4l80E, What to be done to tow heavy, as in HEAVY!!

[thz71]

and people PLEASE stop wasteing you money on lift keys!!!!

 

[Tavi]

and people PLEASE stop wasteing you money on lift keys!!!!

yeah. the Ford keys are so much cheaper.

ha ha. jk

 

[cabodiver]

Wow guys you all were very very helpful. Let me clear something up that I didn't make clear before. Yes I do tow this load, but only 6 miles each way, and very slowly. This is not a high speed endeavor by any means. I tow the Osprey out every two weeks to check transmissions and outdrive oil and do a basic "how is she". I do this religously now as I have learned from the laws of Mr. Murphy. He tends to live in my back pocket and if I don't keep checking things he will decide to replace the gear oil with salt water and not tell me.
I really do appreciate all of the advice and I do mean all. When It is trailer day I do throw back on a set 235/85-16 RATED E. I use a weight distributing hitch and all 3 axles of the trailer have disc brakes with an actual working surge piston. As mentioned before I leave the truck in 4lo and disengage the front axle with the cable kit(which I highly recommend to anyone!!!) once on flat ground and mosey on up back to the yard. I then have always used the tranny (the 89 400) like a manual and rarely ever got out of 2nd. Which is how I will use this tranny as well, which is why I needed the advice on this 4l80e. Who makes the most reliable shift kit out there for this model?
Ok, torsion keys, I ran 33 on my 89 for years with out keys. I just cranked on the t bars and sawzalled some bumper corners off. Which as we know worsened the ride. I was under the impression that keys did not. I was told repeatedly these were the way to go. Hence why I put them on here. I need more input here, I do not want anything on this truck that will be a weak point nor cause me grief down the road or that is useless. Would you suggest body lift instead and if so I would prefer a 2" vs. a 3", But I couldn't find one. Also do you guys recommend putting moog (rubber) or energy susp (poly) control arm, leaf spring bushings in. The rubber on the uppers is gone on pass. side. Ive become pretty good at the ball joints, pitman & idler arm replacing but haven't done the bushings myself but I think one time and it wasn't any fun that I recall. Tricks of the trade?

I am sure this has been discussed nine zillion times, but I am very close before spending money on the chip, heads and cam to get rid of the TBI entirely and as much of the computer as I can. Put in a cam I want that is not dictated and limited by computer control, heads that I want with an intake and carb. Has anybody done this to a 1.5 obd 1995 454 with the 4l80 e?........Successfully? If so I would love step by step how to and what you see as the pros and cons in this endeavor. I have seen loads of swaps of this nature for the 350 but not much on the bbc. Quite frankly I am sick of TBI. I bought that 89 back in 89 brand new off the lot when I made E-3 in the Navy, (they gave me credit then don't you know) and have fought sensors, computer codes and whatever else that computer decided to do the whole way. Yesterday I put in the burb a msd coil and distributor, changed plugs and wires and then spent 2 hours afterwards trying to time it and I still don't have it right!!!! Ive learned also that most of those sensors only seem to work right if you buy ACDelco, not Bosch, not some other kragen, auto zone brand which can make things a little bit difficult down here. The truck doesn't need smog here, so.......
Ok guys thanks I assume that is wordy enough????

 

[94Sierra4x4]

Wow guys you all were very very helpful. Let me clear something up that I didn't make clear before. Yes I do tow this load, but only 6 miles each way, and very slowly. This is not a high speed endeavor by any means. I tow the Osprey out every two weeks to check transmissions and outdrive oil and do a basic "how is she". I do this religously now as I have learned from the laws of Mr. Murphy. He tends to live in my back pocket and if I don't keep checking things he will decide to replace the gear oil with salt water and not tell me.
I really do appreciate all of the advice and I do mean all. When It is trailer day I do throw back on a set 235/85-16 RATED E. I use a weight distributing hitch and all 3 axles of the trailer have disc brakes with an actual working surge piston. As mentioned before I leave the truck in 4lo and disengage the front axle with the cable kit(which I highly recommend to anyone!!!) once on flat ground and mosey on up back to the yard. I then have always used the tranny (the 89 400) like a manual and rarely ever got out of 2nd. Which is how I will use this tranny as well, which is why I needed the advice on this 4l80e. Who makes the most reliable shift kit out there for this model?
Ok, torsion keys, I ran 33 on my 89 for years with out keys. I just cranked on the t bars and sawzalled some bumper corners off. Which as we know worsened the ride. I was under the impression that keys did not. I was told repeatedly these were the way to go. Hence why I put them on here. I need more input here, I do not want anything on this truck that will be a weak point nor cause me grief down the road or that is useless. Would you suggest body lift instead and if so I would prefer a 2" vs. a 3", But I couldn't find one. Also do you guys recommend putting moog (rubber) or energy susp (poly) control arm, leaf spring bushings in. The rubber on the uppers is gone on pass. side. Ive become pretty good at the ball joints, pitman & idler arm replacing but haven't done the bushings myself but I think one time and it wasn't any fun that I recall. Tricks of the trade?

