Read about trans till head hurts

[badgerrr]

Ok I need some help. I've read too much. I have a 98 4x4 12 valve all stock. Ive owned the truck since new. Mabey towed a four horse trailer 15 times in 10 years. the bed got hit and its been sitting 2 years. Times are slow and moneys tight so I'm redoing the truck and selling my v10 to get rid of the payments. I'll have around 3500 to put in it. The truck has 190000 0n it and the trans works fine.
So I plan on some up grades in power in the future but it may be awhile and I won't be going over 450 hp but for the time being it will just have straight pipe exaust homemade cold air, and fuel plate.
Now where to spend the money. I have a flat bed to fix the bed so thats free. Want to paint the cab and have a quote of 800. Want a 5in top gunz lift at 900. I'm not sure about the trans. I would love to do the 5000 grand top of the line but can't so I'm thinking a good triple converter and vaulve body. Can i put these on and wait to rebuild the rest? It works fine now. I don't pull or race but will be pulling some weight from time to time but mostly just daily driving. Do I really need billet internals with only 450hp? If i change the converter and vaulve body and something else goes south before I rebuild the rest will it ruin the vb and converter. Thanks for any input.

[95dually3500]

Yes you will be fine with a tc and vb for what you are going to do with the truck. If you decide to do more than what you say then your gonna need some internals, my belieif is that they are designed more for the ones who are gonna use and abuse their trucks pulling,racing, and going nuts with power

[badgerrr]

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[RPegram]

Originally Posted by 95dually3500

Yes you will be fine with a tc and vb for what you are going to do with the truck. If you decide to do more than what you say then your gonna need some internals, my belieif is that they are designed more for the ones who are gonna use and abuse their trucks pulling,racing, and going nuts with power

Your probably not going to get many more replies because everyone agrees. Converter and valve body upgrade are all you need. If you are handy with turning wrenches and confident inside of trans, then DTT offers a DIY valve body kit that will save you a couple of hundred dollars. The converter on the stock trans is fine behind a stock engine, but will slip behind a modified engine very quickly. After upgrading converter, then the clutches are next to go (especially OD). Doing the valve body accomplishes the task of raising presssure on these clutches to keep them from slipping. You won't need billet shafts and a bunch of other goodies until you start getting over 400 HP or start drag racing and sled pulling or install a converter lockup switch and start doing locked shifts. If you start any of these, then when I look into the crystal ball I see you shelling out $5,000 for a trans. As long as you stick with moderate power and drive responsibly, then the converter and valve body will be sufficient for a long time.