Thanks Hammer.

Alas the old car is no more. I found a 95 V6 with a sound body. Its never seen any torque, and was registered to three owners in Florida. SO... other than an obligatory dent on the back corner, it's in good shape, which is nice because I only paid $500 bills for it.


By the time it rolls out, it will have a black Firebird hood, blackrear deck with a familiar and, some would say, an 'oversized' spoiler. Which for better or worse, has sorta become the trademark, so I'm keepin' it.

 

that's much easier than trying to fix the old twisted one.

 

$500.00 FOR THAT??????? Where the hell do you people find deals like this??? Ive been searching for a year now for a deal on a 2nd,3rd or even another 4th gen and all I come up with is junk!!!!

 

I guess... but it's still an ***-load of work. It's hotter than ***** in that shop with three shop fans blaring. So, motivation... is a problem that I'm having some problems overcoming.

 

Brother, I know EXACTLY what you're goin' through.

It took MONTHS to find and the negotiations BEGAN at $1800 on that car.

At the end of the day, the car didn't run. He called it 'spilling oil' and said he didn't have enough money to fix it, but wasn't going to give it away; because he had too much into it. These are all his problems, but he's got the title.

So we emailed back and forth as I was looking around and over a couple of months he dropped his price. (This was all done through Craig's List.)

In truth, as you pointed out, there were actually no other contenders out there, as what was decent was 3-4 large and what was in my price range wasn't any better than what I had sitting in the shop twisted all to hell.

So I called the kid, told him that I'd like to come and take a look at it and when I got there I found a decent roller, which again: did not run, but he's telling me: 'the air blows cold and I just got the tranny rebuilt for $2000'.

I told him: Man, that's great but I can't use any of that and am only interested in this car for the body and you just paid someone two grand to fix a tranny for a 150 hp car? What are you willing to pay to make it stop pouring oil? Because I'll fix it for you this weekend and use that money to go buy me a nice car." He asked how much I would charge him and I said that it was hard to say, "but based on your history, its not going to be less than two grand." I then asked him how long he'd had it parked.

He said a few months and his Aunt was telling him he needed to get it out of her driveway and I knew then, that I owned that car. "Look this is a 20 year old car, son. "You're a young man with little to no experience in maintaining these vehicles and I hate to say it, but the last time you tried you got yourself raped. You could have bought a race tranny that handles 700 hp with a WARRANTY for what you paid some knucklehead to do a 700 job. He didn't spend two hours working on that tranny and you paid him more than you make in a month.

Looky here... You need money... I have money. You need to move this car and I can have a tow-truck here in 20 minutes making your aunt SO happy... PLUS... I will call you when I get this thing torn down and you can come and get this tranny and sell it yourself, hell you might even get your money back out of that. How's that sound?

I can't go less than $800.

Here's five hundred dollars... that's all I've got for ya.

You'll call me and I can have my tranny?

Yessir!

"HELLO... Triple A? This is Mike... we've got a situation ... ."


Of course, the kid wore me out for two months, as the car sat in the parking lot untouched. I finally get it tore down and emailed him to tell him that the tranny is ready for him to come get it and I haven't heard a peep out of him since.

Anyone need a $2000 tranny for a V6? I may have one available. Like BRAND NEW!

 

Keep your eye's open on Craiglist, They are out there. I got mine for $800 (he was asking $1500), but find those low asking prices and negotiate. When someone is asking $1500 for a LT1 M6, they are desperate to get it gone. Leverage that. Like OVA1 did below.

That's about how it goes too. It sucks to hear about how much people pay on repairs. But what makes it worse is that I think that's about normal for a retail shop to charge $2K or more for a rebuild plus R&R with a warranty.

What are the differences between the 4L60e for the V6 and the 4L60e for the V8? It may only be a servo away from being good for the V8, but I'm not sure on the input shafts and bellhousings....

 

WOW~ really?

It was a name brand shop. All I can think of at the moment is Midas, but it was the tranny version of that. Edit: It was "AAMCO"

I don't know the specifics of the differences, but I can tell ya that the 4L60 is appreciably larger... as I've got my old Perfomabuilt Lvl 2 sitting on my bench and the V6 looks like it's baby brother.

 

They are both 4L60e's. Are the trans pans the same? Like #6?



I just helped a buddy rebuild his 4L30e in his Honda Passport, Rock Auto sells those for about $2100. He paid $500 and my help.

I think the 4L60e's are easier and cheaper though. Rock Auto has them for about $1400. I can rebuild them my self for about $250 without a torque converter.

 

I believe the 3.8l bellhousing bolt pattern is differnt from the 4.3l and V8s

 

Well I'll be dam'ed. One is sitting on the floor, the other on the bench and they appear to be quite different. Could be the power of assumption. I'm going to pop out to the shop and check that out and I'll let ya know.

 

YEP! Pans are as you said.

Here's my PB Lvl2 4l60E from the sides and front.

 

And here's the one from the 6 banger:








Clearly the bell housing is different.

What does the numbers "23" and "1" mean? Is that a casting number? And would that be the designator indicating the distinction in the two?

 

LOL! I was looking for info on that tranny and ran across this picture of my car in Brand new trim. Pretty sharp... .

 

Those bellhousings are significantly different, as is the torque converter. There's a cheap stall for ya! LOL.

Those wheels (covers) ever make it to production? I think they look better than the ones the Z28 actually came with....

I can see why GM went to a removable bellhousing in ~1998.

 

Yes, the bell housings are completely different. I can't find any info on the web about the distinctions in the trannies. I'm going to sell this one, with the stall, and would like to know the model, other than "6-Cyl Version". Do you know what the '6-cyl version' is called?

I noticed those wheels too. I don't know if they ever produced them, but my car has the stock salad shooters.

 

I think the designation is 4L60e for 3.4L V-6. I'm not sure if the 3.8L is the same. But, you can call your local Transmission shop as ask them. Then let us all know too!

 

you got a wicked deal on that car brova. and yes, it's still a lot of work. however I find mechanical and body work to be much different. nuts and bolts are either done, or they aren't. body work is totally different and requires a certain type of patience that I don't have.

 

No doubt!....wish I had body work/paint skilz!!

 

On hell yeah, I completely agree. That was serious structural and there wasn't much structure left to tie into. Every time I'd settle on a plan, one side or both; wherever I planned to stop cutting, was rusted mush... It had literally rusted from the inside, out.

Once I got the sheet metal cut away to take a look into those unibody beams and saw that mess, it became obvious that she was gone. The torque had separated the three sheets that were pressed into the beams, and it was clear that it was WAY over my head and my means to do anything about it ... and the order was handed down, to transfer the flag.

Now, it's just slow goin' until I can get more time and that shop cools down. It's an oven in there right now.