ponyboyt
Newbie
ok great, finding someone to tune that old style pcm around me will be fun
3 rebuilt 4l60e's later.....
- Thread starter ponyboyt
- Start date
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alpinecrick
I'm Awesome
Somebody ain't building the 4L60E's correctly..........there's a lot of that.
Either that or somebody is abusing the snarf out of the trans.
Either that or somebody is abusing the snarf out of the trans.
ponyboyt
Newbie
it was a horrible experience... some clutches and band gone first time around at like 7000kms.... they warranty'd it, and the day i got it back it went into 4th for like 5 seconds then dropped. I ended up putting 1 1/2 extra litres of fluid in because someone said it was low and may be the wrong stick? i donno, it was fine for a year til this spring. Every time its warm out it gets hot and refuses to shift into 4th, and the cooler is so hot i cant touch it.
Edit, zero abuse. the odd wot 1-2 shift at most, not burnouts or anything like that....
Edit, zero abuse. the odd wot 1-2 shift at most, not burnouts or anything like that....
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gearheadE30
I'm Awesome
The cooler is supposed to be too hot to touch. They usually run 170+ degrees with everything working properly.
There shouldn't be anything wrong with a 4L60e for what you are doing unless you are towing a lot. Find someone who actually knows how to rebuild a transmission, and make sure you clean or replace the coolers because you probably have a bunch of debris in there from blowing transmissions up.
Keep an eye on your driving habits. Most of the people who get good rebuilt transmissions and still kill them have a sloppy foot and kick the thing in and out of lockup all the time, or somehow developed a habit of adding throttle during a shift, I guess because they feel the interrupt in power. Doesn't take long to kill most automatics doing either of those things.
(K1500 used for towing with 197k miles - original transmission. Tahoe Limited, transmission replaced at 190k miles and going strong at 260k miles now, towing regularly.).
There shouldn't be anything wrong with a 4L60e for what you are doing unless you are towing a lot. Find someone who actually knows how to rebuild a transmission, and make sure you clean or replace the coolers because you probably have a bunch of debris in there from blowing transmissions up.
Keep an eye on your driving habits. Most of the people who get good rebuilt transmissions and still kill them have a sloppy foot and kick the thing in and out of lockup all the time, or somehow developed a habit of adding throttle during a shift, I guess because they feel the interrupt in power. Doesn't take long to kill most automatics doing either of those things.
(K1500 used for towing with 197k miles - original transmission. Tahoe Limited, transmission replaced at 190k miles and going strong at 260k miles now, towing regularly.).
ponyboyt
Newbie
most of the miles i put on were driving around town in 3. This thing never had a hitch slid into it til this spring when i moved my trailer across the park. I got the trailer a month ago, and i bet the truck left town 10 times before that with this trans. Its literaly been a grocery getter. It was the first trip to the trailer i noticed it was having issues, it was sloppy trying to hold 4th gear on the highway. Ended up driving there in 3 and i had lockup just fine. I have a cheap code reader, i kept hitting rescan on it without clearing anything, it kept popping up p1870 as a pending code and going away on its own every couple minutes, all while i had it in 3 doing 85 km/h. Interesting how most of the trips home with the sun behind us i was able to keep it in D at the same speed and had 4th with lockup the whole way....
I recently had it at a trans shop and they took it out on the highway. Early morning, truck had onl\y run for 10 mins. He said he was commanding lockup and it wasn't applying. So they said something wrong with the TC. Fluid is dirty. I left that shop and immediately noticed TC lockup in 3 when i drove up their street.....
Something ive noticed its ALWAYS done, say i leave a green light and stay at 20ish % throttle, it goes through 1-2, 2-3, i get up to 80km/h speed limit and let up a bit, it takes a good 5-10 seconds to go into 4th. I did this when i first bought the trans, and kept doing it after the warranty work they did.
I recently had it at a trans shop and they took it out on the highway. Early morning, truck had onl\y run for 10 mins. He said he was commanding lockup and it wasn't applying. So they said something wrong with the TC. Fluid is dirty. I left that shop and immediately noticed TC lockup in 3 when i drove up their street.....
