WAHUSKER

iTrader: (4)

In case you are wondering if your 4L60E can be built to take a lot of punishment, here is a blurb from another thread about what mine has withstood.....

WOWZERS! That's impressive Ellis. We need to post some pics of your POS tranny in the transmission forum. And people say you can't make a 4L60E stand up to 800hp....and you didn't even do ALL of your secret mods.

I did some rough figuring based on the number of events I attended:

Year 1 with 500hp cammed motor running 12s - 6 CCC races, 5 TnT, = ~ 75 passes
Year 2 with 800hp blown stroker motor running 10s - 11 CCC races, 1 pro event, 3 TnT = ~ 100 passes
Dyno runs = ~ 50

So it survived ~ 175 1/4 mile passes, 50 dyno pulls, plus ~ 5k miles of driving, and who knows how many test runs on the road. And it still looks like new inside? Not too shabby Master Groo.




So IMO you don't "need" to go thru all the headaches of changing over to a 700R4 or a 4L80E or ____.

PS We pulled it because it was leaking and I have a big car show March 2. The leak was from the front & rear seals - caused by me leaving the tranny mount bolt loose and then going racing.

Joel_SS

iTrader: (8)

How high were you spinning the motor?

97blkz

iTrader: (1)

I've been running my car with a 60E for 2 years now, no failures. The bulider has a 4800lb truck in the 11's on a 60E. He is now building a 8 second car with..........yeah a 60E. Not undoable but not many builders actually know WTF they are doing.

TWS

iTrader: (63)

The race-built 4L60E in my '94 survived 3 years of going to the track regularly. 1 year behind a H/C LT1 running mid 12's. 1 year behind a H/C 355 LT1 that ran a best of 11.90. 1 year behind a 385 LT4 that ran a best of 10.86. Probably 80-100 passes/year each year.

It was working perfect, but we pulled it out and fortified it with parts that were not available 3 years ago (it was "built to the hilt" by 2003 standards) because I am preparing to drop in my Port Pros 396 LT4 which should put the car easily mid 10's NA. We'll see how she holds up this time.

Damage Inc.

iTrader: (7)

Have faith in the 4L6Xs.

WAHUSKER

iTrader: (4)

Nice to see others are having success too. I keep getting questions so I thought I would post.

For those that wonder, you DO have to make several mods like z paks, the Beast, corvette servos, vacuum modulator, 5 gear planetarys, etc. But it can be done. And if you use synthetic fluid (I run Royal Purple) and a tranny cooler a 4L60E will live a long time.

I know. My car makes some pretty serious power & I torture it.

TWS

iTrader: (63)

WAHUSKER,

I have the "beast" sunshell, biggest reinforced band we can get, the Art Carr drum, hardened quick reaction shaft, 5-element planetary gear set (4L65E in the Escalade), and the best clutches and steels we could get. That's just some of the **** I bought, I'm not a tranny expert, so I'm sure I'm leaving some parts out.

BlackHawk T/A

iTrader: (3)

That's interesting, because a lot of the top builders say the synthetics are bad because they are too slippery but I won't doubt your success if you ran it that much without a problem. They also say the Borg Warner clutches are better than the Z-Pak for high-power applications...

Montec

iTrader: (3)

Good to hear!

WAHUSKER

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, I hear a lot of "experts" say not to run synth in the tranny & the rear end. I run nothing but RP throughout the car with no breakage or unusual wear problems. What can I say, it works for me. And I'll be in Omaha in mid August blackhawk. Any racing going on then?

LorcinLs1

I wish I could have half that luck, mine failed after only 11 passes

RooRnZ28

iTrader: (14)

where can we find one of these trannies??

Wordski

By 5 gear planetarys, do you mean 5 pinion gears on the carrier instead of the normal 4 that these originaly came with?I just started a auto trans class at my local college and guess what our teachers choice of transmission is....
4l60E!!To pass the class you take it apart, rebuild it, put it on the dyno and it must shift through all the gears. If not, you take it apart and fix it till it works.

performabuilt

iTrader: (25)

Yes five pinion gears is what he means , As for finding a trans that will handle this any reputable company that specializes in these units or you can do the studying and learn to do them yourself.
The big issue with 4l60e transmissions is this they get a bad rap 1 from builders who claim they can build one but more so from the people that own them putting so much power in front of the stock trans and expecting it to hold , Its really no different with the t56 you put alot of power with the stock clutch and it will kill the stock clutch and eventually the trans to , The trans is at least as important as any other mod you make just for some reason most people who think nothing of dropping several grand on a turbo, blower or nos at the same time have a cow when its time to put in or build a trans to handle it so it gets called junk ,No matter what you do to the engine you have to keep in mind the trans was built for the stock engine and its power and in that area it does very well but when you do any build up the trans must handle whatever you throw at it and it to must be upgraded though not as fun as a turbo its a nessesity

T/A KID

iTrader: (12)

I was scared to do a 4L60E, I just got my built 4L80E about 2 days ago.

97blkz

iTrader: (1)

Why corvette servo, they come stock in our cars?

Ls1Envy

iTrader: (6)

With the Zpack that they sell, do you have to buy the steels seperate?

performabuilt

iTrader: (25)

no the Zpak is a completely self contained set no extras to buy

97blkz

iTrader: (1)

So 10% of the race community now believes the 60E is good enough for 10 second passes. We have our work cut out.

WAHUSKER

iTrader: (4)

My builder is up here by Seattle & isn't a sponsor so I can't say too much. But his car runs 10.0s, and so does one of the mods cars on here that runs one. I took a look at the Performabuilt website & his trannies are similar to how mine is setup. A few differences, not including the tricks that neither will talk about.

I'm only trying to say don't be afraid of them, they will take it if you do it properly.

Nice times 97blkz!!!