Are you referring this to the LQ4's 4l80-E tranny or the 4l80-E flexplate, cause I used the LQ9's flywheel which are the ones that I've been told that are used with 4l60es', both the 5.3 and the 6.0 plate that I put look the same. It was just that gap that I didn't know about.........about the washers, have any of you guys had problems after the washers? (those washers were a pain in the *** to get'em in)

 

I agree 100%, infact I would loose my cool if someone told me to do that. Sorry to say, if PI told you to do that they just lost my business.

 

damn thats a lot of washers

for 900 bucks the pink pos ought to fit

youre not the only one thats went through this with precision

good luck getting them to fix the problem...
hope your tranny guy knows them well

 

The flex plate isn't changing the gap as far as I would know. The gap should be compensated for with the spacer.
The 4L60-E for use with Gen-III engines has a bell housing that is about 1/4" deeper to acommodate the larger and fatter 300mm torque converter developed for use with these higher rpm and HP engines. The converter though is almost half an inch fatter. Half of it comes from the deeper bell and the other half comes from a deeper flange on the back on the engine block. The spacer for the 4L80-E only makes up HALF that thickness because it's only sized to compensate for the difference blockside. The 4L80-E torque converters and bellhousings were not changed from the 5.7/7.4/6.2TD engines to the 6.0/8.1 engines. The 80's for the 6.0 and 8.1 interchange with classic SBC and BBC engines because of it.
My only guess as to why the Vigilantes are being made this way is that they only made up the difference of the transmission side and not the block side of the 1/2" I suppose this increases their market by allowing '97 and up 4L60-E with Gen-III bellhousings to be used on old SBC and BBC engines where they otherwise could not without a 1/4" spacer between the block and bellhousing.

I dunno man....

EDIT:
There are many sponsors of both quality transmissions and torque converters on this site that stand behind their products. I am curious what some of them think about this crap.

 

damn Ivan, now i dont know what to think about getting a 3400 PI. you should of looked the first time it was installed.

 

I wish I had seen it too, Daniel.......

Thanks anyway for all the info guys, the conclusion was that I left the washers on the TC bolts and I'm pretty sure the the pilot went in the crank snout.....don't know how much exactly, though. But I am going to give Precision a call to hear what they're going to say about it. She's doin' alright now and I hope she'll stay like that.......thanks!!


Ivan

 

Wow. I shimmed my Vig but not that much. Mine is shimmed and zero problems since the tranny and all went in. I did use my old 5.3 plate too.

 

How many washers did you use? I used two of 1/16s'.