I am sure this has been discussed nine zillion times, but I am very close before spending money on the chip, heads and cam to get rid of the TBI entirely and as much of the computer as I can. Put in a cam I want that is not dictated and limited by computer control, heads that I want with an intake and carb. Has anybody done this to a 1.5 obd 1995 454 with the 4l80 e?........Successfully? If so I would love step by step how to and what you see as the pros and cons in this endeavor. I have seen loads of swaps of this nature for the 350 but not much on the bbc. Quite frankly I am sick of TBI. I bought that 89 back in 89 brand new off the lot when I made E-3 in the Navy, (they gave me credit then don't you know) and have fought sensors, computer codes and whatever else that computer decided to do the whole way. Yesterday I put in the burb a msd coil and distributor, changed plugs and wires and then spent 2 hours afterwards trying to time it and I still don't have it right!!!! Ive learned also that most of those sensors only seem to work right if you buy ACDelco, not Bosch, not some other kragen, auto zone brand which can make things a little bit difficult down here. The truck doesn't need smog here, so.......
Ok guys thanks I assume that is wordy enough????

Ford Keys will net you same lift and same rough front-end eating ride that you would get by cranking the bars up.
Definitely go with the poly bushings, I've heard nothing but good things about them.
You seem to be spot on about the sensors, these things sure can be finicky, even between brands.
If you don't need smog, well. It's up to you what you plan on doing there!
The 454 TBI produces some torque that's for sure. More low end grunt. Not sure what story is for carbed applications.. I know the Vortecs are a little more of a high revving engine.

 

[great white]

Wow, thats a lot of stuff and questions at once.

I'll give it a shot but i may miss something since i'm at the cottage and all i have is spotty 3g on my iphone.

Keys: what you have in there now is not a weak point per se, what you do have is a waste of cash. The thing is that there is enough adjustment on the stock gm adjusters that the upper a arms will hit the "droop stops" before they run out of adjustment. So the "ford keys" or "lift keys" are pretty much a waste of money.

Just an fyi: your ride gets crappier not because the bars are more "loaded" (static load remains the same no matter where the adjusters are) but because you've essentially shortened the lever angle on the lower arms by rotating them downward. When you hit a bump, there's less effective lever to act on the bar so it gets very harsh. Picture it like so: a lever with one fixed point horizontal to the ground and another one vertical. Push up on the horizontal lever free end and it's pretty easy to rotate it. Now push up on the vertical one and the difference is immediate. That's a bit of an extreme example, but the principle behind it. The engineering name for it is the "z angle" and it's part of them suspension geometry in IFS.

You can run a 4l80e and a carb setup. Here's the basics:

Carb and dual plane manifold
You need to adapt a TPS to the carb linkage so the PCM (now essentially a TCM) knows the throttle setting for shift points.
You also need a way to do spark, but t sounds like you've got that under wraps already.
The PCM is not going to be very happy with you because of all the missing engine inputs so the check engine is going to be hard on. Learn to live with it, take the bulb out of have a chip burned that does away with the fault codes. I would personally not take the bulb out because there will still be relevant transmission codes that will help you troubleshoot it if needed.

Better way to do it is buy a USSHIFT.com controller (was optishift, there's been name change) and then you can control everything in the transmission. It also give you "paddleshifter" capability which would allow you to manual shift through the controller instead of moving the shifter.

Body lift.

Well, theres many opinions on that. Negatives are higher center of gravity, linkages, bumpers, fan shroud, etc. Positives are your IFS remains at factory specs ( once you take out the "crank" that is), your suspension is no longer like a buckboard and your cv joints are much more likely to live a long and happy life.

If you have access to a press, press the a arm bushings out and in. Easy peasy.

I've done it with as little as a bench vice though. I burn the rubber out with a torch (do it outside witha fire ext handy, lots of toxic like smoke, then collapse and pull out the shells with vice grips. Then i just use the vice to press the new bushings in.

I prefer rubber bushings like oem. No squeaking, creaking or harshness that poly gives you. If i was building a road hugging corner carving car i would consider poly, but it's just a pita on a 4x4.

Cheers

 

[cabodiver]

I don't really understand right now. I fought and fought that burb yesterday and again today trying to get the timing right. I was using a timing light, yes. I was at my patients end and went online to summit and getting ready to go in even more debt. I had had it. I was going to go for the carb, intake, cam, TIMING CHAIN, heads......etc. You get my point. Then an amigo of mine calls and needs a hand. I go and we end up at the parts store. There gleamiong at me like a brand new red rider bb gun was this brand new timing light with a digital TACH on it. I had to have it.
When I got home I thought well let me see how this tach works. I hooked it to the burb just like I always have for 25 years and voila a tach. So I point it at the little timing gizmo down at the pulley and this thing is showing me at some ridiculous advance, that I know I didn't and wouldn't do. So I shut it down unplug the stupid little wire, find the Asian persuasion 14mm and time here again at there abouts 5* BTDC just like I thought I had done in the last 472 times I tried to time the witch. I shut it down plugged her back in started it up and she ran like a ***** out of a church on sunday!! She was en and getten!!!. Very happy with the few mods and the timing..
I don't understand. Not sure I need to........Maybe don't want to.....