jamesinger

here
http://roadraceengineering.com/blog/?p=4169#more-4169
and in my review on RRE on this site I talk about how I blew my motor.
It was sad times but I was not ready to just throw my EVO in a gutter and go buy another.

Instead, I decided to keep building off the CT9A chassis and specifically my 2003 VIII because I like how raw it is (no ACD, no AYC, none of that kind of stuff...)

Right before I blew my motor, the last 2 track days I did, when things got hot, I would develop a slight 4th gear grind. It wasn't hard to get in to 4th or out of 4th and I wasn't popping out or anything, it just grinded going in. I knew it was a ticking clock to a transmission rebuild and I was just hoping to get some more track days in before the inevitable.

Meanwhile, I was researching places to get an EVO transmission rebuilt. I did not like what I heard about other well known transmission shops. I don't need to flame names here but one shop was getting pretty well known for rebuilt transmissions that grinded right out of the box. I had also read that this particular shop has fought with customers whose transmissions came back with issues straight away. The other main shop that I read about seemed to be well know but had deep communication issues, so when something went wrong, they were fairly difficult to get a hold of, or when things just needed to get done, they were painfully slow to the point where I found a lot of threads saying, "I sent you my stuff, WHERE IS IT!?" My EVO is my daily, so I needed someone who could build my transmission perfectly and quickly. Jack's Transmissions had all positive reviews online and their website is very informative. http://www.jackstransmissions.com/ You can tell Jack is passionate about transmissions, which is something I deeply respect. Any time I see someone that is really passionate about what they do, I am attracted to them. It could be working as a janitor or ruling the world, it doesn't matter. I have tons of respect for people who are good at what they do because they are passionate about what they do.

As I stated in other posts about this build, I needed to get my car back ASAP. Jack's offers boxes for shipping to and from for a small (and worthwhile fee). I got a box and shipped my transmission to them. This was what took the most time. Shipping the box to me, shipping the trans to them and them shipping the trans back all took about 4 working days each. You could get expedited shipping but I was bleeding cash, so I needed to save where I could at that point. In any case, when the transmission got to Jack's they got to work on the build right away. There were no real issues with the build. Everything was very straight forward. They did the work quickly and got my transmission back to me right around the time my motor was done.

When I got the transmission back, similar to my experience with CBRD, I could not believe it was the same transmission RRE had taken out of the car. It looked like a new item. The heat coating made it look BETTER than new actually.

Once the transmission was back in the car and the break in period began, I felt like the transmission shifted better than before. Unfortunately, I have no idea what a new EVO transmission feels like. I have driven a bunch of VIIIs, IXs and Xs, so I know what used EVO transmissions feel like and I know they feel like ****. However, with the Jack's rebuild, I felt the transmission was smoother and more buttery. I sit in traffic for work about an hour to and an hour from work every day I go to work. That is around 2 hours of drive time, in traffic for every day I work (driving from Pasadena to Woodland Hills and back). With the Jack's performance rebuild, I felt like it was a lot more chill driving in traffic.

After the break in period was done, Dr. Gray tuned my car for 91 and E85. After leaving on E85, I got to see how the transmission could handle 463hp and 461tq. The transmission is as smooth as it was during the break in period on E85 with all the added HP and TQ. After a full month with the transmission running on E85, I am still extremely happy with the performace rebuild and I highly recommend it to anyone with transmission or transfer case problems.

dealing with the people at Jack's, including Jack himself, was easy as pie and pleasurable. They are SERIOUS about transmissions and it shows in the quality of their work.


http://www.jackstransmissions.com/
http://www.jackstransmissions.com/
http://www.jackstransmissions.com/