Alright ppl., my friend has a 98 Z-28 and he is on his SIXTH tranny rebuild and/or full tranny.

He's one of those ppl. who refuses to admit that he's wrong. I guess he's just toooo

But anyways, he ordered some upgraded parts for his stock 4L60E, and it STILL broke, and I've been telling him forever to step it up, but he's argued w/ me.........until now.

His arguement now, is that the 4L80E is too heavy

Could someone please tell me the weight difference, and the advantages and disadvantages to both????

I'm tryin to help him out, but w/o some good proof, he's just gonna keep wasting his dad's money

-Will

 

How much power is he making? A properly setup/well built 4L60E should last for a long, long time behind 400rwhp as long as temps are kept under 200* and the fluid is changed often. If he's willing to lighten the car up, it'll go even longer. Even at stock weight though, he should get MANY thousands of miles out of a well built 4L60E with proper maintenance and 400rwhp or less.

 

the 4L80E weighs about 30-40 pounds more i believe (im not positive about this), requires a whole lot of hammering and fabrication to fit and has a DEAD 2.48:1 first gear as opposed to the 3.06:1 first gear in the 4L60E. The 4L80 is nothing but a GIANT TH-400 with an extra gear for overdrive (same ratios).

you probably wont break one, but with the money you use up buying the trans, making it fit, fabricating stuff to put it all together and building up some power to actually turn the thing, you could have a near-BULLETPROOF 4L60E.

IMO, its not worth the effort.

 

Tell your firend to buy a PROFESSIONALLY built 4l60E...dont rebuild it yourself and don't scrimp on the price. A good 4l60E is going to be over $2000 (with core) about anywhere. Build it right once and it should last for a long time (several seasons) if maintained. A whole lot better than R&R'ing the ******* trany 6 times. By the way, your friend is either stupid, cheap, or has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on his hands to go pulling the tranny 6 times!!!

SDB

 

Thanks guys. He KEEPS losing 3rd and 4th in his 4l60e. There is some company from out in Texas (not sure whom) that he's been lookin at getting to build it....

What would ya'll suggest as far a building up a 4l60e?

-Will

 

so he's burning up the 3-4 clutch pack.....tell him to try using Raybestos "blue plate special" clutches...to my knowledge they are some of the best out there.

 

Rossler custom machines a special set of 3-4 clutches for the 4l60E

 

I went through 9 stage 2-3 trannies in about 10 months. I kept reusing the same 3 units and I had them built buy different builders. I had every aftermarket part possible and I tried alto reds / blue plate specials / and some other crap.
Some of these trannies would not even last 50 miles and some as much as 1000

After loosing my mind I picked up a tranny with 50,000 miles( (Deep Blue Z`s stock unit actually) that had a broken sunshell. This time I would try something different. we put this together as close to stock as possible . hi energy clutches exept the 3-4 ones we put the new Z-Pak . It is 15 single sided clutches. New kevlar band all new seals and gastkets. I didnt even put in a shift kit. I broke 2 drums using a shift kit in the other trannys
After 2500 miles / 100 passes and just about that many od to 2nd downshifts/ 10 dyno pulls I feel alot of that extra heavy duty parts are just possible problems. Stock trannys work great. There are alot of guys running 10`s on stock units.
It is easy to get sucked into buying all these extra parts too. The way they are presented to you make you think that you need them.
BTW i have 431 hp through a unlocked converter in a 3600 # car. Unless your friend if making alot more than that he should be fine with a setp simular to mine
If he upgrades anything I would stick to the beast sunshell , clutches and a band.
Stay away from

Billiet servos.
Hardened input shaft and drum

I have had multiple problems with these.

Anyway this is just my opinion
Hope some of this helps
Im sure there are plenty of other opinions out there but I did have alot of exerience with these. I know there are plenty of guys that have all these parts and no issues but Ican only speak about what has worked for me.

A 4l65 like deep blue z has is a good option also . The 4l80 seems like alot of work But im sure that might be a more expensive option also.

 

Is the deal maybe that billet servos make the
clutches hold and you break something hard,
where a "wimpy" stock servo lets the clutches
slip and protects the gears/shafts/shell/whatever?

If so then I guess you'd just want clutches that
tolerate more heat, and not much more "grabby"?
More clutches and steels would hopefully spread
the heat out (if they share properly) and lower
the point temperatures?

Interesting.

 

Ive heard the billet servos can punch a hole in the band. It never happened to me but i did have some sealing problems with them.

 

I am having to have my 4l60E rebuilt after 7000 miles. I have pretty much all aftermarket or upgraded parts. Seems somehow I have a hole through a band which in turn made my 4th gear piston extend to far tearing that seal. My clutches got fried. Wish I had it in there less than a year Don't drive it much though. Sucks man costing me $900 to get it freshened up.

 

A 4L60E weighs 135lbs and a 4L80E weighs 180lbs,I broke 6 built 4L60Es and decided enough was enough sure you have a tall 1st gear and you'll lose 7-10rwhp using a 4L80E,but a stock 4L80E is stronger than a built 4L60E and built one can take about 1200hp.I believe that the closer gear spacing with the 4L80E with appropriate rear gearing will more than make up for the added weight and slight hp loss by keeping the engine in the best part of the power curve for a longer percentage of the time,plus 4th becomes a usable gear,capable of WOT shifts,mine barks the tires at 100mph with my 4.56 gears.

 

screw it. if he has enough money for 6 4l60e rebuilds, put in a century 200R4 and be done. still have over drive, and it won't break. thats about the only thing that my friend hasn't broken on his 422 stroker.