Whats Don's VB mod and what and where is e town?
thanks!

 

But "E Town" is short for Raceway park, englishtown NJ. Its a 1/4 mile track and motorcross track(separate facilities).

 

e-town is englishtown, new jersey. as mentioned above , is short for the raceway park in englishtown. http://www.etownraceway.com dons vb mod is don from texas valvebody modification for the auto-tranny for 4th gen.

 

"dons vb mod is don from texas valvebody modification for the auto-tranny for 4th gen."

Ok whats that do? And how much is it? I think i might end up with an automatic (sadly), so this will increase my performance im guessing. But how?
Thanks guys!

 

here it is, hope this helps!

ValveBody Modification
The VB modification is performed outside of the vehicle. The modification is done by changing the inner workings of the Valvebody. The changes actually increase fluid line pressure and re-route fluid. Soft springs are replaced with stiffer, harder springs. All gaskets are replaced with OEM Nissan parts.

What’s it mean?
What we are changing is the speed of the shifts between 1-2 and again between 2-3. The speed and firmness of the shifts are changed. That normal sloppy slow transition you experience now is fine for a smooth quiet shift (like a luxury car should be). But if you’re like me, you want every little bit of power robbing, energy-absorbing thing out of your car. That’s exactly what the OEM ValveBody does…rob you of precious power. You are losing power with every shift you make. I’ve increased my ¼ mile times by 6 tenths just with this modification. Your shifts are faster than a 5-speed (you’ll never miss one), and, at full throttle, hard enough to skip your CD player. Normal driving will be firm not sloppy, but will not snap your head back like full throttle.

 

Sounds cool and all, but you said under hard accel, the car shifts hard, right? Or am i misunderstanding? What I'm asking is does it change the smoothness of your gears shifting or does it shift quicker? Break it down one more time for me if you could.

 

it is definitly quicker shifts, but I wouldn't exactly say smoother. My girlfriend say it feels more like I have a 5-speed when the car shifts. A little more umph when it shifts but not like head jerking. I have not heard a bad comment about the VB mod. No-one I know of says that the shifting is too rough, or jerky feeling.

 

Cool, so how much does this vb mod cost? And, where can someone like me get that done in Washington state.

 

Emm, I believe the mod from Don is about $400. But unless you do it yourself, see you have to remove your VB, send it to Don, and he mod it, then you have to reinstall it. That labor can cost a good deal of money if you don't do it yourself.

-Shing

 

about 450, and you have to send him your stock VB. He does like a 3 day turnaround though. He gets yours (day one), mods it (day two), then overnights it (day three)Well worth the wait if you can keep the car out for 3-4 days. I uninstalled mine, then had it re-installed by an mechanic. He charged me 110 for the install. (2 hours work and payment for 11 quarts tranny fluid)

 

So how much does it weigh? Also how hard is the uninstall? And is this mod just like the Level 4 VB upgrade, are is it Level 10(I forget)????

 

would yall recommend doing the install urself??

 

Its not hard to install at all. It takes about 4 hours from start to finish (if you're slow). The VB weighs about 18 pounds. I just installed mine in my 2001 (with Don's help) and we did it all:
1) raised car, drained fluid, unbolted pan
2) pulled the valvebody
3) did all the modifications
4) re-installed the valvebody
5) bolted up pan, filled with fluid lowered car

in less than 2 hours. That INCLUDED the VB MOD!!!!!

 

So for #3, what is involved, and why does Don charge $400 for it if it takes less than 2 hours?

 

I've seen surgeons charge $60,000 for something they only spend an hour or two on.

I wonder why?.........

 

hey don
if i bought the vb mod right now could you help me install it??

 

I agree that you must pay a price to have an expert perform specialized procedures, but I can't imagine anything that is done to a CAR that the expert could charge $400 an hour to do. (I am assuming 1 hour based on the description of 2 hours total to uninstall, modify and re-install) Expert machining is the closest thing I can think of. It’s a skill that few have, but the rates are usually $60 to $80 an hour. The only other justification for this price is a proprietary component that had a large R&D cost that needs to be recovered to be profitable. I could understand this also, but no one is willing to provide details of what is done to the VB. I’m not trying to stir things up, I just wanted to know what is involved in the procedure.

 

Here is the deal from what I understand. Don does the modifications to the VB at his "work shop". Then he ships the VB out to the buyer, after that the buyer ships his/her stock VB back to him to minimize downtime. As far as what modifications he does, he could tell but he'd have to kill ya . I believe the cost of the VB mod covers the labor and parts of taking the OEM VB to rebuild it.

 

" The only other justification for this price is a proprietary component that had a large R&D cost that needs to be recovered to be profitable. I could understand this also, but no one is willing to provide details of what is done to the VB"

I think you hit the nail on the head. R&D is costly and takes time. Proprietary information/procedures/widget design are definately worth money.

I doubt PIAA bulbs cost $65 per pair to make, but they have a pretty box. Performance springs are just rolled steel, but sell for $250 a set. Labor is costly, there is expertise involved in taking apart a Valvebody and re-assembling 93 different moving parts. If I can do it fast, is because I do quite a few. My first one took 3 hours to remove, and almost a year the develop.

I've sweated over the R&D, done the runs, made the changes. Cattman makes a y-pipe. Its just pipe, right? Why $400. Cause he makes it, he designed it. Its his.

This is mine. I use all new gasket kits for this mod (around $170 per unit JUST FOR THE REBUILD KIT). Now that you mention it.....it sounds like I'm not charging enough.

Enjoy the ride,

Don

 

don's vb that i am interesting in. what is the url?

John