You asked for it, you got it:

I ordered my PATC Mega Viper on October 5th, and finally got it on October 25th -- it was stalled awaiting parts until the 18th, and shipped from PATC on the 19th. The carrier originally scheduled delivery on the 22nd, but didn't make it until the 25th. It was an inauspicious start and it didn't get any better once it arrived at Drive Line Service. My appointment at the shop was for 8AM on the 26th, and I didn't have a more or less complete installation until late in the afternoon on the 28th. The installation was, well, not a comedy of errors because there wasn't a damned thing that was funny about it, but I'll not rant about that here. It's not the outrageously long time in the shop that bothers me, but the quality of their work... Suffice it to say that I'll buy parts from them without a worry, but their wrench monkeys will never touch my truck or anything that's going on it again. Every darn thing they touched came out wrong.

I had to pay someone to do the swap because I don't have access to a garage and the "resort living" compartment complex won't let me work on the truck on the property. I've done dozens of transmission R&R's and the job doesn't scare me at all. I actually enjoy doing it if I have a level concrete floor and a transmission jack to work with -- I settle in for the long haul and just groove on wrenching. It just wasn't to be this time around.

I ordered the Mega Viper with a billet converter set for 1800RPM stall, the Fairbanks shift kit set up for "heavy duty" rather than street/strip, with a Derale deep pan and filter extension to keep the filter sunk in ATF no matter what I do short of rolling the truck. I also ordered up a Derale remote ATF filter, which is now parked on the passenger side fender well, out of harm's way and more or less accessible. The wrench monkey who reworked the plumbing felt it necessary to remove the heat shield of the K&N FIPK to get at it, but it didn't appear to me that it was absolutely required. I was able to reach the fittings on the filter fixture just fine this morning, 400 miles from home, to stop a leak that painted the fender well.

'Scuse me, I said I wasn't going to rant.

So, about the transmission itself: It came nicely crated, and painted a nice glossy black, as was the billet converter. PATC says they dyno test twice before a unit ships, and I have no reason to doubt them. I like knowing that the test motor isn't the one in my truck. It came with a couple of yellow and black Raptor stickers for the toolbox, a PATC t-shirt, and important instructions about stabbing the torque converter properly. Not to mention a warning that the six month warranty is void if the installer blows it or the pan is dropped, and that PATC in Bossier City, Louisiana is the only warranty station. So it pays to be careful about the install lest you end up with a very expensive paper weight. (As configured with the goodies I added and the freight, I was right around $3450 into it when it landed at Drive Line Service.)

Once installed more or less to my satisfaction, or at least to the point at which I was willing to take my chances driving it, and after I readjusted the TV cable to get the part throttle shift points back down into the realm of reasonable, I took it out and played with it. I had to -- I had a 1000 mile road trip starting at 5AM the next morning, and didn't want to get way out in the middle of nowhere to find my new transmission going up in a cloud of ATF smoke.

The shifts are firm but not often jarring, and nowhere near as harsh as was the aggressive street/strip A727 I had back in the day. The shift is jarring, though, and makes me fear for my u-joints and differential, if I am deep into the throttle to delay the upshift, then get off the gas in a hurry. This is to be expected, and the fix is "don't do that", but on a highway vehicle it's not always possible to avoid that situation.

I have seen an occasional flare in the 3rd to overdrive shift, but I can't say that it's truly the transmission's fault until I suck out some of the ATF overfill that Drive Line Service left me with. I didn't discover the overfill until this morning on my return trip, and the truck stop where I was fueling up didn't have a transfer pump for sale or rent... so I was just careful to switch off the OD unit if I was doing anything that required a downshift, and not enable it again until I was at cruise again.

The transmission downshifts out of overdrive all on its own when the speed and load are right for it, as when pulling a grade. I suppose the PCM is responsible for this, but my old tired transmission didn't do it. Right around the time I would be reaching for the button it does it for me, so I won't complain. I don't worry so much about smoking the clutches, anyway, since this one's got the good grits and jams them together tighter, too.

I haven't yet got the gauge connected to the temp sender in the trans pan (because the install ate up my time for it) but I haven't yet put my hand on the bottom of the pan and been unable to just leave it there. By guess and by golly, I figure it's running right around 150 degrees with the stock radiator and auxiliary cooler even after pulling a good long grade. I'll get the gauge installed soon and report back if I find out that my palm is out of calibration.

