PoorMan

Well; I got sooo tired of the dead spot in my power band. Going WOT from a 45-60mph roll in 4th. The car would kickdown to 3rd but it had no pull at all. The rpm would only kickup to about 3000 after the downshift and the power would slowly roll on. It's suxed to say the least. Anyway; I reflashed the pcm today to kickdown to 2nd gear at 60mph or below anytime I go 100% TPS. OMG; programming the pcm to shift from 4th to 2nd at WOT made a night and day difference. Cruising at 60mph then going WOT results in my rpm shooting up to about 4500rpm. I go another 7mph to redline before I have it shift to 3rd.

Anyway; I never thought about by-passing 3rd all together in the kickdown. Try it; it makes running from a roll alot better.

Capn Pete

I know what you mean! I don't have my computer recalibrated, but I've manually downshifted to compensate, and what a difference! At ~80 mph or so, my car is in 4th gear and lock-up. If it hit the gas, all that happens is the torque converter comes out of lock-up...........big whoop! But if I pull the shifter back manually to 3rd.......OMG!!! It pulls like crazy!!!

Dead spots suck in any car, but especially autos, where you've got very little control over what happens.