Project Carbon Next Gen 10 Speed Valve Body Kit - Finally Installed!

[jfoj]

I can see a lot of the V8 models not getting transmission services due to the PITA exhaust "Y" pipe. This is main reason I am changing the trans pan to an aftermarket one with a drain.

A lot of the YouTube videos indicated that many of these trans pans have drains, they are not drains, they are bottom fill tubes with a standpipe. There German models used these bottom fill tubes with standpipes, BUT, you could usually use a 6mm or 7mm hex driver to unscrew the standpipe and drain most of the fluid from the pan. Not sure what models still have the bottom fill standpipe, but again, it is not a drain. My 2024 has a solid pan without the bottom fill/standpipe option.

The bottom fill/standpipe is actually genius and works very well. It makes checking and filling the transmission very easy and accurate. The problem is the stupid overly complex and expensive fill tools the manufacturers offer. They are not needed, a $7 fluid pump from the parts store and a pan adapter is all that is needed. I actually had a blow gun extension that had the correct metric thread and was about 3/8" diameter I used for many German bottom fill automatics. It works great and it was not like the overly complicated IV type pump the manufacturer said was required.

 

[operator5362flink]

I ordered the Next Gen kit 2 weeks ago. Still waiting for it to ship. I think they may be getting slammed after all the recent attention. I noticed on their site today that the shift valves are now always included in the kit rather than being an add-on, but the combined price dropped $49 to $1399.

I already have ready a new filter, ATF, Sonnax check balls, and various “one-time-use” seals and bolts as called for in GM Service Info in Alldata.

I plan to add a drain plug to the stock pan while I have it off. Hopefully that won’t leak!

I also bought a second external bypass unit (diesel only) and updated it with the Superior Transmission Parts STL020 kit to eliminate the thermostat. This changes it from a thermal bypass of the transmission cooler when the fluid is cold to a pressure bypass in case the cooler gets restricted or blocked. I will install this as an experiment to see what difference it makes, prior to installing the Next Gen kit.

Fortunately, having the diesel I won’t have to mess with the exhaust!

 

[jfoj]

@operator5362flink

Call NextGen about your order, mine was taking like 2 weeks, I called and it shipped out right after I called. Not sure how they operate but it seemed that my order was shipped from somewhere in the North East US.

I think their shipping folks needs to get better organized.

I spoke with Nate a while ago and I think they were deciding that it was better for the end user in the long run to get a valve body kit with the valves to eliminate other problems, why play "Whack A Mole". While it is more expensive, just do the job once and get the majority of the problems out of the way.

I also think there may be some smaller running changes to their kits that may eliminate a few parts as well.

Be careful with the documentation, I was sent 10L1000 details, clearly a LOT of differences in these transmissions over time. Gen 1 was 2019-2021 as I recall, then there were valve body changes. Additionally there are electronically shifted versions that do not have the manual valve and have a different electrical connector, actually a bit simpler flat connector with a release bail. Then there are units with a Auto Stop/Start electrical auxiliary fluid pump. Then at least with my transmission all the valve body bolts are E Torx or external Torx, 2 different sizes, smaller for the filter and a bit larger for the valve body to transmission bolts.

I even purchased a manual and between this info, what Next Gen sent which was for the 10L1000 which is pretty much the same, but valve body removal is different and online info, I think I have 4 different sets of info that does not all agree.

The units with the Auto Stop/Start auxiliary electric fluid pump has hard metal fluid line and O-ring that connect to the valve body that needs to be disconnected to remove the valve body.

I think the internal parts/valves/solenoids of the valve body are more similar overall. But a lot of variations on the installation and bolts.

 

[89Suburban]

@NickTransmissions not sure if you seen this thread or interested any of the info in it.

 

[jfoj]

Not sure why I have all these left over parts???

 

[jfoj]

Below is a YouTube video that shows where the 3 bolts with sealer go that are 3 of the 7/9 bolts that hold the valve body to the transmission case. I mention 7/9 bolts, there are bolts that hold the valve body to the transmission case and the other 2 are the filter bolts.

I sprayed brake cleaner in the 3 bolt holes and let them dry out to get any residual ATF that may have been in these holes washed out. Not sure if this just blue Loctite or something special, but there factory bolts in these 3 holes had sealer, so best to put things back the way they were meant to be.

A few words of caution, the valve body is HEAVY, so be prepared. If the vehicle has Auto Stop/Start with the electrical auxiliary fluid pump, there is a hard pipe that attaches to the corner of the valve body and there is a O-ring between the flange and the valve body that needs to be removed before the valve body comes out, best to remove this hard pipe first. It is near the electrical connector.

