Was just reading your thread, seems like you ran it hard. Donuts and all that good stuff. Most likely what I might be doing.... are u happy with the performance of the 80 or would u rather have a bullet proof 60??
I definitely drive it hard!
My only issue after the 80E swap is that my truck is much slower off the line, but being a V6 I knew that was coming. It will not break the tires loose from a stop on dry pavement any more. However overall I'm very satisfied with the results and I got exactly what I wanted. It drives great and still has plenty of power to get out of its own way if needed. I do not miss the 60E. I actually have another tuned PCM from Black Bear Performance with a 91 octane performance version of my 80E tune that I'm going to throw in once I run this tank of 87 out. Hopefully that might put a little pep back in its step.
I plan on LS swapping this truck at some point, most likely an LQ4. I wanted an automatic transmission that would keep the original appearance and function of the column shifter but stand up to whatever abuse I threw at it. In my experience, there is no such thing as a bulletproof 4L60E. My 60E rebuild was done by a very reputable local builder and I put just about every upgrade possible into it. It lived less than 10K miles behind my 4.3L V6. I definitely helped kill it by zeroing out the torque management in my PCM tune, but needless to say that's a little shorter life than I would have preferred to see. About halfway through it's life I put all the factory torque management back into the tune but I guess by then the damage was done.
I know there are lots of people out there with fast cars and trucks running built 60Es who say they have no issues, but personally I would not feel comfortable putting a 60E behind an LQ4/LQ9 in one of these trucks. If the 4L60E in my Suburban ever gives me any trouble I'm swapping it out for a 4L80E for sure.