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By XJs for XJs...and anything else with an AW4.

F

Fringe XVO

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Austin, TX
Hello.


My name is Chad Kassem, and I’ve been on NAXJA since I made the decision to swap the engine and transmission as part of a larger project in my 96 XJ a year and a half ago. I’ve found the forum to be an invaluable source of information thanks to several specifically knowledgeable and experienced members. Thank you all for your help. Out of that project, along with further education and research, I’ve managed to produce a service mod that many others might be able to benefit from. I’ve gone from black to red to blue. I involve myself in many projects, and there are more for the XJ in the pipeline. Now I hate to sound weird, but it’s important that you know this. I am motivated by passion, not profit. I am also not a good marketer and I hate sales. I will not lie to you ever. Please understand that when you deal with me. I stand by my work and any products I make 100%.


Besides that, Jeeps are awesome.


So I'm a Tin level vendor now, and if you feel there is something I can help you with, please, do not hesitate to ask.


-Chad


1c.jpg
 
Welcome. The vendor advertisement section is where you can post what you sell. Hope you got some innovative ideas! :cheers:
 
Sorry about the misstep everyone. I got excited and didn't read rules...my apologies to everyone.

Thanks for the welcome! At the moment I am offering a service...tuned valve bodies for the Jeep AW4. This has come out of my personal 2JZ Jeep project, along with a lot of additional education, training, and research. I am 'child9' on the forum, and have gone from black, to red, and now BLUE.

The tuned valve bodies will amp up your already awesome AW4 by increasing speed and firmness of shifts, increase overall torque capacity (for boosted/stroked applications that need it), increasing longevity of transmission clutches and fluid, and allow for "lock-in" of first gear when shifted into the "1-2" position.

Another way of looking at it...for those of you who are fascinated by the similarities between the Supra autos and our Jeep autos...this is like taking the benefits and performance of the modified Supra valve bodies and combining it with features that your Jeep will also want. Everybody wins.

So far one VB has been sent to Merdock69 in Dallas. He will be posting about his experience soon.
 
Depending on price, what it takes to install, etc id be interested...

Is this a "core return" type deal for the DD jeepers?
 
If you want to take some pics of it and send them to me I can tell you, that is if you don't already know. I suspect they are, but ALWAYS verify your information. :lecture:
 
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="3" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td nowrap="nowrap"> merdock69
user_offline.gif

NAXJA Member
</td> <td width="100%"> </td> <td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top"> Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 43


</td> </tr> </tbody></table> Re: Tuned AW4 Valve Bodies
<hr style="color:#CE5F5A; background-color:#CE5F5A" size="1"> I received my valve body back from Chad last wed. or Thursday and was able to get it installed over the weekend. Below is the message I sent him when I shipped it as he asked for an overview of what I would like accomplished.

"Chad I would like to accomplish the following with my valve body. 1) Increased line pressure. 2) Crisper/ firmer shifts - more truck like, not race car. 3) Ability to hold 1st gear when the lever is in the 1-2 position. 4) Crisper engagement of torque converter lockup."

I sent him my three accumulator pistons, the valve body, an upper and lower valve body gasket kit and the transgo 340-hd2 reprogramming kit. Be sure to bag the accumulator pistons and their respective springs each separately in their own little baggy.

