Level 10 in New Jersey is owned and operated by Pat Barrett. As transmission men go, many have no knowledge or experience with performance mods on a Japanese car especially a Nissan or Infiniti. Not so with Pat. Pat is well versed in these matters and the quality if his work matches the quality of the cars.

There are four things that you may want to consider doing in transmission modification, all of which Level 10 does without peer.

Torque Converter

There are two things that level 10 can do in this area. One is in some cases, they can provide you with a billet aluminum converter that can lop tons of time off in the quarter mile.. It all makes sense because of the tremendous reduction in rotating mass…. Remember that 10 lbs of rotating mass reduction is equivalent to 100 lbs of static mass. The second converter mod involves changing your stall speed up r down depending upon your circumstances. Normally aspirated cars will likely go down the drag strip faster if the stall speed of the converter ( the rpm at which converter slippage stops) is more closely matched to the peak of one’s torque curve. As an example, if your torque peaks out at 4000 rpm, the best setting for your stall speed would be something a few hundred rpm shy of 4000 rpm. Now, the key thing to remember is that this will improve you acceleration but for every day driving, it generally makes your driving experience a real drag…. Almost literally because most cars have stall speeds in the 2000rpm range and driving a car where the engine is revving and revving and you aren’t really going anywhere until almost 4000 rpm gets a little old turn after turn light after light. Usually staying with the stock setting or a compromise between stock and the ideal performance-stall speed is in order if the car is going to be your daily driver. These are all things that you can work through with the knowledgeable and friendly staff a t Level 10. People often wonder how my once normally aspirated Q 45 that weighs 4200 pounds and has an automatic could run mid twelves and pull the wheels off the ground. The mid twelves were helped by the Level 10 converter mods but pulling the wheels off the ground was entirely up to the slam- bam- thank- you- mam way my Level 10 converter hooks up when I drop the hammer at the green.

If you are power boosting with nitrous, a supercharger or a turbo, you generally want to lower the stall speed of the converter. This may seem counterintuitive but this is a fact. Power boosts usually like being put under a load, the earlier the better. Pat Barrett can be very helpful in helping you sort this out.

Firming up the shifts

The second major thing that you can do is to change the flow characteristics of the valve bodies so that the shifts are firmer. This will not be as likely to help your E.T.’s as much as the converter mods, but it helps and it is worth it. From a driving- pleasure stand point, it produces wonderfully crisp and firm shifts… chirping the tires between shifts and getting your head thrown into the back seat just became easier. Level 10 does a masterful job of this.

Making it Stick

Finally, for those of you that have modified your engines and are putting out 20% or greater gains in hp, you really want Level 10 to reline the clutch faces so the will last and not burn up .. They use high tech materials including Kevlar for this.

Summary

Great gains in performance can made by making these mods. It is a must for power boosting that involves increases of 20% or more over stock hp or torque. Level 10 has nothing but admirers and happy customers. My experience has certainly confirmed this. Give Pat a call @ 973.827.1000.

Contributed by: Pat Barrett