I detect a bit of professional jealousy.

I've seen your posts and it's obvious you are not here just to help. You work for a competitor or you're trying to backdoor the forum. I don't really have any issue either way but if you are going to throw stones, be prepared for the fallout.

That 20 yr old who has been working at my shop for nearly a year now probably has more working knowledge of a 4L80E powerflow and hydraulics than most seasoned builders, beside being involved in more 4L80E builds in his 11 months of employment than many builders will ever do.

He interviewed and wanted the job. He showed enthusiasm then that he still shows here by helping others. I am in fact a paying sponsor here, so if one of my employees wants to post helping others and pointing them our way, that's reasonable. I could just let him use the company username.

Stephen spent his time "in the trenches" exclusively doing teardown, cleaning, prep, shipping duties, etc and still does all those things.
I developed all the mods we do, many of the parts we use, and a specific, repeatable, build process that I can (and have) take almost anybody off the street and have them build units with a few months of training. Our build process also allows oversight by myself and my shop manager.
MOST of the 4L80E's are actually not built by Stephen although he is fully capable. Most are built by Mike.

In response to the original question,
if the converter had 1/4" of clearance, it may not have been engaged or fully engaged in the pump causing damage.
Each unit is dyno tested before they leave and must meet minimum pressure specs, which vary by build level.

I've seen odd cases but a no movement condition on startup, assuming full fluid, is almost always a converter installation issue.

 

I want to clarify this too.

Filling with fluid is a seemingly simple task but we VERY often have to instruct customers how to do this.

The above is NOT what we recommend.
There is a dipstick and there is a reason for it. Use it.

Pour some fluid in the converter. 1 cup or 1 qt, jut something so it doesn't start up dry.
Install the converter and trans.
Once it's all in and ready to go, add 4 qts to the trans. Start the vehicle and you will immediately install another 4 qts minimum on almost ANY install. THEN you proceed to check and add as needed until it is FULL.

If you add more than 4-5 qts before you start it, it will overflow out the vent tube, because the pan is full and it begins to fill the case and internals.
Once you start it, the pump sucks all the fluid out of the pan almost instantaneously and fills the converter, cooler, etc.

A dry install with a 4L80E and 245mm converter will take approx 14 qts total usually. But you can't just pour 14 qts in and fire it up.

There is also not a set amount of fluid needed for a given transmission. Converter size, pan depth, cooler and line size, residual fluid from dyno, etc.

 

I already live the "American Dream", so "Jealous", I think not. 18yrs. in the business with 15 of those years (and counting) running my own shop in sunny Oceanside California. I already have what I need and can provide for my family thru honesty and good works I provide to my costumers so, I'm proud to say I envy no one. Since my insignificant post was enough to ruffle your feathers, I assume you are not there yet.

I came across LS1TECH thru an F-Body car event called L.A Invasion. Since I am ASE certified and a member of the ATRA, I thought it fit to join and give insight on parts, vendors, and tips to enthusiastic DIY builders. Expecting a fraternity between transmission techs and those interested in an open forum discussion on the inner workings and fundamentals of transmission building, found it was more of a marketing scheme to pan handle parts for someone in search of the "American Dream" (mostly coming from your builder).

I have not come to infiltrate LS1TECH as you mentioned. I have not tried to sell my services or even dissuade costumers from going to your shop. Your paranoia says it all, you are a beginner in your business and I struck a nerve. For that I do apologize. In regards to your crash course in transmission building, NASA also teaches monkeys how to fly planes but, I would not go as far as to call them pilots.

 

Your original post says it all too well. I don't really have to say anything more about the jealousy part, it's quite obvious.

I'm ASE Master Auto (since I was 20 yrs old) with L1 as well as Master Machinist, so your ASE certification doesn't impress me and has little to do with what you've done in the industry.

I've developed multiple unique parts for several transmissions and while I'm not making it rich off the transmission business, I do OK. Our recent move to an 11,000 sq/ft facility indicates that quite well.

My 20 yr old builder would work circles around you on the units he's trained on. He probably knows more about the hydraulics of a TH400 or 4L80E than you will ever know.

Another point is when a customer calls my shop, they actually talk to a TECH, not a salesman. All the people who answer the phone are actual builders.

I've been in this industry for quite a while. 18 years ago I was in the industry and after my stint in the military I returned to it full time. I know guys who have been in the industry for 40+ yrs but they are just rebuilders, not innovators. Probably describes you as well.

As a paying vendor on this site with an excellent reputation all around, your immature jealous post about my employees is offensive. If you've been in the industry for 18 years, at some point in time you've probably hired young talent.

