Introduction to the Project Carbon® 10L1000 DIY Valve Body Upgrade Kit - V3.0:
Welcome to the #1 valve body upgrade kit for the Allison 10L1000 transmission, proudly engineered and manufactured 100% in-house by Next Gen Drivetrain. This is the single most important upgrade you can perform to a Allison 10L1000 transmission, and it can be easily done at home with basic tools using our easy-to-follow instructions, no machining required!
The 10L1000 is riddled with highly expensive problems that largely caused by nearly every part of the valve body. This deeply unreliable transmission is an enlarged version of the also tumultuous 10L80-E found in vehicles such as the Chevrolet Camaro. Next Gen Drivetrain has proudly re-engineered nearly every major part of the valve body to fix, enhance and ensure the long-term reliability of this problematic transmission right at home.
As always, Next Gen Drivetrain™ best-selling drop-in Project Carbon® DIY Valve Body Upgrade Kit are the driving force in providing efficient and inclusive solutions to these evolving transmissions. This kit addresses both the leaky valves and the accumulation leaks with this kit, even going so far as to include a crushing laser-cut separator plate. This is simply the most technologically advanced valve body upgrade kit in existence for the Allison 10L1000 transmission - compare us to anyone!
Allison 10L1000 Product Resources:
- 10L1000 Transmissions
- 10L1000 Torque Converters
- 10L1000 Rebuild Kits
- 10L1000 Valve Bodies
- 10L1000 Parts
Popular Transmission Information Resources:
- Top 5 Benefits of an Upgraded or Built Transmission
- Calculating Torque Multiplication Factor, Why is it So Important?
- Top 5 Ways to Extend the Life of a Factory Transmission
Note:
Difficulty Level: 3 out of 10
Install Time: 3 hours*
*This kit comes with very easy to follow instructions and visuals to help you install the product as efficiently as possible. If you run into any questions or hang-ups, just call in and ask to speak to an expert!
May Fix or Prevent:
- P0700 Family of Fault Codes
- Low Line Pressure Rise
- Solenoid "Stuck Off" Fault Codes
- Slamming Gears
- Shift Flare
- Slippage Under Load
- Overheating Issues
- P2700 Family of Fault Codes
- Poor Shift Quality
You can expect:
- Much better shifting
- Tremendously increased longevity, resolving the dreaded LPC leakage issue!
- Better clutch control
- Fixes crossleakage better than any other DIY kit on the market
- Cooler Operating Temperature
- Fixes problematic Line Pressure Bleedoff issue at High Heat/Pressure
- Can Capacitate Any Increase in Line Pressure or Lube Pressure
*For those who are not in the market for our complete and ready to install valve bodies, this is the perfect DIY solution that ANYONE can do, and is designed to address the major failure points of the 10L1000 once and for all.*
This kit consists of:
- Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed LPC Accumulator Sleeve
- Project Carbon® Laser Cut Steel Upper Valve Body Separator Plate
- (2) Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed Feed Limit Valve Set
- Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed Lube Regulator Valve Kit
- (2) Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed End Plugs
- Project Carbon® Billet Steel Manual Valve Upgrade Kit
- (6) Project Carbon® Billet Solenoid Stabilizers
- Project Carbon® Complete Valve & Plug High Temperature O-Ring Set
Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed LPC Accumulator Sleeve:
All Allison 10-Speed transmissions use something called an LPC Accumulator to manage line pressure going to the pressure regulator valve. The LPC system helps prevent excess wear to the pressure regulator valve complex by preventing unnecessary movement; it essentially dampens oil pressure reaching the valve to avoid preventable wear.
This piece unfortunately fails very frequently. It moves much more than most valves in the transmission, causing it to wear out at an accelerated pace. The most common issue is excessive bore wear around the piston itself caused by the cheap aluminum material and cleaning "rivets" machined into the piston, a very poor design. This causes unpredictable shift behavior and slippage allowing high pressure oil to vent into the pan, essentially creating an unintentional line pressure bleed-off point that comes directly from the pressure holding the clutches on.
We permanently resolve this issue by redesigning the piston entirely, using none of the original design. We concluded that there are 2 major revisions needed to make this piece as reliable as possible. Firstly, we need to prevent leakage past the piston, even in the presence of nominal bore wear. We did this by implementing high temperature O-Rings that can resolve up to 0.015" of bore wear - far more than we've ever found at an LPC accumulator.
