TJHUB

I thought I would just throw this out here for the Tip guys. Without going into great length just now, I was not happy with the performance of my shifting with the upgrades that my car has. At 3/4 throttle or less the Tip was fast to react and the transmission was fast to complete shifts. At full throttle it was completely different. Lazy to react to the Tip and lazy to shift. The car actually felt quicker at 3/4 throttle because of these issues.

This started me on a quest to figure out what I could do. I've read nearly all of the auto/tiptronic posts on a few forums and decided that there just wasn't any REAL information. So I set out to do things on my own (with the exception of Dung Beetle who was helpful and right by the way...thanks).

Anyway, in speaking to a few places (Level 10, IPT, local transmission builder, etc.) I was directed down the path of upgrading only the valve body to gain: faster reaction time, faster shifting, firm shifting, and what I'm told (read "told") is an increase of about 100 ft-lbs in input torque capacity (~228 ft-lbs + 100 ft-lbs = ~328 ft-lbs). I know all the stuff about the torque converters and blah, blah, blah. I set out to solve my own issues and got sold on doing this.

The Level 10 valve body is $800.00 (can be discounted to $680.00). I did the install myself with a mechanic friend at his shop. The install was VERY easy and fairly straight forward. The whole thing took about 2 hours. Here's a couple of pics from the install:

This is a pic of the the guy's shop. This was taken after the install was complete. He did the tires for me and I wanted him to check the balance on the rears (that's why they're off).
<img src="http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/6850onthelift.jpg">

Here's a couple of pics with just the pan removed.
<img src="http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/6850nopan1.jpg">
<img src="http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/6850nopan2.jpg">

Sans old valve body. The valve body drops out of the transmission by disconnecting the speed sensor inside the transmission, disconnecting the main wire harness entering the front of the transmission and removing (17) bolts.
<img src="http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/6850novb1.jpg">

The following pics show the old and new valve bodies. All I had to do was transfer the one rotational sensor and the wire harness. (3) bolts and a couple of wire retainers and that's done.
<img src="http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/6850lvl10vb2.jpg">
<img src="http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/6850oldvb1.jpg">

Put everything back together and follow the refill directions and it's all done. I needed (7) litres a ATF for the refill. All-in-all very easy and the whole thing took two hours. It would take much less if I did it all again.

The valve body works incredibly well. Response to the Tip lever or buttons on the steering wheel is lightening fast. Shifts are completed fast and firm without being harsh. Now underfull throttle the car shifts immediately without any hesitation. Overall, the car feels much faster. I would highly recommend this to anyone with a Tip and at least a K04 setup.

TANMAN

Nice work

Kris Hansen

Sweet!!!! Nice work. Mind if I grab this for the tech section?

ModifiedA4

do you know why the level 10 valve body is better? do they port something? what is the change?

tkarwin

do that. it would be a good addition. I have some friends with TIPs.

Nenad

What stage it is?
BTW, I put Level 10 Stage3 TQ. Very satisfied, much better accelerations.

TJHUB

to do so. There is way way too much mystery surrounding these transmissions. If it's okay with you, I'll work on something better and contact you very soon. It'll be my way of giving back for all the help I've gotten over the last year.

TJHUB

in. It basically increases the fluid pressure significantly inside the transmission clamping everything up quicker and tighter. Hence the increase in input torque capacity.

ModifiedA4

thats what i figured...sort of like adding a 5bar fpr to get higher fuel pressure.

TJHUB

I believe it's "stage 2".