I've been doing my own PowerGlides for years. I always tapped the pressure for my Racepak off of the servo. The thought process being if it had the right pressure in low gear, we'd be good through the entire 1/4 mile. I lost two Glides to converter failures with in 100 passes. One is a Dedenbear case the other an ATI I've had recerted a couple of time. Both are Identical inside with FTI aluminum Pro tree brake. The Dedenbear is sitting under the work bench, and Tony Morris put eight licks on the ATI at Divisionals this spring.

The Dedenbear showed 230 psi all down the track. The ATI is showing 260 at Idle and 335 (seems like a lot to me) after the stop comes off. I called FTI to get an expert answer and got a Duhhh reply. Not the same without Greg. After trying to noodle this through before asking you guys, I've come up with zip.

Any of your really in the know guys got and answer? I'll try to get a couple of RacePak screenshots posted here to help. Thanks.

Do you know what boost valve are in these?. Yes 335 is high What exactly were the converter failures. Big Steve here will give you some pointers We both have talked to Hutch in the past on specific pressures.

doubtful. But have you checked the sensor for race pak? Hell anythging can go bad. If nothing else takes it out of question.Just throwing it out.

I have a pressure gauge to check against the sensor.

I There is just one passage in the valve body with a pressure gauge.

Both convertor failures were bearing failures that sent debris into the transmission. One was an FTI that Greg Samuels spec'ed for me and a JW converter that failed at 100 licks. Both were right on with the desired stall.

Same VB in both units or just same model? Do they use an external regulator?

Two separate valve bodies, same part number. I forgot to add that both transmissions have the FTI iron pump.

The pressure should stay steady to whatever the set point is at throughout the run except for a quick drop and rise at the shift. 260 rising to 335 is way high and not right, I ran my TD trans at 280 but for a typical bracket PG 250 should be plenty.
The aluminum FTI valve body's have external regulators 'and personally don't like them. Me a many others have had troubles with those aluminum valve bodies. I had 2 Coan cast iron VBs with their version of external regulators and had nothing but trouble with them, Marco Abruzzi converted them to Sonnax boost valves, set the pressure at 280 with his shim spring combo and never had any more pressure issues. Still running one of those in my PST

quote:

Originally posted by nomad:
I've been doing my own PowerGlides for years. I always tapped the pressure for my Racepak off of the servo. The thought process being if it had the right pressure in low gear, we'd be good through the entire 1/4 mile. I lost two Glides to converter failures with in 100 passes. One is a Dedenbear case the other an ATI I've had recerted a couple of time. Both are Identical inside with FTI aluminum Pro tree brake. The Dedenbear is sitting under the work bench, and Tony Morris put eight licks on the ATI at Divisionals this spring.

The Dedenbear showed 230 psi all down the track. The ATI is showing 260 at Idle and 335 (seems like a lot to me) after the stop comes off. I called FTI to get an expert answer and got a Duhhh reply. Not the same without Greg. After trying to noodle this through before asking you guys, I've come up with zip.

Any of your really in the know guys got and answer? I'll try to get a couple of RacePak screenshots posted here to help. Thanks.

While Greg is no longer the owner he still works here. mainly in R&D. Furthermore I am still here as one of the managers (Greg is my father) and we still maintain the same values as when my father owned the company. We have specialized techs in our office, in the future for any transmission related questions Justin H, Scott or myself is the person you want to talk to.

To answer your question 260@ idle and 335 down track is definitely too high. Like Steve said 280 is usually the highest we want to go. Normally when there is an issue with the external regulators we use, the line pressure goes down, not up. We dyno each regulator before its installed but its possible that is have been adjusted since then. If you remove the cap on the regulator there is an adjustment screw underneath. I would start with a 1 full turn counter clockwise and go from there. We can also re-dyno the regulator here if you would like to send it in.

Feel free to reach out directly if you have any other questions or if there is anything I can do to help.

-Dalton
dalton@ftiperformance.com
386-736-5816

I doubled checked the pressure again on the RacePak while on the jackstands. Same thing - 240+ at idle and 300+ on the brake. Then I got out my analog trans test gauge and it matched the RacePak. So, I going to assume the pressure relief was incorrectly set at the FTI facility. Wednesday I'll back the pressure relief off some and set what it does.

News Flash! I just got off the phone with Dalton at FTI. We had a nice conversation about my problem. I got an answer about how far to adjust the pressure relief and get the results I need. Thanks, Dalton.

Even that 240 at idle sounds really high and not right, I just checked one of my graphs and mine is 205 at idle jumps up to 280 on the brake and flat lines at 280 the whole run except at the shift. And that on my VB that was set up for the blown TD

quote:

Originally posted by Big Steve:
Even that 240 at idle sounds really high and not right, I just checked one of my graphs and mine is 205 at idle jumps up to 280 on the brake and flat lines at 280 the whole run except at the shift. And that on my VB that was set up for the blown TD

that will also come down when nomad adjusts the regulator.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Steve:
Even that 240 at idle sounds really high and not right, I just checked one of my graphs and mine is 205 at idle jumps up to 280 on the brake and flat lines at 280 the whole run except at the shift. And that on my VB that was set up for the blown TD

strange... mine only moves about 20 psi from idle to w/o

quote:

Originally posted by seabass:

quote:

Originally posted by Big Steve:
Even that 240 at idle sounds really high and not right, I just checked one of my graphs and mine is 205 at idle jumps up to 280 on the brake and flat lines at 280 the whole run except at the shift. And that on my VB that was set up for the blown TD

strange... mine only moves about 20 psi from idle to w/o

^^^this

quote:

Originally posted by nomad:
News Flash! I just got off the phone with Dalton at FTI. We had a nice conversation about my problem. I got an answer about how far to adjust the pressure relief and get the results I need. Thanks, Dalton.

Heck, Bruce, you and FTI are practically neighbors. If your regulator adjustment doesn't do the trick you can always take it over there.

As a racer, I appreciate both Dalton at FTI and Brandon (BTE) and all of the other suppliers to our hobby for being on these boards and offering their support.

The ride to FTI is brutal these days. I-4 is a mess. Dalton is sending out a new pressure cartridge for me. I should have it tomorrow.

The same with BLP. I like seeing those guys but the traffic is horrible. Better just to have them ship it.

quote:

Originally posted by nomad:
The ride to FTI is brutal these days. I-4 is a mess. Dalton is sending out a new pressure cartridge for me. I should have it tomorrow.

The same with BLP. I like seeing those guys but the traffic is horrible. Better just to have them ship it.

Can't argue with you there! I traverse 4 miles of I4 every day to get to work. To say that it is a mess is an understatement, especially when you get south of Sanford and north of Kissimmee.

the new PR shipped yesterday so you should have it today.

I'm in the process of building a new car, hope to have done by end of the year. We'll have to catch up sometime when I finally make back out to a race track.