I recently installed a turbo kit on my truck and stock shifts were hurting bad. Very slow, lots of flare, etc. This reprogram kit costs about $100 and is different from the standard shift kit at around $60 because it includes drill bits to machine out the shifting points in the separation plate between the valve bodies. I highly recommend this kit because you are pulling everything apart anyways. You might as well do a little bit more work and be much happier.
Turbo Build thread here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/703295-diy-fjz80-low-budget-turbo-build.html
Onto the installation. I started around 3pm and was finished and driving by 8pm.
Here are the steps in word-format
Before you do any of this make sure to order two new valve body gaskets. They are around $11.50 each. Mine had 238k on them and I probably could have reused them. They were still pliable and not rock solid and chipping into a million pieces. Still cheap and good peace of mind with new gaskets.
1) Drain trans pan, remove upper and lower bolts for fill tube, remove all trans pan bolts and pan
2) Remove trans filter, unhook the kickdown cable from the drum, solenoid connectors, and valve body
3) A small spring and check valve along with two larger springs will likely fall out when you drop the valve body. Ensure you find these pieces.
4) Separate valve body upper and lower portions.
5) Install a new spring into the valve body, remove two check balls, and slightly enlarge three holes in the metal separation plate. Install two new gaskets and put the valve body halves back together.
6) Remove old small springs that are attached to the accumulators and and put the transgo springs into the other side of each accumulator as shown in the directions.
7) Bolt valve body back into transmission and put everything back together.
Here is the picture version
Take the pan off
Remove the cable from the drum
Remove valve body
Pieces that may fall out when you remove valve body. Accumulators and anti drainback valve
Replace accumulator springs with kit springs
Accumulator stock springs in front discarded
Stock springs attached to accumulators removed
Our valve body is a Type 1. The instructions are very easy to follow. I only removed two check balls, and swapped one spring (PR spring) in the valve body. The transmission already holds in L gear to any RPM you want without automatically shifting so there was no need to do any low gear modifications.
Parts removed from valve body
Bolts holding the upper and lower valve body portions to each other
Valve body separated
Dirty plate with old gasket
Cleaned up plate
Gasket - plate - gasket
Drills provided with the kit
Drill sheet. The only thing I had to do was the 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 drilling. I used the "truck" drill bit sizes. If you want even firmer shifting than what is in the video below then go one or two sizes larger. Everything else on the sheet was set/complete/no work needed
Enlarging the 1-2 shift port
Enlarging the 2-3 shift port
Enlarging the 3-4 shift port
Video of the poor shifting before the shift kit:
Video of the fast shifting with the shift reprogram kit:
So there you have it. Looking for more performance out of your transmission look no further. I highly recommend this kit to everyone as the improvement is dramatic and you can even have it shifting quicker and harder than my video by drilling slightly larger. If you can do a head gasket or timing chain job then this will be cakewalk for you.
It looks daunting at first just reading the directions, but once everything is apart you will realize how easy it is and how little work you have to do inside. The majority of the work is scraping the transmission and pan gasket surface clean and unbolting/bolting the valve body.
Turbo Build thread here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/703295-diy-fjz80-low-budget-turbo-build.html
Onto the installation. I started around 3pm and was finished and driving by 8pm.
Here are the steps in word-format
Before you do any of this make sure to order two new valve body gaskets. They are around $11.50 each. Mine had 238k on them and I probably could have reused them. They were still pliable and not rock solid and chipping into a million pieces. Still cheap and good peace of mind with new gaskets.
1) Drain trans pan, remove upper and lower bolts for fill tube, remove all trans pan bolts and pan
2) Remove trans filter, unhook the kickdown cable from the drum, solenoid connectors, and valve body
3) A small spring and check valve along with two larger springs will likely fall out when you drop the valve body. Ensure you find these pieces.
4) Separate valve body upper and lower portions.
5) Install a new spring into the valve body, remove two check balls, and slightly enlarge three holes in the metal separation plate. Install two new gaskets and put the valve body halves back together.
6) Remove old small springs that are attached to the accumulators and and put the transgo springs into the other side of each accumulator as shown in the directions.
7) Bolt valve body back into transmission and put everything back together.
Here is the picture version
Take the pan off
Remove the cable from the drum
Remove valve body
Pieces that may fall out when you remove valve body. Accumulators and anti drainback valve
Replace accumulator springs with kit springs
Accumulator stock springs in front discarded
Stock springs attached to accumulators removed
Our valve body is a Type 1. The instructions are very easy to follow. I only removed two check balls, and swapped one spring (PR spring) in the valve body. The transmission already holds in L gear to any RPM you want without automatically shifting so there was no need to do any low gear modifications.
Parts removed from valve body
Bolts holding the upper and lower valve body portions to each other
Valve body separated
Dirty plate with old gasket
Cleaned up plate
Gasket - plate - gasket
Drills provided with the kit
Drill sheet. The only thing I had to do was the 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 drilling. I used the "truck" drill bit sizes. If you want even firmer shifting than what is in the video below then go one or two sizes larger. Everything else on the sheet was set/complete/no work needed
Enlarging the 1-2 shift port
Enlarging the 2-3 shift port
Enlarging the 3-4 shift port
Video of the poor shifting before the shift kit:
Video of the fast shifting with the shift reprogram kit:
So there you have it. Looking for more performance out of your transmission look no further. I highly recommend this kit to everyone as the improvement is dramatic and you can even have it shifting quicker and harder than my video by drilling slightly larger. If you can do a head gasket or timing chain job then this will be cakewalk for you.
It looks daunting at first just reading the directions, but once everything is apart you will realize how easy it is and how little work you have to do inside. The majority of the work is scraping the transmission and pan gasket surface clean and unbolting/bolting the valve body.
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