6L90e in TBSS Truckin' project!
05-01-2011, 07:49 PM
#1
Launching!
Thread Starter
6L90e in TBSS Truckin' project! As we started the 6L90 into an AWD Trailblazer SS conversion yesterday, I figured you would be interested in some of the findings. I can't go into too much detail of the project build as I have to save SOMETHING for the Truckin' issues.
Originally we were going to just stick a 6L80 in there and be done with it (as it's been successfully converted in a 5.3L Trailblazer 4WD). But after a "lively" and informative thread (https://ls1tech.com/forums/automatic...e-4th-gen.html) and multiple concerns over the 6L80's capabilities, I figured we'd up the ante with a 6L90. Plus, what better occasion than the Truckin' THROWDOWN event to publicly beat the **** out of a stock 6L90 trans...in a heavy daily driver truck that sees regular towing duties????
Anyhooo...just some pics of the 4L70, 6L80, and 6L90's lined up next to each other. Keep in mind these are all the 4WD transmissions. So output shafts and oil pans will probably vary from RWD versions.
Originally we were going to just stick a 6L80 in there and be done with it (as it's been successfully converted in a 5.3L Trailblazer 4WD). But after a "lively" and informative thread (https://ls1tech.com/forums/automatic...e-4th-gen.html) and multiple concerns over the 6L80's capabilities, I figured we'd up the ante with a 6L90. Plus, what better occasion than the Truckin' THROWDOWN event to publicly beat the **** out of a stock 6L90 trans...in a heavy daily driver truck that sees regular towing duties????
Anyhooo...just some pics of the 4L70, 6L80, and 6L90's lined up next to each other. Keep in mind these are all the 4WD transmissions. So output shafts and oil pans will probably vary from RWD versions.
05-18-2011, 08:42 AM
#2
Launching!
Thread Starter
Had to modify the HELL out of our 6L80 Transmission to Transfer case adapter, but we finally got the right measurements to make future ones adaptable to both transmissions.
Drive/Propshafts were shortened/lengthened. I also got some insight on getting the Tap Up/Tap Down to work. Hopefully we'll have it wired up in time for the THROWDOWN.
Got a new muffler...sounds and performs.
It's alive...it's alive!!!! BIG SHOUT OUT AND THANKS TO Wayne and Nick at Wayne Jones Performances. They were really patient and had a LOT of know how to make this first time install smooth. Driveshafts fit like a GLOVE! All the custom work is clean and professional.
It had the base 2500HD tune in it and a sorta stockish hiybrid LH6/LS2 tune in it so it drove kinda weird on the maiden voyage. Tire sizes, gear ratios were wrong and mismatching. Stock torque management is RIDICULOUS. Wouldn't let full anything near full power mode at anything less than 3rd gear...even then you could just feel the motor being pulled back. Upshifts at WOT were only happening at 5500 RPMS and had the TM freakin' out!! lol. I think it's set for tow/haul mode because it downshifts through EACH gears, not ideal for long term sanity I suspect. Sounds good with the new muffler.
But I just made a few tweaks to the TCM. While it's still so-so, partial and WOT DOWNSHIFTS are SICK!! I'm talking like NOW. I'm about to upload an ECM TM near-nil reduction tune and enhanced.
Video to come soon.
06-01-2011, 11:06 PM
#3
Launching!
Thread Starter
Made it to California with little incident...a little over 12.5hrs until competition. I think I covered all the bases. New 20x10's on 275's, new fluids (front diff, steering, race brake, engine, trans), new race rotors/pads, CAI, Cat-back, race sway bar links/bushings, and frame braces. Still working on that perfect 6L90 shift tune.
Well we didn't win...not enough time to iron out all the wrinkles, but we got a LOT of learning lessons on the TBSS, met some great people and had fun. 1 Jeep and 2 Fords (the Procharged Jeep SRT8 stomped everyone!) and not a single Chevy won. If we get the opportunity to come next year, we'll be prepared and WILL win!
BIG thanks to Nordstroms Automotive, Wayne Jones Performance Engineering, EBC Brakes, ColdAirInductions.com, SuspensionMAXX, and Classic Tubes. No way would we have been able to get it done without their sponsorship.
