Money_Pit

Want to hear yalls opinions. Should I have my 4l60e "built" or swap in a built th350.

I quickly saw mentioned in an old threat that the long tail for a th350 will be able to connect to the stock drive shaft. Is there anything weird with the swap Is should be aware of ?

demonsmokr

Isn't a 4l80e a direct replacement? Thats what i wanted to do with one of my Camaros awhile back. Pretty sure its a direct replacement, haven't looked into it. But i would do that instead of a th350. I like my overdrive.

ETA: quick search is it'll bolt in but you'll have to tune for it and splice in some different plug ends. Depends what you're doing if you need all the "extra" sensors or not.

Money_Pit

The 4l80 isnt exactly... a direct fit. Gotta mess with the wheel well and I believe a new drive shaft. I not 100 percent against the 4l80 but if Id have to... Id make it work. Im just not a fan of the transmission itself. The 350 is a direct swap if you use the long tail however.

shakenfake

Build the 4L60. I don't even know who would purposefully go out and buy a 350 lol

Strutaeng2

I don't know anything about the TH350, except they have an oil pump that looks like a TH400/4L80e. It looks like a gear inside an offset moon or crescent.

The story of the early 1980s is that the 700R4 was so problematic back then and there was no fix for them for these first few years, that shops were actually replacing burned up 700R4s with TH350s! Imagine that.🤷

I think by the mid- to late-90s they had ironed out most issues with the 4L60e. Is that a fair and accurate statement?

If the vehicle is doing exclusive track time, I can see going with the older, non-OD transmission due to them being a bit cheaper to overhaul? Maybe?

I'm interested in OP's question just out of curiosity. There's also a difference in gear ratios between the 2 units IIRC.

Money_Pit

You could say that the issues were ironed out. But I have read the design for the 4l60e was flawed from the start. As in, you can build it to be stronger to handle more power, but its overall design is what causes it to be weaker than most. I have read that a wide gear ratio maxes a transmission weaker, but I dont get how it does or would. I do have a feeling that they were in fact built a little too cheaply from factory. Ive seen people talk about their 4l60es doing just fine for stock power and when built, they last quite the long time but really dont ever say how much power they are running in their vehicles or what their set up is.

I am just really split between the two. I know that the th350 has been proven to handle power where as people more so talk about the 4l60e being bad but dont have experience with a built one. Sometimes I will read about this guy and blowing up his built 4l60e with a 700hp blower motor and a high str converter at the track; id kinda expect a transmission to let go after a while. So I cannot really get a good answer or "review".

While the overdrve is nice I guess ? I dont exactly need it.

As for the 4l80e... in a car... I feel like youre just going backwards in progress.

Strutaeng2

Yeah, agreed. Although I'm personally not familiar with the 700R4/4L60/e.

The other thing to consider in transmission life is vehicle weight. I speculate that a lot of "ratings" that you see on the website building transmissions is on lightweight vehicles (weight<4000lbs). Put that same transmission on a lifted 4x4 full size truck on big tires, and folks wonder why the didn't last long. That's not your case, but just general information to consider.

As far as the 4L80e in a car, I've always inherently thought it was not really a "racing" transmission because it was fitted on heavy duty trucks of the era, but I wasn't around to remember that they (the TH400) were actually standard on the 70s muscle cars with the BBC. And there were some European performance/exotic cars that got either version (a Ferrari, a Rolls-Royce and Jaguar, among others). And countless drag racers today turning BIG power turn to the mighty and legendary TH400 for strength. Part of the strength comes from the center support design being attached to the case (unique feature) and durability from clutch-to-clutch shifting. The 4L80e and TH400 being pretty much identical on the rear section.

I'm pretty sure you can build the lighter duty transmissions to handle more power, but a lot of internal hard parts need to upgraded (read: cha-ching!) OTOH, the heavier duty transmission requires not much to do the same. You can add aftermarket parts to the latter also and strength increases too.

Lastly, if you are using a manual valve body, it seems logical to go with a non-electric controlled transmission, no?

I hope this helps.

Money_Pit

I have the option to go with electronically controlled or not. Just a matter of altering the tune. id say any truck part is used for racing purposes since theyre all designed with heavy duty applications, so throwing them in a high power car is just a smart idea. Pretty cool how they had the th400 designed to be stronger, I didnt know that th 4l80 was similar in that design. I figured the 4l80 was better simply due to in being bigger with better quality internals.

Strutaeng2

Yeah, the GCWR of the 4L80e did go up compared to the TH400 rating. Not really sure what was really the controlling limit state. Maybe @vorteciroc can chime in on that?

Not that it really matters but I'd be interested in knowing from an engineer's perspective... very interesting insight insights BTW!