All in all, I'm absolutely tickled with the thing and just love being without transmission failure fear. I intend to get 250,000 miles or more out of the Mega Viper, and if it'll go that far for me it will prove to be cheaper than buying three standard rebuilds.

 

Glad to hear a good report. Mine decided to throw the Torque converter clutch or OD solenoid code last night. I had the damn thing rebuilt once already. If it comes down to needing fixed again I'm gonna get a Viper trans to go with my viper TC. I knew the stocker would be iffy with the new engine but I had hoped it would last a while lol. I have complete confidence that a PATC Viper will stand up to the power

 

Oh man, that sucks. The rebuild's not all that old, is it?

 

The tranny rebuild has been a couple years I think. I'm not easy on the go pedal either haha. I romp on it a good bit so it's no surprise it might be doing the tranny in quicker then I wanted.

 

nice report. sounds like a solid setup that'll last a long time.
if you had it to do over again would you soften up the shift kit?
for the cooler, you can always add a big aux cooler on the front of the radiator. i doubt that the derale pan does a whole lot of extra cooling.

 

If anything, I'd want it to be a tad quicker but not quite street/strip. It's only unpleasant if I unload the throttle during hard acceleration and get to hear the play ("DING!") in the driven components when the ring and pinion go from drive to coast and back to drive again. There's just no getting around this when there's no intentional slippage during shifts, so the fix is "don't do that".

Every built juicer I've had had done the same darn thing, but this is the first time I've put one in front of a factory rear end so I'm a bit twitchy. When I put on the Mag-Hytec diff covers I'm going to spend some time with the dial indicator to allay my fears, then fill 'em up with 75W140. And be happy to know that I've got the Transfer Case Saver installed, too.

I'm curious to see what happens after I take the time to do a dead nuts TV cable adjustment and draw off the excess ATF, which I'm going to do this weekend. I by-guess-and-by-golly adjusted the cable on the side of the road in twilight on the way home from Drive Line Service -- they'd intentionally (out of stunning ignorance) adjusted the thing to do light throttle 1-2 upshifts at 25MPH, and I was, uh, well, not in a good frame of mind by the time I got the hood open, and my frame of mind was not improved when I saw the dipstick showing over full.

Freakin' wrench monkeys.

I've got the factory towing package aux cooler, and things seem to be just fine. In theory at least the Mega Viper should run a tad cooler than a factory original due to reduced clutch slippage. If the gauge tells me otherwise after it's hooked up, I'm going to be going overkill on the thing.

My biggest concern about transmission temperature is the placement of the catalytic converter. I don't like the idea of spewing more garbage into the air than I have to, but I don't like the idea of putting a heater so close to my very expensive transmission any better. If transmission temps become a problem, I'm going to fabricate a cheater with a section of wrapped pipe before doing anything else. Then, being me, I'm going to go well into overkill territory even if there's no apparent problem.

Among my plans for transmission temperature control: When I install my electric fans, I'll add an additional control circuit that will energize the fans based upon return line ATF temperature. It'll be just a snap action thermostat and a couple of steering diodes, so it'll be a cheap and easy modification that keeps me from eagle-eying the trans temp gauge when I should be paying attention to the road. It may never actually take control of the fans, but I'll have more peace of mind knowing that it can.

 

love mine, installed it last year and put 10,000 on it. No problems and it loves to hold its gear when towing and has never heated up going up over Colorado passes with a 9,000lb trailer. One of THEE best upgrades for the dodge!

 

I had to do some driving today so I took a few minutes to properly adjust the throttle valve cable. What a difference! That banging into gear after dumping the throttle is gone, replaced by just a nice firm shift.

While testing the WOT shifts some clown in a GMC half-ton thought I was racing him. That, or he was having trouble reading my rear license plate frame.

I just went out and pulled a grade of around 7% for two miles or so, then jumped out and pointed the IR thermometer at the Derale deep pan: 141 degrees Fahrenheit right next to the temperature sender that's not yet connected to a gauge, with an ambient temperature of 83 degrees.

I'm a happy grandpa.

 

I didn't realize they were located in Shreveport/Bossier City. Might have to convince the wife to go to the Horseshoe for our anniversary and leave with a new tranny next summer.

 

i'll bet they could install it faster than you could lose all your money in the casino. well, maybe not.