chawkins2001

I wanted to show you guys what a performance VB on my lightning does in terms of shifting.

I think Urbanworm has one on his car (W211 E55) as Adam, the previous owner was talking to me about it. I think with the EC TCU tune, this mod would be deadly on the W211 E55.

In the vid, notice the 1-2 shift, as I had to get out of it on the 2-3 due to the truck going sideways and running out of road. There is nothing else down to the tranny, no TCU tune, nothing.

I believe if a lightning tranny can shift this quick with a VB, which is really built for towing, imagine what the e55 tranny can do, enjoy!!!!

RedBullJnky

Nice!

tbal

Nice... that thing sounds like its stupid loud... your neighbors must hate you lol

nanayaw6

That's some fast shifting. Someday E55, someday..........................

blackbenzz

If it wasn't so cold out I'd make a vid of mine with VB mod and tcu tune. My clk has just the VB mod

blackbenzz

Well when I say just VB mod on the clk I mean built Trans, just no tcu .

Here is a really old vid. Listen to the gear changes in the burnout, and even on the track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpD4oav9GwI

urbamworm

I bought a valve body from Paramount Performance, my car had a stock valve body when I bought it from Adam, Adam had a higher stall torque converter put in maybe you are getting confused with that? I also recently installed a Eurocharged TCU tune that I bought from Johncy before he got rid of his car. So now I have both.

blackbenzz

And how did each one feel?

AKnight55

Sorry to go OT, but what pulleys are you selling?

blackbenzz

Sorry the pulleys i'm selling are for the Kleemann supercharger not dir E55.

urbamworm

I noticed a firmer and slightly quicker shift from 1st to 2nd then also 2nd to 3rd, the 1-2 seemed a little more noticeable though after the valve body install. I was expecting more but there certainly was a difference. I think part of the "problem" though is lack of traction and the damn traction control cutting so much power up to like 60-70mph which has to be affecting the shifts also. I think you would see/feel a more noticeable difference with sticky tires (track with drags on).

I only got to drive the car briefly with the tcu tune before I left town for work. It was in the 40s so the car felt like an animal from that so was kind of hard to gauge the tcu tune. I was unsure if it may have shifted faster or not since I already had quicker shifts from the valve body. I do have little clips from when the car was stock valve body, upgraded and then with both the tcu tune and valve body. I will put together a little video to show each but it will have to be tomorrow since the internet is screwed up right now at the hotel I am staying at and nothing seems to happen fast here (Naples, Italy). I am on my phone right now since I was feaning to get online.

chawkins2001

Please do brotha. I am very interested in getting this done and would love to see your beast in action.

If you don't mind me asking, what does paramount charge? What are the specs on their VB for our trannys?

urbamworm

Ok, I thought I had videos of stock valve body and tcu but they are on my old cell phone which I don't have access to right now since I am out of the country. I made a little video but it just has a stock 2nd-3rd shift from a video I did of a run on the highway, wish I had a stock 1-2 shift video with me so I could have had it in the video too.

I really think I need to run the car when it is warmer out to get a better comparison since the temperature dropped like 20 degrees and was in the 40s when I got the TCU tune installed. I left town the next day so barely go to drive the car. Because of the colder weather I had much more problems with traction to higher speeds, the car felt real strong when I drove it right before I left town but I don't know what to attribute to extra power to. Assume it was from the cold weather but maybe some could also be from the tcu tune from whatever the torque limiters stuff is they change, won't know until a later date on that after driving in warmer weather again and also when I have some better traction so ESP isn't screwing with power and shifting possibly.

One thing I did notice with the tcu tune is the car sort of cuts out for a split second (you can hear this in the video) then explodes in to the next gear which you can't really tell in the video. If you listen before tcu tune you hear the engine the whole time through the shift but after tune it is different, I am not sure what that is all about. To me it seems like if it didn't do that it would be a faster shift. I really don't know what to think about the tune and if it helped/hurt/didn't change shift speeds but I mean it has to be better right? I just wonder if because it was tuned around a stock valve body that since mine is modded it may not work as well/the same.

As for Paramount performance, they generally offer a "stage 1" and "stage 2" valve body for the SRT-8 vehicles, 1 being $500 and the other $600. The stage 2 is done for cars making around or over 500whp so with the E55 it is automatically a stage 2. I don't know if he can offer even more of an aggresive adjustment from what I got or not but by no means in the slightest bit is driveability messed up from mine as for rough engagement when cruising. There is a little different engagement from the 1-2 when easy on it but not even remotely something to complain about in my opinion. As for "specs" I don't really know any details.

They do an exchange program with the SRT-8s but since he doesn't generally do the 55k valve bodies he doesn't have cores on hand and will have you send yours in. He has done multiple valve bodies and also built performance transmissions for the 55k though and if I remember correctly I think he actually has an SL55 as one of his vehicles with one of his NAG1 transmissions in it. Bill is a real nice guy and is pretty quick to get back to emails too.

Here is the video click

urbamworm

Video up.

chawkins2001

Thanks brotha, I will give him a call. I am going to ask them for the most aggressive VB for a weekend warrior, track car. I still want DD ability, but dont mind aggressive engagement at all.

That with a stepup to a 190mm pulley will yank your teeth loose once engagement occurs

chawkins2001

Wow, from the video it seems like it made a HUGE difference.

urbamworm

The valve body certainly improved things but I am on the fence if stacking the tune on top helped or not.

chawkins2001

Yeah, I already have the tcu tune, and could not notice a difference because my ECU limiters needed to be adjusted in order to let the TCU tune work it's magic.

chawkins2001

It is not that loud in person, at least my E55 is WAY louder. The truck has longtubes, catted x pipe and magnaflow catback which is not considered a loud combo for these trucks.

It does have ALOT of bass, and has a very deep tone, so you can definitely hear it on cold starts in the morning

KLR CLS

How is the SRT VB any different? IT's the exact same tranny and the SRT 8 VB has an MB part number on it.

I am doing this too before the summer.

Jakpro1

I am just convinced nothing is gonna help our slushers shift like the new 7 speeds or even close to that lightning.

I just wish I had pre collapse income, I'd find a way to make that sum beotch (new 7 speed) work on our cars.

It's truly the missing link

Sigh.....someday

chawkins2001

Yeah, that lightning shifts so damn fast, and that does not even have any tranny adaptions done to it yet. You can basically do a TCU tune on top of the VB.

The E55 shifting drops almost a 1000rpms before it engages next gear, but if you notice on my first, second gear shift on the lightning, it only drops around 200-250rpms, that is what I am after.

blackbenzz

Then you are looking for shorter gearing

KLR CLS

yep, I should be getting my *** on that 3.06 install shortly too in conjuction with the TCU tune.

BRABUS786

Does anyone know what is done in the vb mod?

Can we do it our self?

Acid