Getting Started
As you may recall, we bought a truck with a bad automatic transmission. Any stock transmission wouldn't hold the power we're going to get from this engine, so it made sense to get a better deal on a truck that needed a new transmission. It ran and drove just enough for us to be able to know the engine was in good shape. Our first order of business on the truck is to replace the transmission with one that will hold up to a bunch of power and allow us to tune the drivetrain to the engine we're going to build. For this, we turned to Ultimate Transmission in Boise, Idaho. These guys have a reputation for building automatic transmissions that will hold 1000 plus horsepower in race applications. We also like them because like so many successful engineers, they use the track as their laboratory and proving grounds. They know that an engine on an engine dyno can put out X horsepower on its best day. But they also get the rest of the equation-when engine (X) is added to transmission (Y), you'll get a totally different number than what (X) was by itself. The way that a transmission is built, such as gear train tolerances, hydraulic efficiency and the right torque converter, makes all the difference in achieving the highest numbers possible. When the UT guys talk about different trucks and the way that a particular engine, power curve, torque converter and gearing is set up, they deal in quarter mile times. Everything is measured in tenths of second. This kind of thought is perfect for this project as we focus on efficiently putting usable power on the pavement. Getting a truck to put down good numbers on a dyno isn't the best test of a truck. The transmission is in direct drive and you're measuring the horsepower and torque as it travels through the locked up drivetrain and wheels. The way a truck moves down a track is an indicator of how the truck is able to dynamically manage the power and apply it to the pavement as it moves through the gears.
No doubt, some of you are thinking, "If you really want efficient power delivery, you should have a manual transmission." If we were going for fuel economy only, you are right. However, we point out that typically, a truck with a good automatic is capable of faster track times.