talked for about an hour or more about what I was looking for and he tuned the valve body for my needs.
 
#7 ·
So you had a VB & Shift Kit in your trans but didn't account for that with the tuning?

Doesn't surprise me you had trouble.....

You might have been better off sending the chip in for custom tunes, that accounted for the transmission, than changing that VB :(
 
#9 ·
I was actually thinking about a VB myself. I also have a truck that slams gears but mainly when the torque convertor goes into lockup. I thought my TW chip was the problem so I took it out for a few days but it still slammed gears.

I also have a Jasper remanned tranny and a Revmax low stall TC.

By the way the stock trans (ford) with the stock TC (ford) did the same thing with and without tuning.
 
#10 ·
I really don't think NorRalph knows the full fundamentals of what the valve body does. it controls line pressure and with jasper they don't take anything into account and do a "generic" install on the shift kit which increases the line pressure too high. That's why I went with John woods and he was able to "tune" the install for my uses. Could it have been all the valve body? No. It could have been a mixture of the solenoid block and the VB. but either way I replaced both of them and it fixed my issues.
 
#11 ·
Come On Dude, nobody's stock transmission "slams gears" unless there's something wrong. :wink[3]:

I actually have spent many Years in my buddies Transmission rebuilding shop, I Do know what the VB does, I assure you.

Anybody who buys the standard JW VB in hopes that it will have more soft/sloppy gear changes will be sorely disappointed. :D

Get a Clue.... :doh:
 
#12 ·
That's why you don't buy a standard one from him. Call him, talk to him tell him what you need, and he will build it. As at as the other comment I won't even respond to it. I don't feel like showing you who's dick is bigger. Not worth it.
 
#13 ·
I just installed a John Wood on my truck yesterday. I'll tell you what, a stock transmission can slam into gear very well. That's why I got the valve body, on ZombieSoldier's suggestion. It was slamming hard enough that I was concerned about blowing it up. The John Woods valve body fixed that. We sent emails back and forth so he understood what issue I was having, and I am very pleased with the results.

The first couple of times I drove it, I noticed a dramatic difference. Firm shifts, but no longer violent. Then I realized I was in the 100hp setting on my chip (fuel mileage comparison). I flipped it back to economy the truck shifts perfectly. It's firm, but smooth. It's no longer slamming into gear as it was without the valve body. I find it worthy to note that it is shifting smoother in the 100hp setting now than it did in economy without the valve body.

Running PHP tunes.
 
#15 ·
When a stock tranny or any tranny "slams" into gear, violent shifting or whatever you have is typically from the added power from mods. Therefore the tuning and/or tranny need to be tuned for the added power.

If you get the tranny tuned or install a vb and add more power via injectors etc; you will have to have your tranny retuned again.
An example for you even though its not JW. I recently got a BTS tranny and Brian tuned it for the way the truck was at the time. I told him when I got home from the rd trip that I was installing a bigger turbo and injectors along with custom tunes for the mods. He showed me how to retune the tranny for the new mods.
I am sure some of it could be adjusted within the tuning, but the tranny itself still needs some fine tuning. I still haven't retuned the tranny because I am working with Bill (PHP) on fine tuning my custom tunes.
 
#16 ·
thanks for stating the obvious.

but also remember thats not always the case. with mine it was because the shift kit installed by jasper was done incorrectly and the line pressure was set too high. my truck had custom tunes by tony wildman, and he adjusted the shifts so they would be softer, but it still shifted hard, then my tranny didnt want to shift at all, come to find out my solenoid block was going bad, so i replaced both, and my truck was good to go.
 
#17 ·
I was just putting out some info since you and noralph seemed to be butting heads. Thought it might help some others.:p You are correct; not always the case. This is why I said typically.

Bummer that Jasper did not set you up correctly. Glad you are good to go know.
 
#18 ·
Sorry I came off really rude there. That was uncalled for. Also when Chris' tunes were burnt on the chip I ha bill soften his transmission tunes so it wouldn't bang gears. We were both together in the shop with Bill (owner of PHP).
 
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