With all the upgrades that you have done Graeme, how have you found the transmissions holding up?
With no turbo mods yet, except my boost increased to 16 pounds, and a modified aneroid power rod, my truck is a rocket, but the automatic transmission is having issues now as it slips/shudders a bit on a hard take off.
Even with stock turbo, if you fuel it up like you have and dont get the valve body modified your transmission will die, its really that simple unfortunately. This happenend to me in 2006.
I am not sure who else does them, but wholesale automatics in melbourne probbaly gets 90% of the worlds work on these.... Not bad business for $850/ea
I have an A750F in my 100 series (5spd auto) which is a baby compared to the A442F you have. In stock trim though the clutch pressures and control means that they can handle more torque than a stock A442F. A valve body upgrade kit costs ~ $120 for an A750F and I have done that on mine. It made a massive difference. Unfortunately, with the chip I have being laptop programmable, my turbo and intercooler, I have found the limits and my gearbox is having some issues on lockup - I think my lockup clutch has died/dying. I have also discovered that one unijoint has failed (all needles fallen out) and my rear diff is broken.... That was after towing a 4 tonne van accross Australia and back over Christmas. Fuel economy was good for a big van - 18L/100km.
Your A442F if pre 92 is fully hydraulic. This is good and bad. Good because its reliable, bad because you cant have it run smooth and also tough when you want it. It will tend to be a bit nasty most of the time. Its the price you pay but I would still own a fully hydraulic A442F. Of the folk who have fitted an extreme stage 2 with 3rd lockup on their A442F (including myself), you get a reliable truck.
There is always some boost delay hence if there is a gear change before the boost/torque has built up but throttle is depressed (drivers wish for torque), it will be a bit of a nasty tough change if you want reliability.
If you fit a modified turbo, the much quicker boost response will make this torque delay issue less pronounced. Apart from the increased low end torque improvement, the ability to tune out the torque delay really helps make the kickdown cable "torque reference" more effective and results in a smoother vehicle to drive once the extreme valve body has been installed.
AdamB has an extreme valve body in his - Adam, are you around?
Enigma; I actually thought you bought one of my turbos last year some time?
I reccomend everyone upgrades their valve body whether they use one of my turbos or not. They are a big gearbox but have very poor (for life) clucth control - Toyota like it to be oh so smooth, which in an 80 isnt sooo important.
Hope that helps.
G