After getting it installed the very first thing I noticed was the quick and firm 1-2 shift. As is always the case in these AW4's it seems to come too early, but at lease it now feel like it would chirp the tires if I had 350hp to feed it. Obviously after feeling that I wanted to stop and make sure it would hold 1st gear in the 1-2 position; it did and it's nice to finally have a crawling gear again. After getting it out on the open road it felt like it took a few minutes to get all the solenoids firing properly and the shifts to settle in at their new operating parameters. I've talked with Chad about it, but I felt like the firmness of the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts were definitely not as pronounced as the 1-2 at part throttle, however I did notice that at wide open throttle they are quicker and feel more positive. In all gears I notice a slightly more "directly connected" (for lack of a better term) feeling in the drive train, almost more like a manual, there's not that old mushy feeling when accelerating in say 3rd gear doing 35 at the base of a hill. The torque converter lock was VASTLY improved! It is very discernible now when my torque converter locks up and my rpms drop big time at 55mph. This feels like a huge improvement to me. I'll be watching my fuel mileage as well to see if this helps at all with that. I have thought about having Chad firm up the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts, but I do notice that they seem to get firmer with more throttle by a fairly linear relationship. Considering this is my daily driver I don't know that I want race car shifts at all throttle positions, so I may just leave them where they're at too.

Chad and I also talked about another interesting phenomenon I've noticed, but can't explain. Since installing the valve body my indicated coolant temperatures have come down. My jeep has never run hot or overheated and the temperature needle has always run just at the left edge of the center hash mark. Now though, while driving it runs 1/16" - 1/32" further to the left with a little bit of space between the needle and the hash mark. Also when I come to a stop it will fluctuate a tiny bit further to left before returning to its new location. Chad wants to investigate the fluid temp differences further on a test rig with transmission temp sensors before any conclusions are made, but I just figured I'd share that part of my experience as well.
 
IMPORTANT:

Notes on shipping your valve body and accumulators to Fringe:

Drain, clean, and dry the vb as much as humanly possible. Wrap the VB in paper towels and use 2 two-gallon zipper lock freezer bags to put it in. Wrap well and ship in an appropriate size container. When removing accumulators from the transmission, keep the associated springs together with each accumulator and bag them in ziplock sandwich bags.

You should have one wrapped/bagged VB and 3 individual sandwich bags with the accumulators and springs.

-Chad
 
I am going to be as honest and accurate as I can be.

The Transgo kit is good for all the AW4 valve bodies.

The valve body specific gaskets must be slightly different. They change part numbers from 2000 and up. Get the gasket that is appropriate to your year please.

I've never needed to source a whole complete valve body that wasn't in a transmission, but you can get parts from here:
https://www.wittrans.com

As far as a complete working VB, I would suggest a used and already working VB. I have acquired entire transmissions from CL before for $50.

I just laid out a 2000 VB and a 1996 VB... NO DISCERNIBLE DIFFERENCE.

I should say this as well. This service is mostly figured out, but there is still information that is coming in. I am good at handling data, but the quantification of it is a process. I can tell you that if I make a mistake or do not have an answer for something, I will rectify it with you or find the answer. Some things take time. Some things take money. Some things take both.

That said, I am confident that ALL the VBs are swappable BETWEEN AW4s...however there are different VB gaskets part numbers from 2000+. Something must be slightly different between 1999- and 2000+, I just don't know exactly what yet. Despite the part number difference, the uppers and lowers of each VB on the 1996 and 2000 I just had next to each other show no real difference. Both have the same 4 digit casting numbers...although there is another number above (2 digit) that was different and casting dates were different. Every bolt location, every hole, every contour looks to me to be identical. Solenoids are slightly different in color, some have numbers and some don't...but they are definitely swappable. Merdock69 can confirm this.

I am 99% sure I have just visually confirmed that with Talyn's 2000 VB and my original 1996 VB, after sitting next to each other, are swappable.

ALL SYSTEMS GO.
 
The PM I got from Tues was what you expected from the VB...nothing in there about compatibility. Your 89 and 97 should be totally interchangeable.
I'm ready to do this if you are. You are looking to get an AGRESSIVE VB...hehehe. Like mine. Shifts like she means it at all throttle positions. THE HONEY BADGER OF AW4 VALVE BODIES.
Where you at in MI? I have a lot of fam in the south east area.
 
Last edited:
Sanford, by midland.

I need to pay for that 8.8 first.


Btw, my tv cable is locked all the way out and it made almost no difference...
de5utyqe.jpg
 
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