I've seen WAHUSKER and several other cars running Speed Secrets trannies...all of them with well over 500 horspower. I never doubted the tranny....just wish I still lived there so I could get one of Ellis's trannies.

 

Secret tricks.....I understand about having that edge, but when it comes down to being broke like myself, It kind of sucks, b/c the guy going to build my unit is going by the parts and mods I want. He's been out of the game for a few years so he's kind of limited to what I can tell him. So I guess I'm limited to whatever I can dig up on this board.......bleh, dumb secrets

 

Thanks ,not so shabby yourself and your car looks great!

 

It would be dumb for Co's to give a way there edge as others would just copy. R&D is time consuming and eats money up.

 

These Companies are not doing anything revolutionary or breakthrough that someone else dosent know about. It's just a matter of what one builder likes and what he doesnt. This transmission can only be put together one way, it's just these little mods or tweaks and quality of parts that separates them. I doubt there spending any significant amount of money on R&D work. There not developing new parts, there rebuilding an already finished product

 

they dont work for long at 800 horsepower.simple mathematics dictate apply area clamping force .the 3rd apply piston is too small ,the clutch pack is under capacity and jacking up the pressure dumps the snap ring.10.5s all year is tuff on one let alone the 9s.theguys who are making these claims are pulling the transmissionout every 2 or 3 weeks.i know because we supply the billet parts and if your not breaking the input and output shaft theconverters too loose or your not as powerful as you think.a 9.90 car is lucky to get 50 ***** out passes with the 4l60e before eating the 3rd clutch .and the zpack was independently tested by us before it was released.frank slocum at raybestos and al (cargo industries) were not too happy with what i did too it with a turbocharged buick 6 cylinder in the 86 olds cutlass test car.

 

What if a Co had a way to increase clamping force?

 

how many of you running 10s or faster daily drive your 4L60? How many put 10K+ on a year? I'd be willing to bet not many. Thats why a 4L80 would be the only one to go in my car. Its not about being able to make 200 1/4 mile passes, which equals 50 miles btw, its about withstanding daily driving and track passes.

 

Racing and launching a car is way harder on a trans than everyday driving. I do not drive my car everyday because I have a little 4 cyl Sentra for that. I have 7k on this trans with maybe 60 passes.

 

I'm aware of that but there is also a lot of wear and tear in stop and go traffic. I just wouldnt want to run a 4L60 in my daily driver since I wouldnt be able to afford down time from a busted trans. I'd much rather have a 4L80 that will take SERIOUS abuse at the track and plenty of daily driving.

Also how many of the people running 4L60s in the 10s have 3800# cars?

 

What's wrong with the car?

 

It's a land yacht. See the race wt in my sig? (4125lbs) I also show the car & like it comfy for cruising.

And Ellis did a few more tricks to increase the shifts, and make it hit a little harder. So maybe with the 2 more lbs of boost I hope it has this year it will run a single.....but only once.

As for the request for what these tricks are, sorry, it's how my builder makes his money, no can do.

 

increasing clamping force is done by adding more square inch area to the apply side of the piston to multiply clamping force.problem is this in conjunction with higher line pressure dumps the snap ring out of the drum.starting with a brand new drum that has no stress in the snap ring area obviously is a good idea but the material that retains the ring on the end of the drum is too thin and weak.using the larger 350 frictions causes even more problems because now inadequate clamping force is being told to hold down a larger object.this causes burning of the friction elements as well as the steel plates that ground them to the input housing.as far as secret mods i doubt its anything we havent heard about already.i was the first person to make an oversize apply piston and drum before the ls1 stuff even came out.we had a steel billet input drum with a larger 3rd piston for the typhoon and syclone crowd however after its introduction(5 pieces) no one was willing to spendthe money so we scrapped it.i also made a 2.66 first gear set that gave the trans a second chance,no one wanted that either.now it seems that the ls1 crowd is in need of these parts.

 

i ran 11.90 in a 3400 pound car for year and a half about 80 passes, then went with a 10.80, for about another 50 passes, many street runs spraying overdrive to the rev limitor...
quite a few mid 1.55 to 1.50 60'

 

Again, what's wrong with the car? My car is full stock weight + 17's + roll bar + intercooler + water tank + turbo + SFC's + 9" + etc. . . and doesn't weigh that much.

 

I ahve pounded on our 4L60E also and it hasn't missed a beat. I was not going to give up the OD like many do because we drive the car quite a bit and don't own a trailer. We rarely miss a bracket or index race that's within 75 miles of our house.

Getting one that's built right, keeping the fluid cool and maintaining the tranny is the key to making them live.

We've got over 170 passes on this tranny and they were high 9 to low 10 second passes.

I'm a believer!

 

i went through all the z-paks, reys you can have.

I want to know what temp ya'll are keeping your trans, how much oil and to what rpm are ya'll shifting at?

I had to rebuild mine with a 408ci infront of it about three times in one year for me to realize that this trans is not built for this. There seems to be ppl having good luck with them, but, i want to see how many street drive it, more than 100 miles a week please, through hot days, stop and go, AND race their trans. Its not a matter of how its gonna go, its when. The 60e is like a porsche.. "Bad design engineered to perfection"

 

The key to having a durable 4L60E is creating additional clutch surface area in the 2-3 drum area. Rossler has patented several surface area related modifications to the 4L60E because he has proven they can be built to last. There are serveral upgrades he does that are above and beyond just adding the best clutches. I did that when I was H/C and it worked for a good while, but those trannys were short lived.

I do have all the upgraded hard parts except for the hardened input/output shafts and a deep tranny pan. I also keep the fluid clean and fresh (cheap insurance).

I too got tired of patching trannys together and knew the 408 was going to devour those trannys so I made a call and got it done right.

We rarely miss a bracket or index race and the shifts land very close to the rpm I have them set at. I should have sent the Rossler back in during the off season for refreshening, but there's no signs of fatigue and maintenance has been performed regularly so I'm going with it

FWIW- It does cost a bit up front, but we have pulled 1.2X 60fts and have run multiple high 9s/10.0s so it's a damn solid tranny.

Maybe I just got lucky

 

There's a 4300lb Impala SS on the impala board that runs a 4L60e and he runs 9.6s @146mph. I'd have to ask him how often he drives it on the street, but I dont think he goes through many of them. Most of the time he ends up shredding blower belts.

 

There seems to be only a few builders who can do it, OBz you just need to ask those who have done it who built it.