This is our TOTALLY spur of the moment, off the cuff interview. I forgot to mention Nordstrom Automotive's and Wayne Jones Performance Engineering sponsorship! :doh: You can see the other competitor's interviews as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yh0sb4yCto&NR=1
I worked out driveability bugs on the way out. What's plaguing me is that there are dozens of 6L80/90 TCM files and Operating Systems (OS) that must be matched up with specific ECM files. I was working with '09 OS's this time around, which are significantly different than '08 and '07. Each OS, within each model year, has different settings and parameters. Some you can tune, some you cannot. I'm working with EFILive to allow me to override some settings so that I can have ONE set of tuning that can be universally flashed in all TCM's.
The particular 6L90 TCM OS that I was working with is nothing like the 6L80 TCM OS I have in the 6L80. The "usual suspect" settings can't simply be copied and pasted. So the truck refused to give me a braked launch above 1400 RPM's bc it still essentially thinks it's in a 2500 HD truck. I had ONE magic moment when I got an AWD chirping spin launch, but then Torque Management turned the dash into a 4th of July event and sent the truck into limp mode HARD.
Another monkey wrench is that there are five or so pre-configured shift algorithms/settings in the TCM. I think I may have had a modded "tow mode" setting rather than the performance setting.
With that said the best I could get, on a weak roll out launch, was 13.9x in the 1/4 mile. Spare tire on board. Half tank of gas. Crappy California 91 octane gas. 71k on stock motor down to plugs/wire and clutch fan. More or less stock ECM tune. H-rated M+S tires. They didn't share the trap speed and the winds were all over the place on that air strip.
The gear-hold, instant redline upshifts, and instant downshifts made it absolutely magical in the slalom and roadcourse. Aside from the Jeep, I think I was the only automatic there. I still need to tweak the torque converter lock ups. As of now I'm allowing the TCM to apply gradual pressure as stock, but I need to give it a more on/off adjustment...it'll keep it cooler too.
Which I might add, using the stock trans cooler, in 80 weather with serious all over the place winds, factory clutch engine fan, lots of idle heat soaking, the trans didn't overheat a bit. Mind you this is after a 40hr, 3000 mile, straight across the country, 75mph + (100 in New Mexico ) carrying a FULL gear/luggage and three people. I'd still recommend a cooler upgrade, but the larger transmission body and fluid capacity came in handy.
I'm gonna spend some time to tune the ECM more when I get back home. Driving and other event details limited my time to only make adjustments for the CAI (so as not to go lean. Thanks Karch!) and throttle ramping to kick in Power Enrichment sooner.
Soo much information was gained...so there is SOOO much information to go through. And as I'm still on the road, have waiting orders to fulfill, the TBSS Northeast Regionals to prepare for, and personal matters to address once I get home...this will indeed be a challenge to get to my high standard of 'perfect'.
Well we didn't win...not enough time to iron out all the wrinkles, but we got a LOT of learning lessons on the TBSS, met some great people and had fun. 1 Jeep and 2 Fords (the Procharged Jeep SRT8 stomped everyone!) and not a single Chevy won. If we get the opportunity to come next year, we'll be prepared and WILL win!
BIG thanks to Nordstroms Automotive, Wayne Jones Performance Engineering, EBC Brakes, ColdAirInductions.com, SuspensionMAXX, and Classic Tubes. No way would we have been able to get it done without their sponsorship.
This is our TOTALLY spur of the moment, off the cuff interview. I forgot to mention Nordstrom Automotive's and Wayne Jones Performance Engineering sponsorship! :doh: You can see the other competitor's interviews as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yh0sb4yCto&NR=1
I worked out driveability bugs on the way out. What's plaguing me is that there are dozens of 6L80/90 TCM files and Operating Systems (OS) that must be matched up with specific ECM files. I was working with '09 OS's this time around, which are significantly different than '08 and '07. Each OS, within each model year, has different settings and parameters. Some you can tune, some you cannot. I'm working with EFILive to allow me to override some settings so that I can have ONE set of tuning that can be universally flashed in all TCM's.
The particular 6L90 TCM OS that I was working with is nothing like the 6L80 TCM OS I have in the 6L80. The "usual suspect" settings can't simply be copied and pasted. So the truck refused to give me a braked launch above 1400 RPM's bc it still essentially thinks it's in a 2500 HD truck. I had ONE magic moment when I got an AWD chirping spin launch, but then Torque Management turned the dash into a 4th of July event and sent the truck into limp mode HARD.
