Could find out if TEP trans are worth it
02-21-2012, 10:56 AM
#22
On The Tree
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Pleasantville, Ohio
Posts: 184
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Im not trying to bash him or anything i just think $3000 for a built trans is a little much. Ill trust the teacher since he works for GM and teaches about transmissions. Plus everyone says that it takes like 3-5 months for TEP to send a new trans out and since my car is a DD i cant wait that long.
02-17-2014, 04:22 PM
#23
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hey there,
I bought an 06 monte ss a few years ago that already had the cartuning turbo kit on it. After a couple of trannys from a local builder I bought the chain set and input shaft with reluctor wheel from cartuning performance and paid through the nose for it only to have to tear it apart as the bolts that hold the reluctor wheel to the input shaft broke . After the builder put it back together as told by cartuning performance (Loctite or tack the bolts ) it wasn't long before it grenaded and broke the $500 300m input shaft that cartuning sold me. Not real impressed with the parts and service there. I really need to find the best tranny for the money or sell the monte . Besides TEP who builds a transmission for this beast that lasts over 5 thousand KM ?
I bought an 06 monte ss a few years ago that already had the cartuning turbo kit on it. After a couple of trannys from a local builder I bought the chain set and input shaft with reluctor wheel from cartuning performance and paid through the nose for it only to have to tear it apart as the bolts that hold the reluctor wheel to the input shaft broke . After the builder put it back together as told by cartuning performance (Loctite or tack the bolts ) it wasn't long before it grenaded and broke the $500 300m input shaft that cartuning sold me. Not real impressed with the parts and service there. I really need to find the best tranny for the money or sell the monte . Besides TEP who builds a transmission for this beast that lasts over 5 thousand KM ?
02-18-2014, 03:23 PM
#24
On The Tree
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 172
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Guys, I hate to sound like I am beating the dead horse but you will not find a more knowledgeable 4T65e builder than Dave @ TEP. Period. Dave has no employees, does all the work himself. I took my GXP to him and found him to be very professional and he does a bang up job. He went out of his way to help diagnose a starter issue, with no additional charge.
I would buy the parts from TEP and have your friend install them. It will be much cheaper that way. Just make sure to use the parts Dave recommends, do NOT let someone else tell you "it's not necessary" to install one or more of the upgraded components, Dave is not going to sell you something you do not need.
I would buy the parts from TEP and have your friend install them. It will be much cheaper that way. Just make sure to use the parts Dave recommends, do NOT let someone else tell you "it's not necessary" to install one or more of the upgraded components, Dave is not going to sell you something you do not need.
02-21-2014, 07:53 PM
#25
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hey there Madcat ,
I really don't know if I want to buy the parts and have somebody else put it together and get in to a pissing match with the supplier and builder again. The last time I bought the parts from cartuning and had a local builder put it together and had to have it fixed once with the end result of an almost bulletproof input shaft breaking all within les than 8 thousand k on 2 rebuilds. This has been rebuilt 4 time in 3 years with over 10 k out of pocket and less than 20k on it . my bad for not doing my homework but now it's down to getting the best tranny possible or getting rid of it ...............Thanks for any help
I really don't know if I want to buy the parts and have somebody else put it together and get in to a pissing match with the supplier and builder again. The last time I bought the parts from cartuning and had a local builder put it together and had to have it fixed once with the end result of an almost bulletproof input shaft breaking all within les than 8 thousand k on 2 rebuilds. This has been rebuilt 4 time in 3 years with over 10 k out of pocket and less than 20k on it . my bad for not doing my homework but now it's down to getting the best tranny possible or getting rid of it ...............Thanks for any help
02-22-2014, 08:22 AM
#26
12 Second Club
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: S. FL to Philly ??
Posts: 382
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Montecarlo29,
How hard do you drive your car? Where you racing when it broke? Any neutral drops in there ?? Just trying to get more info - those 300m inputs are pretty tough and normally only the Turbo Fiero guys can break them. If it was put together shitty, that's another story.
I've had one in my built trans in my Turbo GXP for about 9 months now and no problems...
Where you at anyway?
How hard do you drive your car? Where you racing when it broke? Any neutral drops in there ?? Just trying to get more info - those 300m inputs are pretty tough and normally only the Turbo Fiero guys can break them. If it was put together shitty, that's another story.
I've had one in my built trans in my Turbo GXP for about 9 months now and no problems...
Where you at anyway?
