Thread: which shift kit?

Hey peeps i wanna know which is the better of the shift kits on the market.looking to try one. I know zzp and wbody stores are the cheapest then theres intense,3800 perf and transgo.Whats the better bang for the buck and are these worth it? I hear its possible to chirp tires in 2nd gear which i think is sick.

Anything with the tires spinning in a fwd is lame..

And your going to need a TEP tranny

Originally Posted by That Canadian Guy

Transgo from TEP.

It makes your Transgo BOOM!

Lol.But why would i need a TEP tranny just for a shift kit?I recently had a tranny rebuild so i should be good. I guess i might try the transgo.are there any snags i might run into when installing?

Yeah you're not going to need a TEP tranny just for a shift kit. I'm pretty sure the guy above just meant that if your looking for high performance your going to want to go with a TEP tranny...I talked to Dave about them once and asked if they did anything to negatively effect the life of the tranny and his response was:
"The Transgo shift kits' intentions are to help the transmission perform better and last longer. It will not create harsh shifts that would cause damage to internal parts. The traditional slang of "shift kit" has long been sought out to mean hard shifts but that is not the case. It is not intended for high performance applications as they come out of the box, they are designed to help automatic transmissions work better overall and address common problems."

Any shift kit that's not the Transgo basically is doing the same thing: shimming the accumulator springs to firm up the shifts. So the cheapest kit is going to be as nice as the most expensive kit. For that, shop for it by price.

We don't offer a choice in shifting firmness any more. Throughout the years we've learned that the first setting makes too little of a difference for most people while the third setting is too firm for most street cars and unsafe for cars running aftermarket PCM's with increased line pressure. So we ship our kits with what would be considered the 2nd level on the 3 level kits. Regardless of who's kit you buy, the 2nd level will be the way to go.

The Transgo is ideal but is a much more involved install, best saved for a rebuild.

Aight thanks for the info everyone.Im gonna shop around and decide

transgo and intense kits are good.. the rest suck.

I have the Transgo and love it

why do you need a shift kit? find someone with a tuner and do the same thing without having to crack open the transmission at all. i dont get the point of shift kits when a tune will go above and beyond what they can accomplish.

You do have a point.I was going to do a tune and shift kit together.Ill see whats up though

Originally Posted by Bio248

why do you need a shift kit? find someone with a tuner and do the same thing without having to crack open the transmission at all. i dont get the point of shift kits when a tune will go above and beyond what they can accomplish.

A tune won't physically shim the accumulator. There is a noticeable difference in feel between the 96psi maxed line pressure a PCM will provide and a shift kit.

transgo and intense kits are good.. the rest suck.

The Intense kit firms up shifts in the same fashion as our kit and the other guy's kit. Pretty much everything on the Intense website is a snapshot of how things were done in 2004. If someone wants to pay $70 more to do the same thing, kudos to them. I'd either go all the way and get a Transgo or I'd get one of the "cheap" kits that we sell. I wouldn't ever waste my time with the Intense kit. It's needlessly redundant, IMO.

Originally Posted by Mike Kopstain

The Intense kit firms up shifts in the same fashion as our kit and the other guy's kit. Pretty much everything on the Intense website is a snapshot of how things were done in 2004. If someone wants to pay $70 more to do the same thing, kudos to them. I'd either go all the way and get a Transgo or I'd get one of the "cheap" kits that we sell. I wouldn't ever waste my time with the Intense kit. It's needlessly redundant, IMO.

Why is the Intense kit bad? I always heard that the problem with the shim only kits was that the transmission came from the factory with springs that were less than ideal. So wouldnt changing the springs be better than just shimming? Not trying to bash you or anyone's products just trying to figure out the details.

Originally Posted by 2000SILVERSE3800

Why is the Intense kit bad? I always heard that the problem with the shim only kits was that the transmission came from the factory with springs thahttp://www.grandprixforums.net/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=522147t were less than ideal. So wouldnt changing the springs be better than just shimming? Not trying to bash you or anyone's products just trying to figure out the details.

We've sold countless kits and never had a bad/ broken spring issue and have never seen one. The firmer springs were always considered ideal but optional. We saw the market demographic getting younger and figured a cheaper kit would sell better than a more expensive kit and offered our $30 kit in 05 or 06.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Intense' kit. I just have a hard time swallowing anyone telling me that their kit and the Transgo kit are the only way to go without elaborating at all.

I have a TransGo kit in my fully built Triple Edge transmission...It shifts harder than sin...I love it. I used to have a ZZP shift kit in my stock transmission and there are WORLDS difference here...granted...it is fully built...but I hardly even noticed much of a difference with my ZZP one vs. stock.

Originally Posted by bluegtp91

but I hardly even noticed much of a difference with my ZZP one vs. stock.

This tells the tale... If you didn't notice a difference you either installed it wrong or on the lightest setting. Likewise there might have been another issue with the transmission that was resolved when it was rebuilt.

Nonetheless, a trans rebuild (done properly) is always going to net better results than a shift kit. There are many other components in the transmission that are being tweaked when a rebuild is done which you would never touch when installing a shift kit. Likewise there are components that your changing when you're installing a shift kit versus tuning a line pressure increase and shortening shift time which is why I find it a little odd when people try to draw parallel lines between a shift kit and a tune. One is a physical change while the other is simply a variable change.

Originally Posted by Mike Kopstain

This tells the tale... If you didn't notice a difference you either installed it wrong or on the lightest setting. Likewise there might have been another issue with the transmission that was resolved when it was rebuilt.

I was honestly disappointed with their kit...I tested it on the "strongest" setting. I'm not saying their wasn't a difference...I just didn't get the slapbang shifts like I thought I was going to be getting...

The tune however was a base DHP V1.0 file...so the line pressure was increased there.

The transmission was fine...I never had any issues with it whatsoever...I just upgraded to a Triple Edge Street/Strip Transmission when I had the funds that way I didn't have to worry about it in the future as a weak link.