A440F extreme valve body

[The Dude]

Hi all,

I finished installing my valve body from Wholesale Automatic Transmissions out of Australia today.

I have found the auto in my cruiser to be a bit mushy and its shift points from the factory suck. I seem to always shift into OD at exactly the wrong moments and bog down to 1500 rpms, trying to get back into my deisels power band.

Well I only have about 400km on the new valve and my initial impressions are very favorable. The shift points have been raised, the shifting is firm and the truck feels like it has more "pep" We are heading out wheeling tomorow so I should have a few more kms on it soon.

Oh, and BTW, the whole ordeal with ordering from Oz and Wholesale Automatic Transmission has been a pure delight. Rodney was great to deal with. Shipping was just under a week to Canada. AND I got exactly what I had anticipated. From my experince so far, I can highly reccomend Rodney and Wholesale Transmissions.

 

[The Dude]

Well I am very pleased!! If you have an auto I can highly reccomend this upgrade. I can't wait to get some more power to the engine to take full advantage. I can honestly say it has turned what I thought of as a slug of an HJ61 into a pleasure to drive. I was very disappointed I opted for the auto over the manual, until today.

We went slogging throught the slush and snow (about 100km of trail, 400km trip) and the tranny never missed a beat. I also noticed a big improvement in engine braking, it's still not a manual but at least now it's not so scary heading down a steep hill. It is as smooth as silk (well it is pretty good) and has improved shift points to take full advantage of the engines power band.

The biggest surprise improvement seems to be in fuel milage, which I wasn't expecting at all. I don't know if this pure luck or has other factors at play but it was noticable. It also shifted better on the highway, holding overdrive longer on steeper hills until you get into the throttle, which I like. This will be even more benificial with power upgrades.

I hope Rodney pipes up explains what the improvements are supposed to do I would hate to think it's all just in my head!!

 

[Extreme_Trans]

Great to hear that all went well with the new valve body. It certainly didn't take long to get there!. The last couple that I sent to Denver Colorado and Mesa Arizona Didn't take long to get there either. Did it get delivered directly to your door without any fuss? When we first built the valve body we were trying to fix certain problems but after a lot off feed back and an ever growing list of complaints that people had about there Landcruiser we started adding more and more fixes and updating the current model valve body.

The main features that your new valve body tackles is greater lock up and convertor pressure, Greater clutch clamping force to allow for both the petrol and diesel V8 conversions including any sort of power increase, 27% greater cooler flow, 85% more efficient cooler flow once in lock up as the cooling system almost entirely shuts down in lock up, More lubrication volume and pressure, Also as you described you now have an obvious improvement in the shift quality both up the gears and under kick down. I also run the valve body at a higher line pressure that will bring the shift points of the transmission in a little later although unlike you most people don't notice the difference. Also the raising of the convertor pressure and flow improves the efficiency of the stall speed that reflects in the fuel economy and down hill descents by a very small margin. We don't normally make claim to this as people might tend to expect a greater out come but the valve body was never designed for this, It was more of an accidental outcome rather than an internal part of the design. Hope you have some fun. Regards Rodney

 

[dd113]

I have been waiting to find this. How to get and how much? Is it just a replacement of the valve body or does the tranny need to drop out for install? Go ahead and get one boxed up! Send me some contact info

 

[Extreme_Trans]

The Extreme Valve Body is a complete reconditioned change over valve body that costs $915Aus = Approx $677U.S delivered by air mail to your door. You will need to return your old valve back to me here in Australia at your cost via U.S mail. It's not very expensive. You don't need to remove the transmission. Just remove the sump and valve body and do the swap. Come with a basic set of instructions and I am quite easy to find if you get stuck somewhere along the line. Very easy fit! Would also recommended a nice large oil cooler to top it right off as a strong reliable and very nice to drive transmission. I also build them for the A343F, A442f and the 5 Speed A750F transmissions. http://www.automatictransmission.com.au/release.asp?NewsId=11360 Regards Rodney

 

[jmstu76]

Can you still purchase the extreme valve body?