Another monkey wrench is that there are five or so pre-configured shift algorithms/settings in the TCM. I think I may have had a modded "tow mode" setting rather than the performance setting.
With that said the best I could get, on a weak roll out launch, was 13.9x in the 1/4 mile. Spare tire on board. Half tank of gas. Crappy California 91 octane gas. 71k on stock motor down to plugs/wire and clutch fan. More or less stock ECM tune. H-rated M+S tires. They didn't share the trap speed and the winds were all over the place on that air strip.
The gear-hold, instant redline upshifts, and instant downshifts made it absolutely magical in the slalom and roadcourse. Aside from the Jeep, I think I was the only automatic there. I still need to tweak the torque converter lock ups. As of now I'm allowing the TCM to apply gradual pressure as stock, but I need to give it a more on/off adjustment...it'll keep it cooler too.
Which I might add, using the stock trans cooler, in 80 weather with serious all over the place winds, factory clutch engine fan, lots of idle heat soaking, the trans didn't overheat a bit. Mind you this is after a 40hr, 3000 mile, straight across the country, 75mph + (100 in New Mexico ) carrying a FULL gear/luggage and three people. I'd still recommend a cooler upgrade, but the larger transmission body and fluid capacity came in handy.
I'm gonna spend some time to tune the ECM more when I get back home. Driving and other event details limited my time to only make adjustments for the CAI (so as not to go lean. Thanks Karch!) and throttle ramping to kick in Power Enrichment sooner.
Soo much information was gained...so there is SOOO much information to go through. And as I'm still on the road, have waiting orders to fulfill, the TBSS Northeast Regionals to prepare for, and personal matters to address once I get home...this will indeed be a challenge to get to my high standard of 'perfect'.
06-01-2011, 11:07 PM
#4
Launching!
Thread Starter
Made it to California with little incident...a little over 12.5hrs until competition. I think I covered all the bases. New 20x10's on 275's, new fluids (front diff, steering, race brake, engine, trans), new race rotors/pads, CAI, Cat-back, race sway bar links/bushings, and frame braces. Still working on that perfect 6L90 shift tune.
Well we didn't win...not enough time to iron out all the wrinkles, but we got a LOT of learning lessons on the TBSS, met some great people and had fun. 1 Jeep and 2 Fords (the Procharged Jeep SRT8 stomped everyone!) and not a single Chevy won. If we get the opportunity to come next year, we'll be prepared and WILL win!
This is our TOTALLY spur of the moment, off the cuff interview. I forgot to mention Nordstrom Automotive's and Wayne Jones Performance Engineering sponsorship! :doh: You can see the other competitor's interviews as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yh0sb4yCto&NR=1
I worked out driveability bugs on the way out. What's plaguing me is that there are dozens of 6L80/90 TCM files and Operating Systems (OS) that must be matched up with specific ECM files. I was working with '09 OS's this time around, which are significantly different than '08 and '07. Each OS, within each model year, has different settings and parameters. Some you can tune, some you cannot. I'm working with EFILive to allow me to override some settings so that I can have ONE set of tuning that can be universally flashed in all TCM's.
The particular 6L90 TCM OS that I was working with is nothing like the 6L80 TCM OS I have in the 6L80. The "usual suspect" settings can't simply be copied and pasted. So the truck refused to give me a braked launch above 1400 RPM's bc it still essentially thinks it's in a 2500 HD truck. I had ONE magic moment when I got an AWD chirping spin launch, but then Torque Management turned the dash into a 4th of July event and sent the truck into limp mode HARD.
Another monkey wrench is that there are five or so pre-configured shift algorithms/settings in the TCM. I think I may have had a modded "tow mode" setting rather than the performance setting.
With that said the best I could get, on a weak roll out launch, was 13.9x in the 1/4 mile. Spare tire on board. Half tank of gas. Crappy California 91 octane gas. 71k on stock motor down to plugs/wire and clutch fan. More or less stock ECM tune. H-rated M+S tires. They didn't share the trap speed and the winds were all over the place on that air strip.
