Supercharged111
Truly Awesome
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2015
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AGREED!
A low mileage 4L85E swap was about $1500 said and done for me. Its not nearly as complicated as some make it out to be. I modified my stock cross member with an abrasive saw, a welder and some plate steel, swapped the yoke to an aftermarket 4L80E slip yoke (on my van it had the same length driveshaft with a 4L60E or 4L80E and even used the same U-joint), replumbed the cooler lines, used a trans connector pigtail I found in the wrecking yard to extend my harness and flashed my PCM with a segment swapped file. I also had to swap the lower portion of my trans dipstick tube, the trans dipstick and the shifter cable. I have given the 4L85E hell and it has never even wimpered and the 4L85E is rated to take its maximum input torque in all gears. With a 2,800 rpm stall purpose built HD towing converter from Performance Torque converters of Texas and a 5.13 gears it vastly outperforms the 4L60E/3.73 gear combination and actually turns less RPM in OD towing than the 4L60E did in 3rd. My empty highway mileage saw a slight decrease but my city mileage actually improved. The custom converter, deep sump aluminum pan, larger trans cooler and shift kit added another $1000 to the swap but I did them later. It runs cool and does what it is supposed to. I change the fluid and filter every 2 years or 24K whichever comes first. I run Dex III, refuse to swap to Dex 6.
GM did not even have the confidence in a 4L60E to put it behind a 4.3 TBI in an 8-lug chassis.
Damn. I was into my 4L80 swap on a 4x4 for just south of $1500 and that was with a rebuild. But you got a good used one and not a core like me.