Your transmission and valvebody may look like a complex maze of fluid passages and little metal balls, but installing a shift improver kit is easier than you think.
In our November issue we rebuilt our TorqueFlite for severe street duty, and outlined the performance modifications required to make your transmission bulletproof. We ran out of pages, so we'll take you through the valvebody and servos to show what it takes to firm up the shifts for tire chirping results here on our Web site.
For our project, we chose the Trans-Scat performance modification kit from TCI Automotive. This kit will give us the shift quality we desire, while retaining the automatic shift features when selected in the drive position.
TCI Automotive has been in the transmission business since 1968 and has a reputation for providing quality products. TCI can provide the parts you need to modify or rebuild your transmission, or they have transmissions and components in stock and ready to install. We chose to install our Trans-Scat kit ourselves to save a few bucks.
Our kit had options for either street/strip or heavy duty/towing. Since our transmission is destined for our '68 GTX clone, we chose to install it using the street/strip instructions. We found the instructions provided with the kit complete and easy to follow. Since our transmission was being overhauled, we installed the kit during the process. The kit can also be installed with the transmission still in the vehicle without much trouble, so don't be afraid to tackle the job in your garage, or driveway for that matter. Remember this kit is designed to improve shift quality and will not fix internal problems with your transmission. If you question the integrity of your transmission's internal workings, our advice is to pull it for an overhaul before installing the Trans-Scat kit. Also remember these pictures and instructions are a good reference, but are not a substitute for the instructions provided in the kit. Always read and understand the instructions before beginning the project.