Additionally, we designed the piston to wear it cannot make physical contact with the bore, but only the O-Rings themself. By doing so, we ensure that bore wear will be stopped in it's tracks, or never take place at all in a healthy valve body. This is because the O-Rings protrude enough to create a contact barrier between the piston and the bore, and rubber seals are not hard enough to harm aluminum. This makes our Billet LPC Accumulator a permanent solution for all LPC failure in the 10 Speed Allison transmission.
Project Carbon® Laser Cut Steel Upper Valve Body Separator Plate:
Another well-documented problem in the 10-Speed Allison valve body is the deeply untrustworthy separator plate. This plate features a host of design flaws that produce unpredictable failures in this transmission. The paper bonding material on the factory plate is known to tear/come off congesting the valvetrain inside the valve body and the screens inside the valve body are well known to "blow out" causing the solenoid regulator valves to get stuck, causing random meltdown of the transmission.
Our laser-cut valve body separator plate resolves all of these issues and more. It firstly features a 100% paperless design, computer cut by cold-rolled hardened steel that is multiple times thicker than the factory separator plate. This ensures that valve body flexion over time will not cause oil to travel between circuits in the valve body, accommodating for years and hundreds of thousands of miles of valve body flexion with no machining needed.
Furthermore, the Project Carbon® Allison 10L1000 valve body separator plate is 100% screenless, permanently ensuring that no valve body screens will ever blow out and cause valve seizure by the solenoids. This is a total solution to a common problem, and delivers peace of mind. All testing performed proved that this is a superior design in terms of both reliability and performance.
Best of all, we modified some of the oil circuitry in the plate to expedite oil flow to oncoming clutches as well as increase the flow of lubrication to the bearings, shafts and gears. This separator plate is an instantaneous improvement in all oil-flow throughout the transmission. This is the difference between the heart of a healthy young adult and a 70 year old, obese smoker with clogged arteries. Clean Arteries = Better Bloodflow.
Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed Feed Limit Valve Set:
As with many modern transmissions, the Allison 10L1000 uses a "Feed Limit Valve" system. And - you guessed it - it sucks. The feed limit valve is responsible for controlling the pressure of the fluid being fed to the solenoid regulator valves in this transmission. There are two of them, a high and a low that are responsible for establishing a minimum and maximum feed pressure to these solenoids. Naturally, they are prone to significant side load that damages the bore around the spring pedestal portion of the valve.
We have permanently resolved this problem with an easy to use, drop-in solution. Our Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed Feed Limit Valves directly replace the low quality factory valve with a billet steel solution that features an O-Ring at the end of the valve to prevent oil flow past the spring pedestal. This corrects up to 0.020" of bore wear. Further, these valves are naturally aligned by the smaller lands on the valve ensuring that side load stops by simply installing this valve.
By installing these valves, you will close any crossleak causing low line pressure rise and delayed shift engagement. You will also negate any problems with peak deliverable pressure to the clutch packs being lost at the ends of these valves. We have discovered a crossleak here on vehicles with as low as 30,000 miles, making this upgrade desperately important. Virtually all 10L1000 transmissions are leaking - in some amount - at this part of the valve body, negatively effecting shift behavior.
Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed Lube Regulator Valve Kit:
This transmission, as with most automatic transmissions, has a devout circuit of oil used to lubricate the hard parts of the transmission. There is a valve specifically responsible for controlling how much lubrication is sent to these critical items named the "Lube Regulator Valve." This valve system functions in a low pressure environment, usually around 13 lbs/in^2 on a new OEM valve body.
Similar to the feed limit valve system, we've found prolifically that the valve is made of very low quality aluminum with ridges cut into the valve to help "scrape" material out of the bore. This is a perfect formula for damage to the bore surrounding the valve. When this happens, the oil responsible for cooling the inner gears to safe temperatures exhausts into the pan, resulting in a slow and steady death to the internal hard parts of the Allison 10L1000 transmission. As you could have guessed, Next Gen Drivetrain comes with a complete and total permanent solution.
The Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed Lube Regulator Valve Kit is a drop-in replacement for the factory valve. We permanently resolve this problem by adding a high temperature O-Ring to the leak-point of the valve, and also redesign it as a smooth-bore valve manufactured from billet steel. This resolves any amount of bore wear we've ever encountered on the Allison 10L1000 valve body while also ensuring that every ounce of lubrication oil in this transmission makes it to the inner hard parts, preventing geartrain meltdown.
Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed End Plugs:
There are two aluminum cylinders known as "end plugs" used in the 10-Speed Allison valve body. One is for the pressure regulator valve, and the other is for the cooler thermostat valve. Both of these plugs have reasonably heavy spring weight resting on them at all times, and a retainer attempting to hold them in place. As a function of this, we have found nearly all of them with damage between the plug and the bore casting of the valve body.
What's so dangerous about this is that they're both in highly important parts of the valve body. One seals off main line pressure, and one seals off the cooler thermostat, meaning that any leak present at either one of them can result in erratic shifts, excessive heat or worse. This problem could have been easily prevented by implementing a seal to these plugs.
Fortunately, we have redesigned these two end plugs out of billet steel, implementing a high temperature O-Ring to ensure that any amount of bore wear will still not result in a leak. Installing our drop-in Project Carbon® Billet Steel O-Ringed End Plugs will guarantee that these two parts of the valve body are oil-tight for life; a permanent solution.
Project Carbon® Billet Steel Manual Valve Upgrade Kit:
Many 10L1000 transmissions experience bore wear around the feeble and cheaply made OEM manual valve as visible in the pictures above. This problem can cause the column shifter to become stuck, especially in cold weather. But, even worse, bore wear around the valve can cause a significant loss in pressure to the clutch packs themselves. This causes the clutches to degrade VERY quickly and has been detected at some level in roughly 40% of the Allison 10L1000 transmission cores we receive here.
As your source for the highest quality Allison 10L1000 transmission parts, we have invented our hyper-reliable Project Carbon® 10L1000 Manual Valve Upgrade; a must for ALL 10L1000 transmissions. This valve fixes this problem permanently in multiple ways. Firstly, the valve itself wears down more than the valve, in nearly all units tested, replacing the valve fixed the problem without machine work.
Secondarily, this valve is made from extremely rough stainless steel alloy with cobalt to increase tensility and yield. To protect the bore from any potential damage, the lands of this valve undergo a lengthy precision de-burring process to prevent any abrasive contact with the valve body casting. This valve is simply guaranteed to never fail, period.
Project Carbon® Billet Solenoid Stabilizers:
Unfortunately, the clips that keep the linear solenoids in place easily collapse. When this happens, the solenoid no longer sits parallel to the bore of the solenoid regulator valves. What does this mean? It means leaks, stuck valves and failed transmissions. By installing these solenoid stabilizers, you will be ensuring that the clips cannot collapse under any amount of pressure.
Frequently Asked Questions about the 10 Speed Allison 10L1000 Transmission:
Q: Is the Allison 10L1000 a good transmission?
A: Known as a less-than-reliable unit, the 10 Speed Allison 10L1000 transmission is a fertile breeding ground for a variety of problems. This includes but is not limited to: Valve body crossleakage, burnt clutches, damaged clutch hubs, stripped shells and much more.
Q: Is there TCM Tuning for the 10 Speed Allison 10L1000 transmission?
A: Yes! The 10 Speed Allison 10L1000 can be easily tuned to request different shift points, different lockup protocol and various other functional changes. However, most of these parameters do not need to change for the transmission to work optimally. Mechanical upgrades are significantly more important.
Q: What is the lifespan of a 10 Speed Allison 10L1000?
A: Although there are many variables, the 10 Speed Allison 10L1000 transmission lasts an average of 100,000 to 150,000 miles in unmodified trucks with average applications. Trucks with larger tires, tuning, emissions delete systems and other aggravating factors usually fail much sooner. Transmissions with religious maintenance routines that are used largely for highway miles can last longer in some cases.
Q: What is the best upgrade for a 10 Speed Allison 10L1000 transmission?
A: The single most important upgrade someone can perform on a 10 Speed Allison 10L1000 transmission is a valve body. The valve body is where the overwhelming majority of their problems begin, and can yield huge benefits to any application. All Allison 10L1000 transmissions, regardless of application, should have one of our upgraded valve bodies.
Q: What are the service intervals of a 10 Speed Allison 10L1000 transmission?
A: It is our advice that this transmission is hot-flushed and a complete fluid and filter change is executed every 25,000 miles on average. Extraordinary applications may want to perform these services more frequently, whereas highway exclusive applications can safely push a bit further between services.
Conclusion:
If you’re looking for a DIY solution to your 10L1000 that does not require a transmission drop, tremendous shop labor costs or going broke, there’s is no better product than our Project Carbon® 10L1000 DIY Valve Body Upgrade Kit. This bestselling product is easy to install, affordable and delivers huge improvements to the 10L1000 at any mileage or rebuild. If you still have questions about our best-selling 10L1000 upgrade kit, we encourage to call in and speak to one of our experts!
