4L60e How Tough ?
 

I'm gonna be adding some horses to my 5.3, a stall, and shift kit question is if I fry the trans will these parts fit the 4l80e, or can the 60e be made stronger ?

Nothing from the 4l60e fits the 4l80e..
Many around here run built 4l60e's from the sponsors on the right hand side >>>>>>>

Honestly I dont think youll have any trouble out of it if your modding your 5.3 and stalling it.

Ive been running a stock 60e with a vette servo and cooler for over a year behind my 6.0 with the mods in my sig. trans is still solid and I ABUSE it almost daily. with ZERO Torque management in the tune

your one of the few lucky ones...

Sounds good I'll plan the 60e upgrades and if she blows my guy will rebuild it. Thanks for the info

My mods aren't as extensive... but my truck is heavy and I've been killing it everyday for the 4 years I've owned it. Bought it with 50,xxx it has 140,xxx I've never changed tranny fluid or anything still looks good, and smells fine.

Food for though... my Stock 4.8 caused my 4l60e to take a dump....

when your serious, and spent a few thousands already F-in around with several builders, then you'll say F-It and go with the 80e. It will take time, you will get here soon if your making any real power at all. IMO

FWIW I bought a bad 80e when I did my swap, and its still driving to this day after towing a burban cross country for 3000 miles, then put another 2400 on it here, and it still runs muchoo stronger than any 60e I have had. Minus no reverse and the slip out of overdrive in 4th.

That said you must get a rebuilt or good unit. My experience, Ill let the GENERAL build it. Im going to be purchasing 1 out of a 2006 van 2500 with about 30K on it, then adding my converter, and calling it good.

When builders go into the trans, normally tons of shit get out of spec, its not just go in and slap it together. Gm has tolerances and procedures. I would opp for a nice original unit, 60e or 80e your preference. If you have any plans at all for more hp then the 80e in inevitable. Take it with a grain of salt.

^^^^^ Dont forget to add a Transgo shift kit and she should take all you will throw at it. ( 80e) The stock 80E BW high energy clutches are power holding MoFo's.

Make sure you change the sunshell...they are very week

if you decide to stay with the 60E be sure to get a fully built one. i had a shift kit and upgraded clutches and vette servos in mine and i destroyed two of them with a N/A bolt on 4.3!

If you don't have a tranny temp guage, get one and a tru-cool 40k cooler.
What ever you get be sure to keep up tune up to date.

My 4l60e 4x4 dodge ram runs 13.4

my 4l60e Z28 run a 10.22 @ 132 1.44 60'

If you are going to run a 60e get;

Corvette servo, standard width 2-4 carbonite band, beast sunshell, wide rear sungear bushing, borg warner dual cage sprag, Raybestos 3-4 Z-pack , wide rear teflon coated stator support bushing, teflon coated thrush washer that goes on in inside of the beast sunshell, Sleeve the input drum with the sonnax kit and use the billet forward piston, get the high rpm pump slide spring kit, reverse boost valve .490, transgo separator plate, drill 3rd gear feed hole to .093, get the TCC code 1870 fix valve. This will make any 60e stout!!!

Cautions!!! Do not remove the 1-2 accum. springs or let any "tuner" allow 2nd gear to shift hard. this will break output shafts. you want a quick firm 1-2 shift not harsh, a stall converter helps cushin these internal parts.

The bottom line is, you need to assess your goals for this truck early on to keep from wasting a lot of money.

If you plan to stay under 500hp and 6000rpm you can expect a 60e built by a reputable builder (FLT, Performabuilt, etc on here) to last a reasonably long time. Once you go beyond that range you may want to consider an 80e swap. Even the best built 60e will suffer at 600hp and 7k rpm shifts in a 5,000+ pound truck. The shift points you need are a real deal-maker in this trans... the 60e has wide gear spacing so shifting at 7k rpm is a lot harder on it than 5,500 rpm shifts at any given power level versus a trans with tighter gear spacing (TH400/4L80E for example). While rotational energy is directly related to the mass of the parts involved, it's the square of the rotational velocity part of the equation that really governs the stresses involved. You can partially address this concern in the build, but there are limits due to the limited 3-4 clutch area and radius. Some of the higher hp 60es you see out there are geared so that the car doesn't use the 2-3 shift during a run down the strip for this reason.

A top of the line built 60e and stall converter can easily cost $3k+. An 80e with a shift kit and stall can be had for that or less and be a lot tougher. Build an 80e and they're not remotely in the same class. I see 70k mile 80Es going for $800 or less in nearby salvage yards all day long.

FWIW, I've home-built a few 60es myself that perform good at ~500hp with the usual parts list you find on builder's websites and playing with the hydraulic settings. Speaking of which, the plate hole sizes and accumulator settings you see listed in boxed shift kits aren't adequate for every power/weight combo... learned this the hard way. That's what you're paying for with a reputable builder... not really the parts and labor listed, but they've figured out over time what works and what doesn't in terms of "tuning" this transmission (clearances, shift hole sizes, accumulation settings, etc). I don't ever expect to build them as well as our sponsors here, but there are pretty solid limits this trans can take. That's why I'm moving on to an 80e after having been through a few rounds with the 60e.