The gear-hold, instant redline upshifts, and instant downshifts made it absolutely magical in the slalom and roadcourse. Aside from the Jeep, I think I was the only automatic there. I still need to tweak the torque converter lock ups. As of now I'm allowing the TCM to apply gradual pressure as stock, but I need to give it a more on/off adjustment...it'll keep it cooler too.
Which I might add, using the stock trans cooler, in 80 weather with serious all over the place winds, factory clutch engine fan, lots of idle heat soaking, the trans didn't overheat a bit. Mind you this is after a 40hr, 3000 mile, straight across the country, 75mph + (100 in New Mexico ) carrying a FULL gear/luggage and three people. I'd still recommend a cooler upgrade, but the larger transmission body and fluid capacity came in handy.
I'm gonna spend some time to tune the ECM more when I get back home. Driving and other event details limited my time to only make adjustments for the CAI (so as not to go lean. Thanks Karch!) and throttle ramping to kick in Power Enrichment sooner.
Soo much information was gained...so there is SOOO much information to go through. And as I'm still on the road, have waiting orders to fulfill, the TBSS Northeast Regionals to prepare for, and personal matters to address once I get home...this will indeed be a challenge to get to my high standard of 'perfect'.
Well we didn't win...not enough time to iron out all the wrinkles, but we got a LOT of learning lessons on the TBSS, met some great people and had fun. 1 Jeep and 2 Fords (the Procharged Jeep SRT8 stomped everyone!) and not a single Chevy won. If we get the opportunity to come next year, we'll be prepared and WILL win!
This is our TOTALLY spur of the moment, off the cuff interview. I forgot to mention Nordstrom Automotive's and Wayne Jones Performance Engineering sponsorship! :doh: You can see the other competitor's interviews as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yh0sb4yCto&NR=1
I worked out driveability bugs on the way out. What's plaguing me is that there are dozens of 6L80/90 TCM files and Operating Systems (OS) that must be matched up with specific ECM files. I was working with '09 OS's this time around, which are significantly different than '08 and '07. Each OS, within each model year, has different settings and parameters. Some you can tune, some you cannot. I'm working with EFILive to allow me to override some settings so that I can have ONE set of tuning that can be universally flashed in all TCM's.
The particular 6L90 TCM OS that I was working with is nothing like the 6L80 TCM OS I have in the 6L80. The "usual suspect" settings can't simply be copied and pasted. So the truck refused to give me a braked launch above 1400 RPM's bc it still essentially thinks it's in a 2500 HD truck. I had ONE magic moment when I got an AWD chirping spin launch, but then Torque Management turned the dash into a 4th of July event and sent the truck into limp mode HARD.
Another monkey wrench is that there are five or so pre-configured shift algorithms/settings in the TCM. I think I may have had a modded "tow mode" setting rather than the performance setting.
With that said the best I could get, on a weak roll out launch, was 13.9x in the 1/4 mile. Spare tire on board. Half tank of gas. Crappy California 91 octane gas. 71k on stock motor down to plugs/wire and clutch fan. More or less stock ECM tune. H-rated M+S tires. They didn't share the trap speed and the winds were all over the place on that air strip.
The gear-hold, instant redline upshifts, and instant downshifts made it absolutely magical in the slalom and roadcourse. Aside from the Jeep, I think I was the only automatic there. I still need to tweak the torque converter lock ups. As of now I'm allowing the TCM to apply gradual pressure as stock, but I need to give it a more on/off adjustment...it'll keep it cooler too.
Which I might add, using the stock trans cooler, in 80 weather with serious all over the place winds, factory clutch engine fan, lots of idle heat soaking, the trans didn't overheat a bit. Mind you this is after a 40hr, 3000 mile, straight across the country, 75mph + (100 in New Mexico ) carrying a FULL gear/luggage and three people. I'd still recommend a cooler upgrade, but the larger transmission body and fluid capacity came in handy.
I'm gonna spend some time to tune the ECM more when I get back home. Driving and other event details limited my time to only make adjustments for the CAI (so as not to go lean. Thanks Karch!) and throttle ramping to kick in Power Enrichment sooner.
Soo much information was gained...so there is SOOO much information to go through. And as I'm still on the road, have waiting orders to fulfill, the TBSS Northeast Regionals to prepare for, and personal matters to address once I get home...this will indeed be a challenge to get to my high standard of 'perfect'.