Picture of hard pipe disconnected and moved to the side, bolt threaded partially back in the hole, this is not a VB mounting bolt. Hard pipe can either be removed or swung around out of the way, I swung the hard pipe around and rested the flange on the cross member or exhaust so it would not fall out. There is just an O-ring sealing the end that is installed in the Auxiliary pump.

Also note the brown multi connector flat electrical connector with the gray release bail. Some of the cable shifted transmission have a different round connector with fewer wires. The gray connector release needs to be pulled prior to removing the valve body. Easy to release and it will force the connector out of the socket about 1/2 way.

Where the other 2 bolts with sealer go, this mounts a sensor that has a wire connected, best to remove these 2 bolts and the sensor before you plan on dropping the valve body. All these small connectors have a small red locking tab that needs to be pushed down so you can push the connector release tab. It is a bit hard to see but the release tab is sandwiched between 2 small ridges on the connector. You will probably need a small 90 degree pick tool to easily depress the locking tab. Once the sensor is loose it will probably be easier to see how to push the red locking tab to the unlocked position to then find and press the connector release tab. There are about 10 of the same type of connectors on the valve body that you will need to unlatch. Remember to plug everything back in and lock all the red tabs back in place before you put everything back together.

I think this is a Park sensor that has the 2 other bolts with the sealer installed. This is on the drivers side near the rear of the transmission.

The transmission temperature sensor is on top of the valve body in the middle. Before you flip the valve body over, best to release the cable as above, depress the temp sensor locking tab and turn 90 degrees to release and remove the temp sensor. This will keep you from breaking the sensor with the valve body weight.

Suggest you quadruple check the torque on all bolts. This way you will not hopefully miss any of the bolts. On the electrically shifted transmissions there are a few valve body half bolts that are under the wiring harness or the small supplemental valve body that need to be installed and torqued before the small supplemental valve body and wiring harness is mounted and bolts for the wiring harness is installed.

I will also try to comment on the level if difficulty and some things to watch out for. I have done a fair amount of transmission work and this was not overly difficult, BUT if you have the large valve body separator plate off (held on by 2 T30 Torx screws which is a good thing) and turn the large valve body over, you may be in for some surprises because in addition to the 5 check balls there are 3 or 4 small pistons that go in the the large portion of the valve body.

I also did not fully disassemble the valve body because it only had 8k miles and no major failure, so there was not any debris in the valve body. So I changed each valve one at a time, so as not have bunch of random valves and springs to get confused. There are 3 different shift valves in the kit, 2 each of 3 styles, you need to carefully match up each shift valve when you remove them.

Will try to add more when I get a chance.

PPE aluminum transmission pan with drain. This pan holds about 2 1/2 quarts over stock which is good because I think no more than 3 quarts came out when I dropped just the trans pan. More fluid leaked out once I was able to get the valve body loose which is pretty typical. So just doing fluid services on this transmission will not rotate much fluid out. With the valve body mounted cooler thermostat, not sure you could flush/fluid exchange via the cooler unless there is a check valve as part of the thermostat. Having to drop the exhaust on the V8 trucks to change the fluid and filter will limit how many people actually get the transmission serviced! I will probably drain and fill the transmission ever other oil change give the small amount that will actually come out of the trans pan.

 

[jerry455]

That pan looks great. When I did the fluid and filter after Christmas, I never got out the amount that the service manual said, 8.1 quarts. I only got around 6-6.5 quarts. I try to replace what had come out.

 

[jfoj]

I might be wrong about how much came out when I dropped the pan, I am using a large concrete mixing pan as a catch pan and I think I maybe had less than 1 inch of fluid in the bottom of the pan. I clearly had more fluid come out once I loosened up the valve body.

My PPE pan is for the V8 Yukons/Tahoe/Esclade. If you have a Diesel, you may not need the pan with the shallow part that is above the exhaust cross over pipe.

Luckily PPE modified their casting for the gas trucks with the exhaust cross over under the trans pan.

 

[blanchard7684]

@jfoj did you drop the exhaust cross over?

 

[jfoj]

@blanchard7684

I did not need to disconnect the exhaust after the "Y" pipe, so I did not need to actually remove any exhaust parts from under the vehicle. I did need to disconnect the 3 flange nuts on each side of the exhaust manifolds and just drop the "Y" pipe down a few inches. There is a flexible exhaust coupler so there is some flex to allow the "Y" pipe to droop a bit.

Had to pull the driver side upstream O2 sensor as well.

Glad I did this when the vehicle was still a youngster, would hate to have rusted exhaust studs and nuts. Anyone that has any plans of keeping their vehicle and dropping the trans pan in the future should get some Anti-Seize compound and at least remove 1 nut at a time and load the stud up with Anti-Seize so any future work will hopefully be easier. I hope GM used something other than standard steel studs so they will not rust to a 1/8" inch and break in the future.

A real PITA just to drop the trans pan.