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4l80e questions before buying a truck (TC not locking up)

Cajun4x4

Cajun4x4

1/2 ton status
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Oct 17, 2005
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Lafayette, LA
im looking at buying a truck, its a 99 with 454/4l80e/243/14ff and 3.73 gears the truck has 211k miles on it and the fluild is rust colored but didnt smell burnt when we checked it cold, forgot to check it when it was hot but gonna go back and look at the truck tomorrow. the truck shifts solid and feels good but the torque converter doesnt lock up. i also forgot to actually count the shifts out to make sure they where all there but the truck was turning IIRC 2400-2500ish around 65. also not sure how hot that vortec 454 is supposed to run, when i was drivign it i noticed it got pretty close to 210, didnt think to check it once we had come back to the lot but could feel a lot of heat coming off of the radiator when trying to lean over the engine bay, so much that it was uncomfortable to lean over it. i know my 350 runs realy cool but at the same time i have a friend with a 6.0 and IIRC it runs at 210 constantly.

thoughts?

pic of said truck
0726081637-00.jpg
 
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i talked to a buddy of mines dad who has a vortec 454 in his dually and he said it runs 200-210 consistently so no worries there...
 
The TC not locking up is probably a bad 4WD shift actuator. With those miles on it, it is very possible that its your culprit.

I don't think they're too terribly expensive. They aren't difficult to replace either.
 
ahh didnt even think of to type out torque converter... the transfer case works flawlessly, but the torque converter doesnt lock up sorry for the confusion
 
The temperature sounds fine, but i'd be a little leary of that tranny. That's a fair number of miles, depending on how much hauling they did, and you may find that you change the fluid and all kinds of bad things start to happen... You can always run it down to an independant mechanic to have them look it over. It'll cost you between $50 and $100 for a full inspection, and it's really worth it. And don't forget to run carfax on it too!
 
I got your PM so here's my take...

In texas I drove (what my sister has now) an '00 C2500 with the 454/4l80e/3.73 combo and it's a great truck... I currently drive the k3500 which is the same but it has 4.10's...

First off on rpm's... My k3500 spins about 2,400 @ 70ish mph and that's with 4.10's so with 3.73's you shouldn't be that high... our C2500 with 3.73's cruised around 2,100 at 70 IIRC...

Temp wise that sounds kind of high for this engine... our C2500 runs a rock solid 175* or so and my truck runs a solid 185*-190*... you mentioned your friend's 6.0L runs 210* but that's a different story... all of my boss' have NBS trucks (two of them with the 5.3L and one with the 6.0L) and they consistently run 210*+ so I think it's apples and oranges to compare the 5.7/7.4 to the 5.3/6.0 engines...

That being said I LOVE my 1 ton... BUT... here it comes... of course the mileage issue. :(

The C2500 (CCSB with 3.73's) gets 14mpg on the highway (we've made the trip from Fresno, Ca. to Abilene, Tx. a couple times and it's always been 14)... my K3500 (CCLB with 4.10's) gets about 10mpg no matter what it seems like which is probably due to the extra weight of the 4wd components, a longer bed and lower gearing.


Ok, IMO unless you're getting it for a SMOKING deal (as in so low you can justify putting in a new tranny and doing engine work pretty soon) I'd pass...
With the price of gas, trucks like this are dropping like a rock in price.

I was telling my dad the other day as much as I love my 1 ton if I could have predicted the price drop in big trucks I would have waited... I've seen a lot of newer 2500hd's with the 6.0L for around the same price I spent on my truck... I've even seen a few first generation duramax rigs (somewhat high miles but still) for not much more...

Hope that helps! :)
 
yea i got ahold of the previous owner today and he said he got 9 city and 13 highway with it...

i mean i realy think the truck would be worth putting a trans in it, the current price at the moment is $4250 and i have cash on me to atleast try and get them down to 4k even the blue book on this truck is realy high like 10k which i know it wouldnt be worth unless a 90 year old kept it in a garage and drove it on saturdays but i honestly think that it would be worth every bit of 6k with a new trans in it. also as we have discussed before it is my dream truck which also happens to be rare as $hit so it realy makes it hard to walk away. its just making sure i can afford the note on 6k over 4k because im not exactly rolling in the dough...gas mileage isnt realy a big issue with me, it would be nice to have better but my truck gets 9mpg in the city and 14 on the highway as it sits so its not like id be getting any worse mileage.

i know you had talked about geting a black bear tune Avery, did you ever get one? thats one of the first things i wanted to do to this truck once i got it, i know my buddies 6.0 gets 2mpg better than it did before his blackbear tune and went from not being able to even powerbreak to barking the $hit out of the tires from takeoff... again this is apples to oranges
 
For that price it might be worth it... blue book has dropped a TON on these trucks lately... I'd book it again b/c I doubt it books for $10k... I did my k3500 and it only books for like $8k... again though if it's the truck you want then who gives a crap what blue book is. :)

I haven't done the black bear tune yet b/c I want to get the exhaust/intake work done before he tunes it...
 
Go down to a transmission shop and pay them to inspect the tranny (pull the pan and all). It will likely result in them giving you a "its time to rebuild" excuse to talk down the price. Take what you feel the truck is worth at this point and subtract the cost of a new transmission with a minimum 3 year warranty. A friend of mine just replaced her 4L80E for $3500 with a 5 year 50K mile warranty.

Even if you find out the tranny is fine, then you can jump on the current price.
 
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