02-25-2014, 12:10 PM
#27
On The Tree
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 172
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hey there Madcat ,
I really don't know if I want to buy the parts and have somebody else put it together and get in to a pissing match with the supplier and builder again. The last time I bought the parts from cartuning and had a local builder put it together and had to have it fixed once with the end result of an almost bulletproof input shaft breaking all within les than 8 thousand k on 2 rebuilds. This has been rebuilt 4 time in 3 years with over 10 k out of pocket and less than 20k on it . my bad for not doing my homework but now it's down to getting the best tranny possible or getting rid of it ...............Thanks for any help
I really don't know if I want to buy the parts and have somebody else put it together and get in to a pissing match with the supplier and builder again. The last time I bought the parts from cartuning and had a local builder put it together and had to have it fixed once with the end result of an almost bulletproof input shaft breaking all within les than 8 thousand k on 2 rebuilds. This has been rebuilt 4 time in 3 years with over 10 k out of pocket and less than 20k on it . my bad for not doing my homework but now it's down to getting the best tranny possible or getting rid of it ...............Thanks for any help
Not sure what kind of pissing match you would get by giving a guy parts and saying "use all of them, no exceptions". If you are using a mechanic that cannot follow that simple statement, you need a better mechanic...
02-27-2014, 10:09 AM
#28
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
hey Madcat ,
I do run the tires off it but not from a dead stop and definitely don't drop it out of neutral. the pissing match was over the reluctor wheel bolts that backed off or broke. The supplier said it was shipped loose and instructed the builder to either Loctite them or tack weld them. The builder said the reluctor wheel came already installed . These little bolts that backed off or broke ended up with it tore apart and laid up once more. Dave has sent me a few emails and certainly does know his stuff. I am just not sure if I want to invest another 4 grand in it. It might just sit on the lawn and become a conversation piece. Kind of a shame , just last winter I put a low mileage motor in it with only 40 thousand kilometers in it and freshened up the turbo only to put about 5 thousand KM on it after the last rebuild. I was going to rebuild the old motor for a little more juice but without a bulletproof tranny I won't even go there ! Looks like somebody might get a cheap Monte ss turbo. Thanks for your input...........Kevin
I do run the tires off it but not from a dead stop and definitely don't drop it out of neutral. the pissing match was over the reluctor wheel bolts that backed off or broke. The supplier said it was shipped loose and instructed the builder to either Loctite them or tack weld them. The builder said the reluctor wheel came already installed . These little bolts that backed off or broke ended up with it tore apart and laid up once more. Dave has sent me a few emails and certainly does know his stuff. I am just not sure if I want to invest another 4 grand in it. It might just sit on the lawn and become a conversation piece. Kind of a shame , just last winter I put a low mileage motor in it with only 40 thousand kilometers in it and freshened up the turbo only to put about 5 thousand KM on it after the last rebuild. I was going to rebuild the old motor for a little more juice but without a bulletproof tranny I won't even go there ! Looks like somebody might get a cheap Monte ss turbo. Thanks for your input...........Kevin
02-28-2014, 10:38 AM
#29
On The Tree
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 172
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
No worries, Kevin. I understand the dilemma, I've had the same debate over other cars in the past. I do know that if you were to get a TEP it would be the last one you needed. Good luck, hate to see another LS4 owner go through this even though I know it is inevitable with our factory hardware.
03-27-2014, 04:33 AM
#30
Teching In
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: I come from a dusty place.
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm going through my third major trans failure in 2.5 yrs, all since boosting the GXP. First was all stock, clutches burned up; second had a TEP rebuild kit but pump seal failure and subsequent bleed out; and third is total loss of forward and reverse movement, no bleed out. I'm currently in the long and expensive process of getting it back on the road again.
So I found out that a couple of infamous GM Racing 1" chains might be available, but for $2000 & $2500 respectively lol
Also found out from here there is a company in Florida that makes a "bullet proof" half-shaft, but only up to a 2003 GTP wa womp
Trying to see if a TEP-built trans will fare any better this time around, rather than getting TEP upgrade parts and having it rebuilt by local trusted builders.
So I found out that a couple of infamous GM Racing 1" chains might be available, but for $2000 & $2500 respectively lol
Also found out from here there is a company in Florida that makes a "bullet proof" half-shaft, but only up to a 2003 GTP wa womp
Trying to see if a TEP-built trans will fare any better this time around, rather than getting TEP upgrade parts and having it rebuilt by local trusted builders.
