4L80e swap? Or maybe a TH400?

 

TH400 are kinda like carburetors, nobody here likes them. 4l80s are tuff, 6l80 swaps are cooler tho. Not trying to sound like a jerk about the level6 4l60, it’s just this forum has seen so many “unbreakable” 60Es die in a short time. I think @RedXray actually has one of the longest living 60Es I’ve seen in a fairly powerful truck. It’s also very light and on small tires tho.

I’d definitely agree the drive shaft is a huge weak point.

 

Surprisingly its stronger than a single piece. but at some point if you are spraying the truck you should upgrade it to a heavier wall.

 

If your goin to spray more than 200 I'd look into a progressive controller.
2 piece driveshaft are pretty strong.

 

I think a controller is a must have with any size shot. It helps keep those plastic intake manifolds in one piece in case of driver error... hitting the spray before 3000 RPM.

 

Back in the day I put a 300 shot on a stock 4.8 and it was nasty. He would spray it about 2500 rpms and I think the onlything that helped it the most was it was loosing traction and build rpms crazy fast.

this morning went to my neighbors to retune his truck with a cam 5.3 and a 275 shot but with a holley ecu. He will spray the dang thing off idle. It blows the tires off so he is happy.
never had a backfire or anything crazy but we always used the plates instead of nozzles so that might make a difference.

I like the programmable progressives to really smooth out the hit so it doesnt break traction.

For weak links I'd consider transmission the #1 weakest link. No matter what it's "rated" for.

#2 I would consider the tuner the next possible weakest link. Engine Life is going to be determined by the tune and being able to read the plugs to get the jet spread right.

#3 would be rear axle

#4 driveshaft

#5 is the wallet.... nitrous is crazy expensive over here right now. 99% the work I do is turbo setups. That 1% is the nitrous setups. In March the 64# mother bottle was $320 I think. 2 weeks ago it was $970. That's somewhere around $150 to fill a 10# bottle. The last nitrous car I did had a 400 direct port and 150 dry nozzle. 1/4 mile pass now is expensive.

 

Dam that's nuts!

Last #10 bottle I had filled in June was $7.00 a lb. I got the P1870 converter clutch slip code on a 150 hit into 3rd which curtailed any more hits until I did the triple disc and got the 4L60 refreshed. If my Speed Shop has raised prices that much I'll pull my system and sell the parts over at the tech forum. Let me finish by saying... FJB.

 

I appreciate the replies guys, some good info in there. I hear you on the 4l60 concerns. This truck is my daily and when it broke I needed to get it back up and going quick sonI went with a upgraded replacement for it. Trust me I did want to do a 80 swap but the time and budget wasn’t there unfortunately. But now that I’m thinking about more power I’m feeling the hurt for going back with the L60. Maybe I need to leave it alone and just make it a fun/good looking truck.

 

Just get yourself a greasy 'ol 4L80e and get it freshened up (and if you like get the common mods to make it handle even more power,) along with the other parts to do the swap and have it ready...swap is not too bad, but not a direct swap either.

If your current transmission is working fine, just keep running it, but have the back up transmission ready. That's what I would do.

I think even the hardcore drag racing guys have extra engines and transmissions ready to drop in "just in case." If you are doing crazy power, stuff breaks sooner or later. If this doubles as a daily that needs to get you to a job or school, I think that's even more true.