EPC solenoid

[Kinley Winters]

I wanted to share my experience and a word of caution regarding the EPC adjustment project.



Given my personal experience with this adjustment and subsequent research resulting from messing with this I would highly advise NOT doing this.



I have an 05 Trac and made the adjustement while doing a filter change. It indeed seemed to improve shifting due to the increased line pressure. Given further research into the fact I am running a tune I decided to remove the adjustment while adding a larger trans pan.



Needless to say I now have a new EPC solenoid on its way from Torrie our site sponsor. This is after messing around with my Ford service dealer, back and forth with Torrie regarding Xcal tunes, and indepth research on the Ford Explorer site regarding the 5R55E rebuild.



If you do decide to do this adjustment, the guide is spot on and the principle is sound. However the EPC is not meant to be adjusted physically only by the PCM so be advised. Also Torrie is the man to get the new solenoid from.



Project write up to follow :banana:



Cheers

Kinley

 

[Kevin Lang]

So wait, you broke the EPC, or you think it was going to break so you ordered a new one?

 

[Kinley Winters]

I done broke it.

 

[EddieS'04]

Im not understanding the damaged to the epc. I can understand if you raise the pressure mechanicaly and with the xcal. You may damage other weakend hard parts from the pressure.

I have done this with older style shifted transmissions with over doing it with shift kits. Never damaged any part of the valve body.

Educate me, why the valve body component failure.?

 

[Kinley Winters]

@Fast Eddie-

I am not understanding the damage to the EPC either honestly. I am just relaying my experience and what I ran into as I did it.



The EPC project, from my experience and subsequent research (research based upon trying to figure out what DTC code P0733 is and info gleaned from rebuild info of the 5R55E tranny) is sound in its theory so I dont want to take anything away from that.



My issue may have come from doing the adjustment and then taking the adjustment out. From what I understand the EPC is an electromechanical solendoid that uses a spring to overcome the magnetic pull to push the solenoid back. Because of this the spring in there, what is adjusted by the set screw, is realatively weak. Maybe me tightening and then loosening this caused it to break/stick?? Dunno. Outcome is I need a new one with 56K miles on my Trac.



In conclusion I suppose my point of posting is, while the adjustment does appear to work initially, it can lead to problems and based upon what Ford has said about this being not adjustable, it may not be the best of ideas. Modifying it is best done via a tuning tool.



Cheers

Kinley

 

[Todd Z]

Just a little input on this.



The pressure via a tool or any other electrical device can ONLY up the pressure to the mechanical advantage of the EPC.



SO you can NOT get higher pressure then the ST computer will allow any way at WOT...



the only way is a simple 1/4 turn of the EPC spring to allow the MAX pressure to go higher...



IF the computer only opens the spring slightly that pressure is the SAME !!!



Maybe your EPC was just bad, BUT I left mine adjusted and I even have a shift kit and Stall converter in my tranny...



I just had Torrie adjust his tune for the extra pressures i run....



There was no need to "remove" the EPC mod, it could have been done other ways..



Todd Z

 

[Kinley Winters]

Todd-

That very well could have been that case with mine being bad about the same time I was messing around with all this. I had read the EPC going potentially anywhere from 65k to 150K, I may have just hastened that process.



I think hindsight being 20/20 I would have just gotten the Xcal3 like I ultimately did and gone that route. Which by the way the Xcal3 IS the sh*t!!! As much as I have used it already I think it paid for itself.

Cheers

Kinley

 

[Todd Z]

Agreed !!!!



Todd Z