03-27-2014, 08:20 AM
#31
I'm going through my third major trans failure in 2.5 yrs, all since boosting the GXP. First was all stock, clutches burned up; second had a TEP rebuild kit but pump seal failure and subsequent bleed out; and third is total loss of forward and reverse movement, no bleed out. I'm currently in the long and expensive process of getting it back on the road again.
So I found out that a couple of infamous GM Racing 1" chains might be available, but for $2000 & $2500 respectively lol
Also found out from here there is a company in Florida that makes a "bullet proof" half-shaft, but only up to a 2003 GTP wa womp
Trying to see if a TEP-built trans will fare any better this time around, rather than getting TEP upgrade parts and having it rebuilt by local trusted builders.
So I found out that a couple of infamous GM Racing 1" chains might be available, but for $2000 & $2500 respectively lol
Also found out from here there is a company in Florida that makes a "bullet proof" half-shaft, but only up to a 2003 GTP wa womp
Trying to see if a TEP-built trans will fare any better this time around, rather than getting TEP upgrade parts and having it rebuilt by local trusted builders.
03-27-2014, 05:04 PM
#32
Teching In
Join Date: May 2006
Location: VA - formerly NY, MI, MN, FL
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm going through my third major trans failure in 2.5 yrs, all since boosting the GXP. First was all stock, clutches burned up; second had a TEP rebuild kit but pump seal failure and subsequent bleed out; and third is total loss of forward and reverse movement, no bleed out. I'm currently in the long and expensive process of getting it back on the road again.
So I found out that a couple of infamous GM Racing 1" chains might be available, but for $2000 & $2500 respectively lol
Also found out from here there is a company in Florida that makes a "bullet proof" half-shaft, but only up to a 2003 GTP wa womp
Trying to see if a TEP-built trans will fare any better this time around, rather than getting TEP upgrade parts and having it rebuilt by local trusted builders.
So I found out that a couple of infamous GM Racing 1" chains might be available, but for $2000 & $2500 respectively lol
Also found out from here there is a company in Florida that makes a "bullet proof" half-shaft, but only up to a 2003 GTP wa womp
Trying to see if a TEP-built trans will fare any better this time around, rather than getting TEP upgrade parts and having it rebuilt by local trusted builders.
Look up the long-winded Whipple GTP build that Paul (PRJ) is doing with JonBob on the ClubGP forum. Somewhere in there is a ton of info on the custom tranny work, if you want to see the maximum level you could take it. The SFPH axles aren't worth the cost of buying 5-10 lightly used OEM axles (of which, you may need to keep 1 of each side as an insurance spare). Most 8-11sec W-body's have run stockers for this purpose, as the cause of failure to OEM's has caused the same rate of failure on SFPH axles.
Triple Edge, ZZP, and others still have majority of what has been proven to last available to buy... although the 4t65e configuration has some Achilles heels that aren't avoidable, and putting double-stock hp+ into them just invites an issue at some point. I played this game 10yrs ago with thousands of others, and didn't have the wallet desire to go beyond a 350whp setup on my DD that'd require the $3k tranny upgrades. It's stopping me from the itch to mod the GXP beyond minimal now, and pointing my limited time/effort towards a RWD LS-powered toy later.
03-27-2014, 08:39 PM
#33
TECH Apprentice
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Fredericksburg Va.
Posts: 334
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
TEP transmission I had a upgraded TEP transmission installed when I was upgrading my car. While on the dyno the car was down shifted from 3td to 2nd at 128 mph, the dyno rpm recorder was set at 9050 rpms and the car shot right through that. Engine damage but the transmission held. How do I know that? We removed the transmission and the TC and had it inspected.
03-29-2014, 01:18 PM
#34
Teching In
Join Date: May 2006
Location: VA - formerly NY, MI, MN, FL
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I had a upgraded TEP transmission installed when I was upgrading my car. While on the dyno the car was down shifted from 3td to 2nd at 128 mph, the dyno rpm recorder was set at 9050 rpms and the car shot right through that. Engine damage but the transmission held. How do I know that? We removed the transmission and the TC and had it inspected.
As mentioned, the parts and correct building techniques are out there, but treating the pedal right in various conditions has just as much of an impact on the longevity. Being more selective with when/how you decide to pull launches, or going WOT during a roll is always going to give your trans the best chance at lasting as long as possible, barring random failures or overall wear.
