After 2 years of feeling the transmission was going to die at any moment, I found this board and after reading about the transmission problems on the SSEI, I decided to go the Seafoam, Dextron VI and shift kit route.

First was to put in 1/2 a pint of seafoam and drive 10 miles. I couldn't find a vacuum pump anywhere, so went the old school way. Took 8 feet of clear 1/4 plastic tubing and a Dasani water bottle (1 .03 pint) and did the old siphon. It is really easy with the clear tubing and red transmission fluid. Not like the days of my youth getting gas for the mower from Dad'* car with a piece of garden hose, swallowing that leaded fuel. Never tasted the old transmission fluid. The Dasani bottle was an easy and disposable measuring device. Put in the Seafoam and instantly the transmission shifted great. Didn't take but 300 feet to feel the difference.


Next was the installation of the shift kit. I bought the kit from ZZ Performance. The instructions were weak, and I didn't realize it until I was into the job. ZZ states there are better instructions on theor web-site, but I couldn't find them. Thank goodness for Dan Thurs. Printed out his how to and used his instructions. If it were not for him I might be SOL.

Installed the kit without a problem. Only thing I would of done different is place the jack stands at a different location, When I dropped the pan I couldn't get the catch tray in place because the jack stands were in the way. I had quite a mess. The only other issue was installing the pan gasket. I was not sure if I needed to wet it with trans fluid, but I did so. The issue was the torquing of the pan bolts. My torq wrench had trouble with such a slight setting (10 ft lbs). Good chance I was closer to 20 lbs on some of the bolts. Will be watching for leaks.

The test drive went well. No improvement after the shift kit installed, seems the Seafoam did something good. I am also running Dex VI. We shall see how things hold up.

Finally, metal shavings on the magnet, but therr was a 1/4 of metal sludge covering the entire magnet. Wonder is the Seafoam got it there??

Thanks again to all the posters on in this forum sharing the transmission problems and fixes.

Personally I have installed several of the ZZP shift kits and I'm really not impressed with how they feel. Adding a performance tune that increases the line pressure will help a bit. Glad the trans is working better. Also happy I was able to help out with the write up.