steel planetary for e40d

Stacks92 · Feb 21, 2012

I plan on building up a trans for my truck. I am in college and need a short and sweet project for auto trans class. I plan to be around 370 to 400 up with the engine. I would like to know if buying steel planetary gears are needed or just a good idea? Are the planets in a superduty trans steel? If so will they work? Who makes the better to best friction kits with bushings/seals etc...? Let me know what you guys think? :toast:

Tom S · Feb 23, 2012

I believe the steel planetary from a 4R100 works.

black974door · Feb 23, 2012

not all 4r100 have steel planets. but most likely the newer the unit the better chance you have at getting steel planets. and i would say there a must. and for clutches i would go with raybestos clutches. transtec makes a good overhaul kit with seals and gaskets

davey99ps · Feb 23, 2012

I now have the steel planetary, I think my stock 1 lasted all of 5-10mins after I swapped my hybrids in. Also, I went through suncoast for a lot of my hard parts, an I used red alto clutches. Fwiw, I'm not sure if its a tuning problem, or if my trans is letting go, but a bts is for sure in my near future cuz I'm sick of not being able to trust my trans.

dave186 · Feb 23, 2012

Which planetary are we talking about here? A diesel should have all steel planets IMHO, doesnt mean ford built them that way. Steel planets are available for all of them, but there are some differences. There is a thread over on the other site a guy is building an E4 and we discussed this.

Stacks92 · Feb 26, 2012

Ok so basically they are a good idea?

Racer X · Mar 11, 2012

Stacks92 said:
Ok so basically they are a good idea?

They are stronger, however the same causes that ruin aluminum planetary gears sets will ruin them as well.

Here's 2 steel sets that failed we found in two different cores:

Tom S · Mar 11, 2012

What is the story there?

Racer X · Mar 16, 2012

Tom S said:
What is the story there?

In a nut shell: steel planetaries are revised O.E.M. quality parts for stock use. They were designed for maximum O.E.M. or stock load. Once you modify horsepower, you exceed O.E.M./stock load. 300 hp is a general limit where the best O.E.M. has to offer will begin to fail. At 350 horsepower and up, you need a custom rebuild to hold up to long term heavy foot use.

Stacks92, O.E.M. steel planetaries are a stronger link in a chain. Under enough load then the next weakest link breaks.

The steel carrier is stronger and resists more heat. Notice the blue color the steel has changed to in the planetary with the shaft stuck in it. It didn't soften or crack like aluminum would have, but it warped enough so the shaft is stuck and both are toast. The other planetary lost a side gear and collateral damage to others occurred. That is one type of catastrophic failure.

The next photo shows a very catastrophic failure of an O.E.M. converter and the collateral damage it caused to a steel planetary and mating parts:

Racer X · Mar 16, 2012

davey99ps said:
I now have the steel planetary, I think my stock 1 lasted all of 5-10mins after I swapped my hybrids in. Also, I went through suncoast for a lot of my hard parts, an I used red alto clutches. Fwiw, I'm not sure if its a tuning problem, or if my trans is letting go, but a bts is for sure in my near future cuz I'm sick of not being able to trust my trans.

The hybrids probably put you past the 350 horsepower mark.

We are product design, testing and research consultants as well as custom builders. We were part of the design team for Alto on several sets of Alto clutches for the E4OD, 4R100, 5R110 and other applications. We came up with the final design chosen to upgrade the E4OD, 4R100, 5R110, and other clutches in 2007.
Until then there were no Alto power packs made to fit the same number of clutch packs in the E4OD as the 4R100.

By 2009-10 they should have been fully distributed.
The full 4R100 kit previously had green high energy clutches which were upgraded to a new red material.

There are and were different Alto kits available that add 1 extra clutch to just one clutch pack in E4OD, 4R100 and 5R110 transmissions. Clutches are just one improvement that can be put into a transmission and they are end users that depend on other things to work properly.

The bottom line is a custom rebuild is very different than the shelf parts that are available to individuals or local re-builders. :fordoval: