2007.5-2009 Ram 6.7L Cummins Valve Bodies
The factory valve body in your 2007.5-2009 Ram 6.7L's transmission isn't known for its reliability, even if your truck is at factory power levels. When it's put under load from heavy towing or extra power, the factory valve body is prone to cross leaks, pressure drops, solenoid failures, and other issues that can not only lead to poor shifting performance, but also to a lack of lubrication of critical parts that can outright kill your transmission. Tier One's selection of high-pressure performance valve bodies for the 6.7L Cummins Rams feature a bunch of enhancements that both improve their general reliability over stock, but also allow them to handle a whole heck of a lot more power and torque. We even have 68RFE valve bodies with billet channel plates than can handle applications of 1000 horsepower or more!
If your transmission clutches are already burnt out from low pressure, a new valve body won't bring them back, and you may be better suited getting a fresh start with one of our 2007.5-2009 Ram 6.7L Cummins Complete Transmissions. A high-pressure valve body provides the holding power you need, but you need a converter that can handle that lock-up force without warping, so pair your valve body with one of our 2007.5-2009 Ram 6.7L Cummins Torque Converters. Improved fluid flow helps reliability, but towing heavy loads still generates massive heat, so keep your fluid cool and your new valve body solenoids happy with our 2007.5-2009 Ram 6.7L Cummins Transmission Coolers. When installing a new valve body, it's the perfect time to upgrade your fluid capacity or replace internal filters, so you can find deep pans, filters, and other essential components in our 2007.5-2009 Ram 6.7L Cummins Transmission Parts.
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About 2007.5-2009 Ram 6.7L Cummins 68RFE Valve Bodies
The stock 68RFE valve bodies on the 2007.5-2009 Ram 6.7L Cummins trucks are the cause of more than a few common 68RFE transmission problems that range from a bit annoying to potentially catastrophic. The stock 68RFE valve body suffers from cross-leaks, pressure loss, solenoid valve failures, and accumulator piston problems that can lead to low line pressures that can cause weird shifting behavior, poor clutch engagement, under-lubrication to your Ram's critical transmission components, and potential component failure that can lunch your entire transmission. Buy why does all this happen in the first place?Common 68RFE Valve Body Problems
The problems with the 68RFE valve body stem from a combination of core design issues, as well as questionable choices in components and component materials that lead to all sorts of problems. The only good news about the situation is that there's plenty of aftermarket performance valve bodies and 68RFE valve body parts that can help fix basically all of these issues and make your 2007.5-2009 Ram's 68RFE transmission much more reliable and able to handle more power.68RFE Valve Body Cross-Leaks
One of the biggest causes of low line pressures and inadequate fluid flow through the valve body are cross-leaks. Cross-leaking is when fluid moves from the two sides of the valve body or between the worm channels in unintended ways. This leads to a loss in line pressure either across the valve body or in the specific track, which can then lead to your entire transmission not functioning properly. There's generally two main causes for cross-leaks: 1). the OEM separator plate is just a piece of steel without a good sealing surface and 2). the two halves of the valve body itself are rarely ever completely flat from the factory. Both issue create a poor sealing surface that allow cross-leaks to occur and give you and your Ram 6.7L Cummins build a very bad time. There are a couple of solutions to 68RFE valve body cross leaks that aftermarket valve body builds tend to use to fix cross-leak problems. The first is using a bonded separator plate. Bonded separator plates feature a gasket or similar material that's physically bonded to a steel separator plate. Bonded separator plates provide a much more positive sealing action that prevents leaks across the worm channels and MOST leaks between the two halves of the valve body. The second solution to fighting cross-leaks is by flat-sanding the two halves of the valve body. By ensuring that both sides of the valve body are actually flat, you get a much lower likelihood of leaks and pressure loss through the valve body. Most aftermarket 68RFE valve body manufacturers solely use bonded separator plates in their high-pressure valve bodies, and to be fair to them, that solve cross-leak issues in the majority of cases. However, we here at Tier One both flat-sand and add bonded separator plates to our 68RFE High-Pressure Valve Body to totally eliminate cross-leaks and ensure proper valve body operation. That being said, cross-leaks can still happen with both flat-sanding and bonded separator plates in extremely high-powered applications due to the valve body's channel plate actually flexing. If your Ram is putting down a lot of power, then investing in a Tier One 68RFE Billet High-Pressure Valve Body or a billet channel plate would be a good bet.68RFE Valve Body Accumulator Piston Leaks
The stock accumulator pistons are a huge source of leaks, pressure loss, and other issues, especially if you add power or turn up line pressure with performance tuning. The factory accumulator pistons are made out of pretty flimsy plastic and only have a front and rear seal that sit in molded channels on the piston bodies. The stock pistons can easily deform, crack, or warp allowing fluid and pressure to escape, which can lead to hard or strange shifting behavior. Since the seals are mounted in that plastic, and there's only two sets of them, the seals can likewise fail and give you the same issues. Nearly all aftermarket valve bodies come with 68RFE billet accumulator pistons to help solve the issue. These pistons are CNC-machined out of billet aluminum, giving them much greater structural strength than the stock accumulator pistons and making them nearly impervious to warping and cracking. The majority of aftermarket billet 68RFE accumulator pistons also feature redundant seals in the middle of their bodies to further improve reliability and add a layer of redundancy to the accumulator pistons themselves.68RFE Solenoid & Solenoid Valve Issues
The all-too-common P0871 code is a dreaded issue for 2007.5-2009 Ram 6.7L Cummins owners. The P0871 code is "OD Pressure Switch Rationality Fault" , which is really just an overly technical way of saying that the overdrive pressure switch is in the wrong state, and the biggest culprit is the the factory Solenoid Switch Valve (SSV). The switch valve rides in a channel in the valve body, but there's an issue with how it's built. The stock SSV is made out of much harder and coarser materials than the surrounding cast aluminum bore that it moves in. Over time, the SSV can gouge out the channel and cause cross-leaks and pressure loss. The stock SSV valve also has a fairly high nickel content which can lead to galvanic corrosion problems due to contact with the surrounding aluminum. Many performance valve bodies come with oversized SSVs that are made out of revised, smoother, or anodized materials to avoid the issue altogether. The electronic solenoid pack on the 68RFE valve bodies can have issues, but generally most solenoid problems are related to the SSV and its quirks. That being said, many aftermarket 68RFE valve body builders (including your friends at Tier One) include new OEM solenoid packs with their valve bodies that are thoroughly tested to ensure proper function before they're shipped out to customers.
