manual or auto

sleeps

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which is better for the 7.3?
i see ALOT of people with 7.3's either looking for a manual truck or swapping out their auto for one.

i know the manual for the 6.0 is not wanted, performance wise at least.
 

Nodge

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You're not going to win any drag races with the 5 speed, but I still prefer it over the auto. I've only had 3 auto trans vehicles in the last 15 years though, so I'm biased.
I just like to row my own gears.

The e4od can be upgraded to handle whatever you can throw at it, so it just comes down to driver preference, really.
 

old man dave

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My buddy loved sticks since he was a kid. We found a ZF-5 and swapped it into his truck. The ZF-5 gave 1.5mpg better fuel milage towing his 5'ver over the same 250 mile trip. ;)

Six months later, swapped the E4OD back in. He had gotten tired of shifting. LOL.

Me, I like my BTS.
 

Charles

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It amazes me the times that people will take out a perfectly good transmission and install a pile of sh*t in it's place for the sole purpose of having manual shift control instead of putting a stand-alone controller on the Auto with full-manual control in the first place and having their cake and eating it too.

Is there something in the water, or what? At what point in time with the general population stop being ignorant to the concept of the full-manual auto???
 

4duggan

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My buddy loved sticks since he was a kid. We found a ZF-5 and swapped it into his truck. The ZF-5 gave 1.5mpg better fuel milage towing his 5'ver over the same 250 mile trip. ;)

Six months later, swapped the E4OD back in. He had gotten tired of shifting. LOL.

Me, I like my BTS.


what he said
 

tjl

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My truck is a manual and I've had it for 13 years and am really tired of shifting. I want to do an auto conversion in mine with a BTS and be done with it. A manual can be nice when towing at times but daily city driving sucks.
 

Charles

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My truck is a manual and I've had it for 13 years and am really tired of shifting. I want to do an auto conversion in mine with a BTS and be done with it. A manual can be nice when towing at times but daily city driving sucks.


See there... explain that part in bold.

If you're talking about the ability to manually select your gear, then thanks for providing an example of exactly what I was talking about.


As for any kind of inherent ability when towing, I've melted 2 or 3 of them down now, and my 4R100 has never even tried to get hot while taking hundreds more horsepower continuously. I once put over 15 GALLONS of water through the engine while towing for ~2.5hrs (via the water injection system) at a pretty much continuous 40lbs of boost with over 20 bales behind the truck at 75mph and the trans fluid looked great afterward. On multiple trips with the same load at a max of 27 or so lbs of boost with the ZF6 I have turned that same trans fluid BLACK, and in a few such runs the trans would eventually start popping out of 4th and/or 5th under power.

So for me personally, I'm not seeing any major advantage for towing in terms of the structure of the trans, or its ability to handle continuous power. The ZF6 is of no use other than for a truck that it's already in, and it's cheaper to just leave the pos in place and baby it around.
 
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jschildm

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For $5K on a BTS and an aftermarket or bigger cooler, then an auto is great. However, I could get my stocker hot not towing anything with only a chip and the basic mods before adding the bigger cooler when it was hot out. In stock form, I would take a 5 spd over an auto if it was a farm truck or tow pig. With a BTS, it would be pretty tough to beat an auto.
 

OBSWIZ

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I've never had a issue on a good trans getting hot when the correct cooler is used, 31 row 6.0 cooler for a SD and a LPD47391 Tru-Cool for a OBS esp if you convery to SD trans lines..but trans still is just a stocker..

just a FYI a BTS will run 10-20* hotter than a stock new trans.
 

jschildm

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Put in the 6.0 cooler and no problems now, but prior to that, it would get toasty, sometimes unloaded simply from being warm and a crosswind.
 

JD3020

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I like Charles idea of an auto with a stand alone controller.

This, its been one of my dreams for the year or so to have a PCS on my truck. It would be sooooo nice to have manual control when doing stuff around the farm, towing, and playing on the street. And then the fact that i can instantly change how the trans shifts, and get it set to exactly how i want it without having to dick with re-burns.

Just real hard for me to swallow the price tag. If it were a $500 or less item, i think it'd be on my truck already.
 

Charles

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If you're having trans temp issues, I would have to wonder why you don't lock the converter.

If it's locked, then you have a trans problem. Maybe I don't have trans temp issues because I lock the converter at 30mph and it stays that way. Period.
 

stroker2

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IMO, im sure built trans is very nice (never driven one) but i think the only way to have a 7.3 is with a manual. I have had an auto and driven many autos. Driven 3 7.3's with a manual and i belive its the only way to have one. 4 gears in an auto just isnt enough. On the other hand, 6.0's, 6.4's, and 6.7's are very nice with their autos.
 

Charles

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IMO, im sure built trans is very nice (never driven one) but i think the only way to have a 7.3 is with a manual. I have had an auto and driven many autos. Driven 3 7.3's with a manual and i belive its the only way to have one. 4 gears in an auto just isnt enough. On the other hand, 6.0's, 6.4's, and 6.7's are very nice with their autos.


The auto has 4 gears plus an infinitely variable gear called a torque converter. But if 4 isn't enough, you have a power problem in the first place.

And if you haven't ever driven an E4 or 4R with full-manual control, you really wouldn't know how those 4 gears can be used when you're the one deciding when, where and how.
 

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