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Atx

Will tranny cooler save it for city-street and highway (NOT drag racing) with just high speed pull-ons?

Or just screwed?
 
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Routine fluid flushes, probably every 30k or even sooner, high quality stacked plate trans cooler and an inline cooler are the best ways to prevent tranny failure.

Also, a chip with *slightly* shortened shift times and *slightly* higher pressure may help the life of the tranny as heat is a big problem for the CD4E especially with the lousy stock cooling. I've had a chip in my car since 70k, car now has 105k. No other mods to the tranny other than the "quick shift" tune...

My car has been to the track and has made its fair share of passes, but I always let it cool down between runs. Usually icing down the motor and letting it sit for an hour or so between runs.
 
Nezerconezer said:
Garbage my ATX couldn't handle going up hill with the raw power of the Zetec pushing it along.
Click to expand...

You had a bad example of the CD4E then. May have been partailly burned up or the torque converter & seals worn/leaking before you got the car.

The tranny is by no means a beast, and I don't think it will hold up to a turbo for terribly long if you like spirited driving, but it is under-estimated on these boards I think. I also believe that the tranny can be 'adjusted' to hold more power long term if properly cooled & aggessively maintained. Some of those adjustments are available through tuning. I had a superchip in my first Contour that raised the shift points slightly & also 'firmed up' the shifts. If I had it to do over again, I would keep the stock shift points & firm the shifts a bit more than the Kurtz Kustoms tuner did for me. They don't do Contours any more, however.
 
Well, I personally speak out of keeping the car running as a daily driver. You can go ahead and build up the car with an auto tranny and blow it even a year or two [at MOST] later; but then what the hell is the point in adding performance if you can't get on it?

Yeah. This guy knows the pain of an automatic slushbox. :laugh:
 
Yes, I want a daily driver.

I just want one with the possibility of having some real power.

My ideal car has lots of luxury, lots of power, and a low price tag - isn't everyones?

I like suped-up Crown Victoria's for example. (No flaming on my opinion please).

Does anyone have the information on why converting a 2.5L SE into a MTX is such a problem? I've heard over and over that it's easier to get a new car, but I don't understand the reasons. Couldn't you just junkyard all the parts?
 
Russell has done the other swap, from ATX to MTX. Do a search and see what you can find. One of the snags is the subframe is different. Another is that the PCM is different. If you find a donor car of the same year and engine and have a lot of time you should be able to do the swap, but still the feeling is that for the effort involved you should just find a car with the engine and trans you want to start with.
 
*shrug*
My '99 SE V6/ATX was fine at over 168K with regular 24k-26k fluid changes since we bought over ten years ago. Only thing that stopped our car...was a power pole. At 30 MPH.
Issue is, these units are not like a C6 where you can neutral drop it repetitively from 5 grand and expect it to live.

Regardless, it's not like an old carb'ed car with a 4 speed like my Torino. Swap a flex plate over to a flywheel, install a clutch and rolling in a day or so.

Late model cars, have year to year changes, model to model changes. Sensors.
I'm not an expert, but starting with a car set up already...saves a good deal of PITA fumbling.
 
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wow ... five year old thread ....

anyway, many have had significant trouble with the CD4E ATX. frequent fluid changes do help alot.

Actually one can do a manual swao in a day or so with the correct knowledge and parts. I know of at least 4 cars this was done in. Using the same year car is a big deal also, however alot is still interchangeable.
 
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