Something ive noticed its ALWAYS done, say i leave a green light and stay at 20ish % throttle, it goes through 1-2, 2-3, i get up to 80km/h speed limit and let up a bit, it takes a good 5-10 seconds to go into 4th. I did this when i first bought the trans, and kept doing it after the warranty work they did.
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Transamco
Newbie
If all three units were built by the same builder, and they can't find the cause - i doubt they ever will. If all three came from different sources, it's unlikely three builders could create three units that exhibit the same symptom and fail in the same manner - unless the fault is not in the transmission. Its a fully electronic controlled unit, so pressure control and shift spacing/timing is dictated by the TCM. From cold, monitor shift commands and VPS control from the TCM, and a pressure gauge will prove if the pressure is consistant with the command....do this until hot when the fault occurs. THIS will prove where the cause of the fault lies
Did they by chance keep reusing the same torque converter through these rebuilds?
A lot of budget shops will do this but it just pumps all the crap out of the dirty converter and back through the new build.
Also be leery of a shop that uses cheap rebuild kits.
And cheap shift kits.
And a lot of the chain trans shops really suck.
They have a high turnover rate and crank em out as fast as possible so you might not get the "A" team doing the work.
60Es came in all kinds of different vehicles and are not all internally the same.
And always get your original transmission rebuilt. Don't let them swap it for something they have on the shelf "ready to go" because you have no idea what it came out of.
Engrave the vin number into the case to keep em honest
A lot of budget shops will do this but it just pumps all the crap out of the dirty converter and back through the new build.
Also be leery of a shop that uses cheap rebuild kits.
And cheap shift kits.
And a lot of the chain trans shops really suck.
They have a high turnover rate and crank em out as fast as possible so you might not get the "A" team doing the work.
60Es came in all kinds of different vehicles and are not all internally the same.
And always get your original transmission rebuilt. Don't let them swap it for something they have on the shelf "ready to go" because you have no idea what it came out of.
Engrave the vin number into the case to keep em honest
ponyboyt
Newbie
yep same converter. It came with THIS trans and was re-used on warranty. The original trans in the truck was also rebuilt Trans shop here says converter is slipping and thats likely why the fluid is dirty. And ya we did swap for a rebuilt, i was starting to wonder if it was older than mine (pre-2000) and something might be different.
Turns out the 80e at my shop is older than an 09, it was a custom settup with a 6.0 in a 2009 lifted silverado that originaly came with a 4.8. Im going to try and get some info off the side of it this week. My local yard has at least 8 0411 PCM's in stock. Looks like i may go this route and maybe spend the winter hunting a nice 5.3.
Need to find someone in Ontario Canada who can tune one
Turns out the 80e at my shop is older than an 09, it was a custom settup with a 6.0 in a 2009 lifted silverado that originaly came with a 4.8. Im going to try and get some info off the side of it this week. My local yard has at least 8 0411 PCM's in stock. Looks like i may go this route and maybe spend the winter hunting a nice 5.3.
Need to find someone in Ontario Canada who can tune one
L31MaxExpress
I'm Awesome
Find a 6.0L or an 8.1. No way would I put a 5.3 in place of a 5.7L. It will have NO balls at all. I did a 383 in place of my 5.7. Could not be happier. Far better running than the LQ4 6.0L with a cam and ported, large valve 5.3 heads that I built. 6.0L has the Trailblazer SS intake and headers as well. Stock that LQ4 was a DOG. 5.3s are an even bigger dog. Helped a friend move some stuff to Texas from Kansas pulling a smaller 18 ft enclosed trailer with his 03 Suburban. Running 75 and 80 mph the thing spent most of its time at 5,000+ RPM. Went back the next weekend in my Express van with the 383/4L85E pulling a 28' enclosed trailer...3,000 rpm in OD the whole way at 80 mph. Went across the scales at a truck stop at nearly 14K all together in the van. Running the Marine dual plane and the 4bbl throttle body never got off the primaries of the throttle body accelerating up to speed. The secondaries start to open at about 65% throttle.
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