Originally Posted by hometeam:
Yea, I never in my life thought of it, but when he told me the voltage fluctuation was what was causing the solenoid not to provide pressure, that little dimming came to mind instantly. I luckily had that other alternator at home (which I knew was good since it was the original alternator I had in this truck) and I figured why the hell not lets give it a shot.
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
Why did you change it to the other one?
Because it came with the accessories on the motor I had purchased (which if you remember, spun a rod bearing after about 800 miles since I didn't put it together) and I kept the two accessories sets separate.
edit; so not a good reason I guess, just an OCD thing maybe. [Reply]
Originally Posted by hometeam:
Because it came with the accessories on the motor I had purchased (which if you remember, spun a rod bearing after about 800 miles since I didn't put it together) and I kept the two accessories sets separate.
Man that just sucks. Freaking alternator takes out 2 transmissions.
My car had been having a few gremlins and I replaced my battery because it wouldn't hold a charge for shit and its been gremlin free since. You would think the 120Amp alternator would hide any of that but it damn sure seems to have made a big difference. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
Yea it was a factory 403 Olds motor with a TH350.
Weird that they put Olds motors in TA's for a bit. It ran pretty decent for what it was. Fun car for a bit.
being a th350 it was bound to fail at some point anyways~
What a shit design I cant believe Gm used it for sooooo long in so many applications.
Especially when they had the th400/4l80 at the same time. Could have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble had they just used those in all the 350/4l60 applications. [Reply]
Should have posted about it. I guessed it as I was reading. I had a Cummins that went through 8 transmissions and was in shops all over the country and then came to me. Local shop built and installed it originally, went to Florida it fried. Local guy paid for one there and it went through 6 more getting home. Then it got dumped on me.
It took me a lot of working to figure it out but I did. Bad alternator. [Reply]
Originally Posted by hometeam:
I would like to tell the saga of my 4l60e transmission.
So im not sure if I mentioned it here, but after I built the motor in the truck, got everything dialed in, and about 3k miles on it, the 3rd/4th band in my 4l60e let go.
Because I already had a good converter, I told myself I would skip the 4l80 and do just a built 4l60e since I'm putting out less than 500 crank horse in the truck and plan to stay that way. That way, little bit cheaper trans, easy install and go, and keep my same converter.
So I have a local known guy that only does 60s build me a trans. 1100 bucks. heavy heavy built 4l60E. And now if you know anything about 4l60s, a heavy built trans can only handle about 500hp, but I digress.
Me and my buddy install it ourselves in his shop, trans shifts great. But there is a problem. The converter wont lock up. We try tons of stuff, changing tune, commanding it to lock with the laptop everything. And it wont. This points to a converter issue. But, because the trans is warrantied, I take it to my trans builder just in case. Turns out, converter is trashed. When the 3/4 clutches burnt out, they sent so much trash into the converter that the lockup clutches cant engage.
Ok, so the truck sits for a week, I order a new converter from Revmax, (awesome company btw) and my trans builder puts it back together. I pick it up, drive it home, drive it to work and back the next day. On the way back, I notice it gets to 190 degrees trans temp on the highway.. now, this might be normal for a normal setup, but I have a big Hayden bar and fin cooler that should keep the trans about 40-50 degrees cooler than that. I chalk it up to brand new clutches and drive it to work again the next day. Problem is.. I only make it about ten miles before I lose EVERY gear. Trans is completely wasted after only about 120 miles driven.
Once again, I've got warranty, so I have the trans guy come pick it up and pull it to his shop. He opens it up and tells me its the most roasted clutches hes ever seen, and it wasn't his build that did this. I'm pretty easy going so I say ok well lets find out wtf happened.
He rebuilds the trans with all new clutches, new pump, new valve body, everything trying to figure out what happened. Everything is new and golden, and he reinstall trans. THIS TIME, he puts a pressure gauge on just to see whats going on and immediately sees an issue.
