Has anyone swapped their four-speed automatic to a six, eight, or 10-speed automatic? I did a quick search and see that more than one company is offering a 6L80-E for retrofits into older cars and trucks. An example is the link below.
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I noticed how expensive the six speed automatic transmissions are compared to the four speed automatics. I am a true "skin flint" and try to squeeze every dollar so the price is a deterrent to me.Unless you're planning on a complete driveline swap you'll need a standalone controller, they're about $1k. Figure 2-3k for a transmission plus labor and it wouldn't be hard to have 5k in the swap.
I have a Duramax/6L in the square dually, my brother in law has a 5.3/6L in his square. I like the transmissions, it just comes down to what you're willing to spend.
In my opinion there's not a whole lot of difference between the 6 and 4 speed overdrives. Maybe a few hundred rpm drop. I did the math when I was looking at trans swapping my 98 dually, but gears were a better option for the price.I noticed how expensive the six speed automatic transmissions are compared to the four speed automatics. I am a true "skin flint" and try to squeeze every dollar so the price is a deterrent to me.
I was curious if anyone had done the conversion and how they liked having the extra gears.
That is interesting and thank you for sharing the information with me.When I talked with @97Centurion about his swap, the 6 speed will allow you to run taller rear gears while still having grunt to get off the line. He said it ran great after getting the transmission tuning finished. It was practically a bolt-in when he was expecting a lot more work.
L31/6L80e
Well, my first official post here. As the title states, I am in the middle of swapping my 4L60e to a 6L80e, yes, behind the L31. I've done countless hours of research and contacting companies on how and what the swap would entail. Some of this swap is trial-by-error. I haven't really seen any...www.gmt400.com
You beat me to it. @L31MaxExpress is also doing this swap, but is converting his 350 to 58x which is the better way to go about it, though it is not for the faint of heart. I'd love to swap one, but find it difficult to open my wallet for it. The gear spread is the real advantage as Erik pointed out, you can run a taller gear without losing off the line punch. In fact you can gain on both ends. I think OD is about 150 RPM difference gear for gear.