My current project

[THEFERMANATOR]

Sun shell failure is unfortunately common, but the BEAST sun shell takes care of that. ANY 4L60E build(and 700R's) should include a BEAST, it's the best $60 you can spend on one. If your running a stock 97 with even a 350 in it, a 4L60E should be plenty. Put a bigger cooler on it, TRANSGO HD-2 shift kit, 1-2 shift valve in the valve body while your there, and swap out the 2nd servo with a corvette servo while doing the kit as well. That will get you ALOT more holding power. Also reducing tranny temps and keeping them under 200 will make it live a happy life, anything higher and they don't last.

[cterrebonne]

you would have thought that the guy would have at least installed the beast, but after i spoke with him he seems a little shady. i bought the dvd and atsg's manual for the 4l60e. thanks for the tips on beefing up rebuild. this summer i'll probably rebuild the one i removed with all the mods and wait for the new one to go out but i definately need to install and temp guage. also ferm i have a trans cooler and its kinda big, but how big of one should i run?

[THEFERMANATOR]

The factory one is pretty good if it has the optional towing one. GM ran the 11" wide by 4" tall one on some and a 6" tall on others. The problem I have seen though is the way GM mounted it. The inlet and outlet are both on the bottom, and I have seen them get slightly plugged and not flow through but the bottom 2 or 3 rows on the cooler. I rotate em 90 degrees and feed it through the bottom and out through the top, this way you know that you are using all of the coolers passages. I like this cooler as an easy add on one as it comes with line and adapters to hook right to the radiator. You could even hook it up along with your current one for extra cooling.
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

[cterrebonne]

hmmm...my cooler is about that size of the summit one. i removed my grill and was inspecting it i can put a tape on it tonight to see ,but it was quite large. it pretty much filled up the left side of the radiator with a little room up a the top. i think ultimately i need a temp guage to keep the temps in check.

[spareparts]

now that we are on the subject, what would be involved in swaping out a 60e to a 80e in my 99 1500 Suburban. Its got 175k on it, I've changed the fluid on a regular basis. We bought it with 80 on it, so I don't know if the transmission was done before we bought it or not. We live in flat land and I've rarely towed anything with it(that may change). I figure when it hits 200, I'll start on the fresh block I have in the garage( have a fresh set of vortecs as well), I'll probably throw a little cam in it, with some good valve train, but otherwise leave it pretty tame. I might as well take care of the tranny while I'm at it, and I like the idea of towing in OD. I want the computer to work well with everything

[THEFERMANATOR]

99 is a fairly easy swap really. The tranny bolts right up to the block, but the input shaft in the transfer case is different as a 60 uses a 27 spline output and an 80 uses a 32 spline shaft. You do have to change a couple of the pins in the trans plug, and I believe you have to run one wire from the PCM to the tranny. Then you have to have a 2500 program flashed into the ECM for one with a 4L80E as one of the solonoids in the 80 works backwards from the 60 as well as the gear ratios are considerably different between the 2.

[THEFERMANATOR]

Back on topic.

Been a slow couple of days lately. I had to go run errands MONDAY, so I only got the oil pan back on it after putting JB weld over the seems for insurance. Went out today and built a stand for the engine and an adapter to put the tranny on my engine stand to make it easier to work on. Unfortunately I had a mishap today and broke my wiper motor cover and housing when the studs for the glow plug controller caught it when the engine swung sideways on me coming out. Fortunately I priced out an aftermarket one for $68, so at least it wasn't TOO expensive.

Here's the oil pan epoxied over at the seems and everywhere that I had taken the paint off.


The engine sitting on it's stand.


And the ALLISON on the engine stand.


And my mishap.


Sure is empty looking without the powerplant.

[Skools Out]

Originally Posted by spareparts

now that we are on the subject, what would be involved in swaping out a 60e to a 80e in my 99 1500 Suburban. Its got 175k on it, I've changed the fluid on a regular basis. We bought it with 80 on it, so I don't know if the transmission was done before we bought it or not. We live in flat land and I've rarely towed anything with it(that may change). I figure when it hits 200, I'll start on the fresh block I have in the garage( have a fresh set of vortecs as well), I'll probably throw a little cam in it, with some good valve train, but otherwise leave it pretty tame. I might as well take care of the tranny while I'm at it, and I like the idea of towing in OD. I want the computer to work well with everything

why do you change the fluid? you shouldn't change the fluid in a GM trans as they will tend to shorten their lives. My L80 never had the fluid changed till the torque converter got noisey, that was at 218,000 miles. the trans shop plus 2 ASE Cert. said don't change it as long as your fluid stays red and clean run it. if the fluid gets dark then you have an issue in the trans. I changed it in 3 other of my GM products in the past all had short lives afterwards. On a trans go with the old rule if it ain't broke don't fix it. just change the trans fluid in the transfer case when it tends to clunk from stop lights.

[parishht]

Actually, my wife's CR-V has to have the fluid changed every 36,000 miles.
HONDA knows of the problem, put out a service bulletin that admits the problem,
but will only pay for one change, after that we have to pay.