Why is my c6 servo like this?

I just tore my tranny down this morning and found a few interesting things...  When I pulled out the servo, I found that there was no o-ring on the inner portion of the piston.  Also, the port in the servo housing had silicon blocking the passage as well as the passage way into the transmission housing had been tapped and a plug placed.

Last time I had the trans built and told the builder I wanted a reverse pattern full manual valve body.  He never told me the brand that was placed, but to my surprise when I took off the pan, I found a c7 lower and c8 upper valve body...  Do the servo mods have something to do with this modified valve body?

One other really weird thing that I found was when I pulled the output shaft, there were no sealing rings present on the shaft.  Is this a trick, or did I get hosed on my last rebuild?

If anyone knows why these things were done, please comment!  I purchased a new r-code billet servo and want to find out if the port in the transmission housing should have the plug removed.

Thanks in advance,
Jon


Plug in transmission housing ( look at right side of pic)

Silicon in servo port

No 2nd o-ring

No sealing rings

I beleive you have a TCI Valve body.

http://news.compperformance.com/Instructions/421000.pdf

Would the tci valve body have ford part #'s on the upper and lower halves? Mine has a c7... Lower and c8... Upper

I have a TCI reverse pattern manual valve body that I bought used and yes it does have the c7/ c8 castings.

Looks like JPT (out of business) type mods.  I'm pretty sure you won't be able to run that servo as-is. Noticein the piston pic, the ring isn't just missing, the land looks ground down? 
Why the servo change?  Are you having problems?

My converter had gradually started flashing higher, so I sent it back to Ptc and they said the converter looked new inside and that more than likely something was letting go in the trans. As far as the r-servo and e apply lever that I bought, I got them because it seems like the go-to combo on here.

After I tore the trans apart I found blue spots in the low/reverse steels as well as a burned intermediate band.


My trans doesn't have the governor, --- I'm guessing that's why the sealing rings were left out on the rear of the output shaft????

Yep, could've just taken the gov off completely I'd bet. Most methods builders use are similar, but not EXACTLY the same methods of building. So burned low/reverse and band? Was the fluid level good? What pan/oil pickup do you use? Did you check line pressure at all?

Very well could have been low on fluid.  I had a stock pan, but had a leaking pan gasket.  I checked the fluid regularly, but could have certainly ran it a little low a time or two.  The first thing I noticed that changed, was the amount of engine braking that I had on the down shift..... seemed to slowly fade.  The next thing was I thought I had converter problems because it started flashing several hundred rpm higher when I would stomp it.  

I have an external cooler in the bed of my truck and also utilize the cooler in the radiator.  I'm guessing this effectively increased my systems capacity and made the resting level of the fluid a good bit higher than the pan gasket????  = a good situation for a leak?

Did the trans shift without a flare in it on the 2-3?  Some valve bodies require that mod to the servo to get the proper shift timing down, otherwise you end up with a 2-3 flare.  I've done that mod to a few c6's before and it works great.  You can still run your R code servo, just take the smaller o-ring off and leave the plug in the transmission.  You don't need to put silicon in the hole of the servo assembly like the other builder did.  Essentially you are just equalizing the apply and release surface area of the piston to change the speed that the band releases off the direct drum.

The reason the hole in the case is plugged is because if it wasn't, when you shift into 2nd, the fluid tries to push the piston into the trans to apply the band, but if that hole is open, the fluid pressure just goes right back into the transmission like a drainback hole, so you get no apply on the piston.

If your trans shifted fine the way it was, I would just remove the o-ring off the R-code servo, install the E lever and run it.

Here is a pic of a Hobart Performance single piston super servo against the Sonnax R-code.


Hopefully my ramblings make some sense to you.