Burned out my 4l60e... again

[Christian ojeda]

Just wanted to give an update, I ended up having the trans rebuilt due to time constraints and while that was being taken care of I decided to finally Crack the heads off the motor and fix what I thought to be a bad head gasket after cooking the motor to the point that the stock exhaust manifolds were glowing orange 5 years ago. Turned out to be a cracked head, I was gonna leave it at just taking the one side off once again due to time constraints but when I pulled the one side off and found the crack I knew the other side was the same, ended up going to the junkyard and found my exact truck just a single cab (even had the teal and silver) pulled the heads to find they looked brand new and they still had the warranty tags on the back of them. So for a recap of total days actually working on it, I had all of it done in 4 days. Pretty happy with myself, been driving it since February 13th even went and had it on the limiter out in the mud for periods of time and it's still running like a champ, I'll be taking it easy from now on though do to the low oil pressure under load from when it overheated all those years back. Thanks for all the help and feedback.

 

[Pro439]

GM should have never put the 2500 on that truck as it is only a heavy 1/2 ton and as for the 4l60e just looking at 1 that a transmission shop cut sections outta I don’t know how they hold up very cheap looking imo and definitely nothing like a 4l80e

 

[Christian ojeda]

GM should have never put the 2500 on that truck as it is only a heavy 1/2 ton and as for the 4l60e just looking at 1 that a transmission shop cut sections outta I don’t know how they hold up very cheap looking imo and definitely nothing like a 4l80e

They can be built to hand respectable power and people like them for the gearing over the 80e. I would have swapped it if I had the time but oh well, maybe I'll get to it next time

 

[Pro439]

Could be. I’m just saying that the cut away I saw is scary. So a th350 is closer in build to a th400 than 1 of these and I really don’t see where they get their strength to not twist or break The other thing that they’ve done is try to make it shift seamlessly which lets the clutches slip with every shift. The 1 thing I was taught was to eliminate the slush shift remove the wave/spring plate and get the stack height in spec w/o that in there will any transmission last longer

 

[tayto]

Just wanted to give an update, I ended up having the trans rebuilt due to time constraints and while that was being taken care of I decided to finally Crack the heads off the motor and fix what I thought to be a bad head gasket after cooking the motor to the point that the stock exhaust manifolds were glowing orange 5 years ago. Turned out to be a cracked head, I was gonna leave it at just taking the one side off once again due to time constraints but when I pulled the one side off and found the crack I knew the other side was the same, ended up going to the junkyard and found my exact truck just a single cab (even had the teal and silver) pulled the heads to find they looked brand new and they still had the warranty tags on the back of them. So for a recap of total days actually working on it, I had all of it done in 4 days. Pretty happy with myself, been driving it since February 13th even went and had it on the limiter out in the mud for periods of time and it's still running like a champ, I'll be taking it easy from now on though do to the low oil pressure under load from when it overheated all those years back. Thanks for all the help and feedback.

glad to hear you got everything sorted. hopefully you had a competent shop build your trans, just remember when you're beating on it or towing to pull the shifter lever into 3rd. hopefully they did the sonnax HD 2-3 valve so the overruns are on in 1st & 2nd

Could be. I’m just saying that the cut away I saw is scary. So a th350 is closer in build to a th400 than 1 of these and I really don’t see where they get their strength to not twist or break The other thing that they’ve done is try to make it shift seamlessly which lets the clutches slip with every shift. The 1 thing I was taught was to eliminate the slush shift remove the wave/spring plate and get the stack height in spec w/o that in there will any transmission last longer

what?

 

[L31MaxExpress]

They can be built to hand respectable power and people like them for the gearing over the 80e. I would have swapped it if I had the time but oh well, maybe I'll get to it next time

LOL...My stock 4L60E made it 38K miles and a absolutely built, everything thrown at it 4L65E made it 40K miles. They are JUNK, absolute garbage transmissions and stock 4.3L engines often kill them. 4L80E or a 4L85E pulled out of a mud puddle in the junkyard is far stronger than a 60E POS. I put a 4L85E in my 97 van that had over 100K on it and have beat the snot out of it ever since. Have my eyes on a 6L90E swap though because of its far superior gearing. IMO a 4L80E or 4L85E is geared better than a 4L60E. My van actually accelerated better after the 65E hit the scrap yard. That 1-2 shift is killer on acceleration where the 4L80E keeps the engine right in its power band. I have actually tuned a couple of 4L80E swaps behind 4.3Ls and even the 4.3L has enough power that it accelerates better with a 4L80E.

 

[Caman96]

….and then some 4L60’s go for 300k-400k with no issues. Many variables, who built it, what parts used, how it’s driven etc…. I’ve put 38k on my 4L60 in just under 3 years and with 84k, it still shifts beautifully. Of course I’d obviously prefer a 4L80. And if or when it goes it’ll be a 4L80.

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[Christian ojeda]

glad to hear you got everything sorted. hopefully you had a competent shop build your trans, just remember when you're beating on it or towing to pull the shifter lever into 3rd. hopefully they did the sonnax HD 2-3 valve so the overruns are on in 1st & 2nd


what?

They did a shift kit, heavy duty clutch packs and a lot of other things, I'd have to grab the receipt to look at it all, but they are the same shop that rebuilt one for my buddy in his 90 suburban that I've Made a few threads on here for (he finally sold it a few months ago) and his held up pretty well as far as us beating the hell out of it along side my truck. The mistake I made with the last time I had it rebuilt is that I never changed the cooler or had it hot flushed before hand so the fluid was ALWAYS nasty. This time I changed the radiator for the big block unit which is WAY larger so hopefully the internal cooler can keep it cool enough.

 

[tayto]

adding an external cooler after the internal cooler would be a GOOD idea