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Shifty Business

Installing an automatic transmission shift kit

A quick way to improve your car's acceleration without modifying your engine is to add a shift kit to your automatic transmission. This upgrade makes for a crisper, more precise response when shifting. It also makes the shift from First to Second gear shorter for a better launch, but with no loss of smoothness. It also corrects, reduces, or prevents early shifts, soft shifts and stacked or late shifts.

In Without Out

A shift kit is fairly easy to install and can be done without removing the transmission from the vehicle. This SK6 Valve Body shift kit upgrade by TransCo consists of a series of stronger springs and a needle valve that replaces a ball valve. Many of the high-performance transmissions and kits originally were designed for heavy-duty use in trucks, so they're plenty strong for racing or performance use. We used a Ford C-6 transmission for this article, but the procedure is about the same for most Ford and GM transmissions.

The number one killer of transmissions is heat, which is why we also installed a coated Hughes deep-dish transmission oil pan and external oil cooler. Before getting started, though, we took the new aluminum pan to Finish Line Coatings where they applied a high-polished aluminum finish, called Cermachrome. Ceramic thermal barrier coatings are formulated to retain heat and withstand high temperatures up to 1300 degrees F. Just coating the transmission oil pan will lower the oil temperature 15 degrees, according to Russ Meeks, the company's co-founder.

Finish Line coatings consist of high-temperature resins with ceramic and metallic particles in suspension. The coatings are applied in liquid form, cured and then baked at a high temperature. Certain finishes, such as Cermachrome, are polished as a final step.