Why is there no support for 6L80 performance builds from RPM, FLT and others? I remember a few years back, I heard the 6L80s were junk? Years later I still see the performance 6L80 not offered. Are they THAT bad?

 

Biggest reason is while some upgraded parts are available, The primary driver of live or die and how they act is all about tuning and while recently a couple companies have started support that will allow retrofitting controllers it's still pretty new overall. Just my opinion and thoughts on the matter. I am thinking about building one to retro into my 95 ss this summer finances allowing but we shall see

 

Mr Frank, thanks for the years of info. I remember MANY of the older stickies with your posts. I appreciate the time you've put in for all of us 👍

Biggest reason I bring up the 6L80 is I'm looking for my next car to buy and mod. I love high stall converters and I wanted an LS3 vette but I'm not sure if that would be a good choice if there's no support for performance 6L80s out there. Almost thinking I maybe better off buying an 05, its already equipped with the 4L65 which every company has a performance trans for.
Should I be scared to buy something wit a 6L80? I've heard of 2 companies who supposedly build strong units.

 

I do not know how to advise you on the matter, Like I said finances allowing I hope to build a 6L80E for my impala this summer but it will be my first attempt at building a performance version of one. So I can only intelligently say more once that is accomplished and I find out the results ,
And THANK YOU

 

The honest answer is 3 fold

A. No Builder wants the hassle that will become a finger pointing debacle between the builder and the tuner. You can take a perfectly good, nice, new 6l80e...and an idiot with a laptop can fry the thing faster than you'd imagine. Or even if it doesn't get fried...it'll shift so poorly and feel like crap and the transmission customer will be unhappy with the builder. On the flip side a great tuner can take a pretty well stock 6L series unit and make it live under fairly impressive circumstances. Holding way more power than a stock unit should.
A.2 The average swap enthusiast or garage builder doesn't understand/want to mess with the tuning of one of these. Making sure they have the right ECU (prior to the holley release last week, the aftermarket support was limited at best). The 4l80e and 4l60e etc swaps were just flat out easier so that's where alot of the focus of the market has been.

B. They're already pretty good from the factory honestly. The weak points are the pump/vb leaks and sticky valves etc. That gets remedied in even stock units assuming a good builder is doing the work. Beyond that, the next week point is the 4/5/6 clutch. Which it is quite easy to add a friction there. And next is the 3/5/r clutch which again it's fairly easy to add a friction to. So, Stock clutch counts, or just 1 additional friction in 2 packs, and you're really on your way to having a unit that is SUPER capable of tq holding. So, the NEED for aftermarket builds/builders just hasn't been there because the starting point is decent already

C. age/cost. I lump these together. The trans (relatively speaking) is new. the 4l80e has been around for 15 years longer than the 6l80e. The 700r4/4l60e family has been around 25 years longer. The 4L80e is pretty closely based on the th400 which has been around for 50+ years longer than the 6l80e. That's ALOT of time for development relatively speaking. The 6l80e also has been pulling a premium from dealers and repair shops nationwide for stock rebuilds. It's not uncommon to see just a stock pickup/yukon/etc have a repair bill from 4-6k just for a stock rebuild and converter.

That is a long winded way to say...just hold tight. The 6l80e swap era is coming. Support and understanding are growing and I think we will see more and more pop up