 

[RockDoc]

Yes, Cruiser Brothers carry them now. Check their vendor section at the top of the forum if you are familiar with them.

@orangefj45 @wardharris

 

[surfinjoel]

Yes, Cruiser Brothers carry them now. Check their vendor section at the top of the forum if you are familiar with them.

@orangefj45 @wardharris

Hey RockDoc,
I’ve got a 91 FJ80 with the good ole 3FE. I’m running 33’s with factory gearing in the diffs. I’m struggling so badly on the highway to keep it in drive (I’m presuming that’s the same as lock up -Please correct me if I’m wrong) unless I have a good tailwind. So throughout most my trips up to the sierras I’m constantly manually shifting the lovely A440 into 3rd and running it at about 3k rpm to do 60-62mph. Will the valve body still help even if I don’t tackle the diff ratios yet? I really want to wake this thing up. She’s running pretty solid with 285k on the odometer. I love her to death but I just hate being the slow guy on the highway.

 

[RockDoc]

Hey RockDoc,
I’ve got a 91 FJ80 with the good ole 3FE. I’m running 33’s with factory gearing in the diffs. I’m struggling so badly on the highway to keep it in drive (I’m presuming that’s the same as lock up -Please correct me if I’m wrong) unless I have a good tailwind. So throughout most my trips up to the sierras I’m constantly manually shifting the lovely A440 into 3rd and running it at about 3k rpm to do 60-62mph. Will the valve body still help even if I don’t tackle the diff ratios yet? I really want to wake this thing up. She’s running pretty solid with 285k on the odometer. I love her to death but I just hate being the slow guy on the highway.

Assuming you are traveling faster than the torque converter lock-up speed (80km/h indicated for the FJ62 setup I'm experienced with, say 90km/h with 33s), then having lock-up in 3rd will make your transmission more efficient and drop your rpms while at speed in 3rd. So you'll have more power going to the tires, and you'll be able to reach a bit higher speed in 3rd for the same max engine speed.

I suspect regearing for the tires would be the more ideal solution, but the valvebody / 3rd lock-up will help a lot. Keep in mind the lock-up will only help you above that threshold speed.

Here's my writeup from when I installed mine:

Extreme Valve Body - just installed

After sitting in a box on my living room floor for around 6 weeks, my extreme valve body is finally in my truck and working. For those who aren't familiar, Wholesale Automatics is an outfit in Australia that does rebuilds and upgrades of Land Cruiser automatic transmissions (A440F, A442F, A343F)...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Josey1972]

Assuming you are traveling faster than the torque converter lock-up speed (80km/h indicated for the FJ62 setup I'm experienced with, say 90km/h with 33s), then having lock-up in 3rd will make your transmission more efficient and drop your rpms while at speed in 3rd. So you'll have more power going to the tires, and you'll be able to reach a bit higher speed in 3rd for the same max engine speed.

I suspect regearing for the tires would be the more ideal solution, but the valvebody / 3rd lock-up will help a lot. Keep in mind the lock-up will only help you above that threshold speed.

Here's my writeup from when I installed mine:

Extreme Valve Body - just installed

After sitting in a box on my living room floor for around 6 weeks, my extreme valve body is finally in my truck and working. For those who aren't familiar, Wholesale Automatics is an outfit in Australia that does rebuilds and upgrades of Land Cruiser automatic transmissions (A440F, A442F, A343F)...

forum.ih8mud.com

I put the complete Wholesale A440 in my 1992. I Had a temp guage on the original A440 and kept it for the Wholesale tranny. Overall, when cruising in the 3rd gear range the lock up made a big difference in temperature. I dont own the truck anymore but I wish I had done some real world numbers for comparisons between the two trannies. I would agree that the Wholesale set up in any form is great investment. I was really happy with it. In fact, the shifts were so solid that it almost startled you at times. Also, they do claim that it helps fuel economy but I didn't notice any huge difference.