PapaSmurf2005

We were doing a trans swap today since we think the issue I have is the trans. After taking the converter off and dumping the fluid from it, we noticed that a lot of fluid had gone out of it... actually all that we could see came out. Now the guy that built my trans seems to think this may be a problem. Is this bad when this happens?

The converter has already been rebuilt once (EDGE Racing 3600 n20 converter), it went to crap and took my other trans with it. So I had the trans rebuilt and while doing that sent the converter back to EDGE Racing so they could fix it. We are hoping the issue was the trans and not the converter again.

PapaSmurf2005

I talked to the tech at EDGE. From what he was saying this is normal for their converters. They are designed so almost all of the fluid will come out, it will look like it all came out but there would still be some left in there. I'm still up in the air about it though, sounds weird to me. Only time will tell.

performabuilt

iTrader: (25)

I have noticed with the small diameter converters that you can pour virtually all the fluid I doubt thats where your problem is.

FLT

iTrader: (1)

I'm not a converter guy, but to me if the oil all pours out fairly quickly then what is happening when it is in the car not running? I'm thinking excessive converter drain back could be an issue. I have seen stock/oem converters do this on the dyno when the trans is on it's side over night. When you remove the trans from the machine the converter is pretty much empty. I have never however had this happen with the VIG converters for the 4l60e. What kind of trans are we talking about here?

Gilbert@Ace Racing

I too would like to know which transmission we are talking about. But most importantly...what were the symptoms that led you to believe you had a transmission problem in the 1st place? And also, what did your builder find when he opened it up, if he has yet.

g

PapaSmurf2005

The trans is from my 2005 GTO.... 4l65e. It was built by a local shop and everyone that I have known that has one of his trans has had great luck with it.

Everything worked great for around 4000 miles. After that one day I went for a drive and it just downshifted into 3rd from 4th for no reason at all. Then it wouldn't go into 4th at all. Long story short the only gear I had after that short drive was 2nd. I had then taken the car to the shop the next day where he tore it apart and found nothing wrong with it. He then dumped the fluid out of the converter which was full of metal flakes. We then rebuilt the trans and sent the converter back to EDGE where they rebuilt it for free. We also cleaned out all the lines, etc.

After getting everything back in it all worked well for a few days and I put 400 or so miles on it. Then while taking my friend back to his house the shifts got very soft, almost to where you couldn't feel them. So to test out the trans I took it down to 50MPH (on the freeway) and went WOT. The car downshifted pretty slow and not very firm. Then it would not shift into 3rd, RPM's got up to 7200 and I finally let off the gas and it shifted. Since then it will sporadically up/downshift under a good load. So the shop built me another trans on a different core and we swapped it out yesterday.

We just found it strange for the converter to dump that amount of fluid. I myself and the shop have talked to EDGE, they assure us that this is normal for their converters. Hopefully it was the trans and this one works just fine.

The builder does not have time to crack the old one open till next week sometime. He will email pics of what he finds.

performabuilt

iTrader: (25)

Well good luck but one thing is for sure unless the pump is bad the only way you can get metal from inside the converter is from the converter.

PapaSmurf2005

As I said it was rebuilt befor we reinstalled it, along with the trans. All the lines were flushed a few times befor it was all put back together. There was very little metal shavings at the bottom of the pan, I almost didn't see them at first and the converter fluid was clean as can be when it was dumped. My only concern was that it seemed that all the fluid came out of the converter which we didn't think to be normal. Though the EDGE converters are designed to do that.