This is the part that you guys will like. This thing has no pressure off the gas. There is NOTHING in the trans that should allow it to run 10psi idle and 15 in reverse. It should be 75/120 respectively. Under load, pressure is fine, but off load it has no fluid pressure. Now, a 4l60e keeps a band engaged when its not under load, so this is what caused the built trans failure, (and likely the very first one) since it had no pressure, the clutches burnt up trying to engage constantly. With the scan tool hooked up, the voltage to the pressure solenoid is solid on the gas, and going crazy off the gas, which is why the solenoid isn't commanding pressure when its off. So, we switch out the solenoid, same thing. We mess with the tune, same thing. Really starting to piss me off, and hes stumped, since we can command the pressure solenoid with the scan tool to hold pressure and it will. I start thinking about it, and I told him that I noticed on startup sometimes, the trucks dash lights would waver and dim just a tiny amount, and I wondered if that had anything to do with the voltage fluctuation. So, I tell the trans builder that I have an extra alternator at home, and lets just try that before I go to a vacuum modulated pressure setup and get rid of the electronics entirely (another 200+ bucks)
We stick the alternator on and INSTANTLY have pressure at idle, 75/120 just like it should be. That ****ing alternator wasn't supplying the right voltage to the EPS and burnt up the god damn trans in 120 miles! I have never seen anything like it in my life!
So, now here I am, paid the man for the extra parts and labor that my truck burnt up with its shenanigans, so deep into this 4l60e I could have had an 80. Lesson learned I guess!
TLDR; Moral of the story, 4l60Es are pieces of shit and check your charging system folks!
Originally Posted by MIAdragon:
TLDR, 4l80 end of story.
Yes, I told myself I would do an 80 if my 60 went out, and when it did, I should have. But, I was trying to be cheap not knowing if I would keep the truck forever, so I figured slap a 60 back in it for about 1500 bucks less (800-900 of that is just for a good converter, rest for the trans, the crossmember, wiring etc to get it to work in a half ton) and go about my life.
I think this 60 will be fine now that we have it figured out, but my god next time ill take my own advice and never do a 60 again. [Reply]
Well it took me about a month to get the new exhaust installed after I got the mufflers from Detox due to weather and work but finally got it done.
All 3" with mufflers shortly after headers and an x-pipe after the mufflers into full length tail pipes. Had to put cross through tubes in the 4-link cross member to pass the exhaust through. It came out great and sounds fantastic.
No drone at all, real nice tone, sound great when you are on it but going down the highway pretty quiet. Much quieter than my old set up on the highway but sounds more aggressive at the same time. I couldn't be happier honestly. This is the 3rd exhaust system I have had on the car and this should be the last.
I am going to have the tailpipes curved 45 degrees out so they tuck under the car, not a fan of seeing them.
Here is a short video but it doesn't really do it justice. Ill probably shoot some video playing around in the car this weekend with my go pro.
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
Well it took me about a month to get the new exhaust installed after I got the mufflers from Detox due to weather and work but finally got it done.
All 3" with mufflers shortly after headers and an x-pipe after the mufflers into full length tail pipes. Had to put cross through tubes in the 4-link cross member to pass the exhaust through. It came out great and sounds fantastic.
No drone at all, real nice tone, sound great when you are on it but going down the highway pretty quiet. Much quieter than my old set up on the highway but sounds more aggressive at the same time. I couldn't be happier honestly. This is the 3rd exhaust system I have had on the car and this should be the last.
I am going to have the tailpipes curved 45 degrees out so they tuck under the car, not a fan of seeing them.
Here is a short video but it doesn't really do it justice. Ill probably shoot some video playing around in the car this weekend with my go pro.
woot! Can't believe i missed this post, was looking forward to the results. I'm glad you're happy with it. Exhaust notes can be subjective so i was a wee bit worried it wasn't to your tastes. Super happy that you're happy with it. Our favorite muffler around the shop for sure. Car sounds great. Sounds mean af. [Reply]