I can assure you, and others, that many big name shops have young builders trained from zero experience. This happens in all types of industry. The military is a good example and where some of my training technique comes from.
An 18 yr old civilian fresh out of High School can be a special operator in an elite unit in 6-7 months if they have the desire.
If I can train a kid to do that, training them to build 2-3 different transmissions is a cakewalk.

 

Braiden, I'm sure you meant no offense, but you unknowingly took a swing at the most highly regarded trans expert not only on this forum, but every GM forum. For example, here is one of Jake's posts detailing the 4l80E on the 2nd Gen Camaro forum:

http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=189539

Notice that he has more than 8000 posts on just that forum over a period of 13 years. I know he also participates on many other GM auto and truck forums and is highly regarded on every one of them. I defend him because I have read hundreds of his posts on various forums, and have learned a great deal from them.

I hope you will participate on this forum and answer questions as your time allows. You will see that this really is a "fraternity between transmission techs and those interested" as you hope.
And I hope I didn't offend anyone.

 

you def have a pressure problem
i found some old figs i took using the HD-3 man shift kit, with a vac mod. conn and disc.
1200 rpm
P-165/105
R-170/150
N-165/105
D-60/55
3-95/85
2-100/90
1-95/85

 

What gets me is there is a guy with a real problem with a transmission he spent his hard earned money on and you two are having a dick waving battle. Take that **** to PM. Help the guy with his transmission. He didn't get it for free.

 

You mentioned a 1/4" gap, which is on the high side. Did you measure it precisely at 1/4", e.g. with a 1/4" drill bit, or just estimated it? A precise measurement combined with the converter brand/model might help one of the experts here give you a definitive answer.

 

The customer has already contacted us and we are working to resolve his issue.

However I'm not going to sit idly by while some hater wants to talk trash without reason about my employees or business where I pay "hard earned money" for advertisement.

braiden1 is not a customer and had nothing positive to add to the thread.

If a customer has issue with us and wants to come on here and air the grievance, that is reasonable, but it's not reasonable for some other shop to come on here and spout off because they have inferiority issues.

 

Yikes, don't know why I had to get brought up. Braiden, I have maybe made one post directed towards you in the short time you have been here. What have you really contributed to the forum? I'm not afraid to showcase what I know and what I've learned since I started this job. I started knowing nothing and have spent countless days/evenings/nights studying, building, diagnosing, reading, etc etc. I'm pretty satisfied with what I know.

I did not build Jason's unit, but I do appreciate the concern and I did build his transbrake

Jake is not just my boss, he's also my friend, and I can honestly say with pretty much no hesitation that he has contributed more to this industry than you probably have. I have yet to hear of the "Braiden1" transbrake or really anything "braiden1" related. Just sayin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯‎

Pissing match over, for anyone who doesn't think we do not care about Jason or are not trying to help him, think again. I know most people have no way of knowing the extent that we go to to give customer's the best service we can, but all I can ask is that you believe me when I say we do. We're working to get Jason back on the road as soon as possible.

 

All I can say is Jake and his employees have been very helpful to me and I even got help from two of them one holiday weekend.

Very knowledgeable and very helpful on transmission and converter issues or general questions/guidance.

 

I have been speaking to jake and mike over the past few days trouble shooting this issue. They have mentioned that the pressure control solenoid may be bad. Mike said to send it back to him so they can go through the Trans but Before I do that I spoke to him about changing the solenoid and he said to do it. So I just did it and added some fluid like jake said above the CORRECT way lol. Now the car wants to move forwards without any problems but reverse wants to go forwards too. I have only had the car running for a couple of minutes and I probably need to add a little more fluid but is this somewhat normal prior to fluid going through all the gears. Something came up and I had to leave to car for now but I'll try whatever you guys suggest when I return.

 

By the way I don't have the pressure gage at this time, wish I did.

 

Update... It tries to move forwards in all gears. It even moves forwards in park, won't move backwards though in park. It's easier to get it going in 1-4th, slmost feels mormal. It takes some gas to make it move in neutral-park. Shift linkage is fine too. When I rev up the motor it now feels like it has some resistance behind it unlike before with the low pressure.

 

Something with the tbrake?

 

The brake shouldn't have you moving forward in reverse, but are you engaging the brake when you try to go into reverse? That has to happen to get proper reverse function.

 

Yes, I've tried with it engaged and without it engaged.

 

It sounds like you may have an issue caused by the transbrake upgrade you did. I would get it back to us and let us go over it and be sure the valve body is installed correctly.

 

X2 for the tune

 

The tune looked fine according to the tuner, nothing abnormal after the segment swap.

Checked the pressure again last night and it was still low so I'm sending it back soon. I got to pull it today and I'm a pro now lol.