[Cawe]

Hello. I have two questions. First. Is it possible to buy a strategy description pdf ? On our Forum I have found CDAN2, CRAI8, GUFB, LHBH1, but I really want to learn more about AOAG3, QAAC5, CQAB2 unfortunately I can't find the correct documents :(.
 
Second question.  Is it possible to mix strategies with hardware ? For example QAAC5 on ML2-308 ? I would like to use the 5R55E software in the 4R55E to have 5 gears ;) Second gear in 5R55E is made only by a software change. I have the reference manual of the 4R and 5R. The 4R55E has an analog selector and the 5R55E has microswitches. I can  see that in the software I can choose between analog and digital selector,  but I really don't know that ML2-463 (QAAC5 PCM) has hardware capabilities to interpret analog input signals on 29 PIN. So I was thinking to use older hardware with the newer strategy and just change the selector type scalar. What do you think about that ?

Best regards.

[cgrey8]

...Is it possible to buy a strategy description pdf ? On our Forum I have found CDAN2, CRAI8, GUFB, LHBH1, but I really want to learn more about AOAG3, QAAC5, CQAB2 unfortunately I can't find the correct documents...

The documents we have were released into the wild by leakers. It's not known whether the leakers were people that worked inside Ford at the time or if those documents were given to "approved" third party tune developers (e.g. SCT) and someone there leaked the documents to the wild. Regardless, they are not documents that Ford has ever openly intended to distribute. So support for all the other strategies that are out there were derived by analyzing the bin files, recognizing patterns of code and making new definition files. Those documents have been invaluable for the bin hackers to break down their strategies and make definition files for, and thus creating the template for other strategies without documents to be derived from.
 

...Is it possible to mix strategies with hardware ? For example QAAC5 on ML2-308 ? I would like to use the 5R55E software in the 4R55E to have 5 gears ;) Second gear in 5R55E is made only by a software change. I have the reference manual of the 4R and 5R. The 4R55E has an analog selector and the 5R55E has microswitches. I can  see that in the software I can choose between analog and digital selector,  but I really don't know that ML2-463 (QAAC5 PCM) has hardware capabilities to interpret analog input signals on 29 PIN. So I was thinking to use older hardware with the newer strategy and just change the selector type scalar. What do you think about that ?...

Technically what you are describing is possible. The catch is you'd need to know the strategy AND the hardware well enough to know that the strategy is fully compatible with the hardware it is being applied to. If there were no other differences between hardware, then it is technically possible to get a strategy that supports both shifting types to run on other hardware. The part that creates doubt about this being feasible is that there could be other things that also have changed that you are not noticing that make the strategy incompatible.

As it relates to the transmissions, I too have heard that the additional gear in the 5R55 is the coordinated disengage of one gear while engaging another to get a new gear ratio. Plenty of car mfgs do this as a normal thing. I think most L4/V6 6 speed transmissions actually only have 4 gears in them, they are just coordinating the shifting of those 4 physical gears to attain 6 discrete ratios out of them.

What I don't know is if there are more subtle hardware/electronic differences between the 4R55 and 5R55 to help facilitate this trick. While it is a technical possibility to do, pulling it off requires some tight timing particularly in a transmission not specifically built to shift in this fashion (as you said the additional gear in the 4R55 was an afterthought). One of the common complaints people have with the 5R55 equipped vehicles is a shift-condition known as RPM flare which happens when the disengage and engage of the two involved physical gears don't happen in sync. As one gear dis-engages (effectively dropping the engine back down one gear), if the other gear doesn't get engaged in time, then the RPMs flare way up during the shift then sharply come back down as the other gear does engage. Under heavy load this can create a rather sharp jerk. It wouldn't surprise me if there are valve/spring/plate differences in the 5R55's valve-body that help it make the coordinated shift.

Point is, even if you find that your strategy runs on the 5R55-capable EEC with no issues, trying to control a from-the-factory 4R55 as a 5R55 may still be problematic, and possibly catastrophic if attempted under heavy load.

IIRC, the 5R55 was mostly used on Explorers to give the V6 version a little more umph. It engaged a gear that normally doesn't engage at that time (3rd on the 4R55?). The coordinated shift to the next gear is the disengagement of that gear and the engagement of what, in the 4R55 was 2nd. This "created" a gear between 1st and 3rd on the 5R55. Under light to moderate driving conditions, the coordinated gear-shift was often skipped, and the vehicle shifted the same as a 4R55 when not at heavy load.

[Cawe]

Thank you very much for an answer. There are minor changes on the valve body. I have full documentation for 4R55E and 5R55E also with Ford patents so the transmission hardware site is not a problem.