Anyone running a 4l60e in their trail rig/buggy?

[yunit]

Just bought a 1995 4.3 Vortec (1995 - 4.3 L L35 V6, CMFI, 191 hp/260 ft.lb) with a 4l60e, I plan to use the combo in my next project (buggy). Anyone around here using a 4l60e in their rig? How do you like it? Have you experienced and problems with the tranny because of the electronics and the gear and tire changes? What kind of mods have you done to the tranny?

 

[1979jimmy350]

i swaped a 4l60-e into a older s-10, they are basicly the same as a 700-r4 execpt being computer controled. With the tire and gear changes you will need to get a chip burned, or get the stuff and do it your self it is not that hard. A good mod for the tranny is a corvett servo and a trans cooler, you can get a electronic shift kit that you can turn on or off which is a nice feature. The L35 CPI is a great engine with a good amount of power it should do well in a buggy

 

[ryan22re]

plan on upgrading the sun shell. lots of bumping from drive to reverse will break them real quick.

i like the electronics, but they can be problematic at times. i honestly think that the newer the electronics, the more problems you have. 94-95 were the best years for the 60e's in my opinion.

 

[yunit]

I am building this buggy on a strict budget, the engine & tranny only cost me $300 and that included everything. I will just clean the engine & tranny up and run them the way they are for now, then I might tear the engine and tranny down next winter and freshen them up; if they hold up until next year.

Now I just need to get rid of my other engine, tranny, and Doubler to go towards the buggy budget.

 

[dyeager535]

Since the electronic stuff is becoming ever more prevalent, and it's interesting, if yunit's gear ratio/tire size is a large ways from what the donor was stock, does this affect the shift points based on the assumed vehicle speed of the PCM?

 

[big83chevy4x4]

i don't think so, the VSS is hooked to the driveshaft, that is always going to be turning the same in relation to the engine no matter what axle ratio or tire size its turning.
the thing that will affect it is if the VSS is in the tcase that is not factory. lets say a doubler is put behind it with a VSS in the 205. the computer is gonna be WAY slow on the shift points because it needs to know if its in low range or not to know how fast the tranny is spinning. also its not gonna know the correct ratio and its gonna be slow, or fast depending on the low range ratio.

one thing i noticed in my catalogs is a modulator conversion kit for a 4L60E, its nice to know that you can run a 4L60E without any computerized stuff and still have it be an automatic, instead of like a reverse manual valve body. its only about $150 (2003 price list is all i have)

 

[dyeager535]

By driveshaft you mean output shaft of the t-case, right? (same VSS setup that has been used since speedo cables disappeared essentially?)

The engine/transfercase RPM relationship (stock) won't change because of any changes further "downstream" than the VSS obviously, but driveshaft RPM (and thus calculated vehicle speed) in relationship to engine RPM/throttle position would. That's what I'm curious about.

As a for instance, you go from say a 3.42 donor drivetrain to a 4.56 geared rear, the PCM (through the VSS) is going to interpret that since the driveshaft RPM increases, (for a given MPH) vehicle speed must surely have increased as well. Exactly the same reason a cable drive speedometer is off once a gear or tire size change has taken place.

But how much of a factor is actual vehicle speed in shifting the "E" trans, compared to things such as throttle input and engine load?

 

[big83chevy4x4]

By driveshaft you mean output shaft of the t-case, right? (same VSS setup that has been used since speedo cables disappeared essentially?)

yes, the output of the tcase, i have seen some though that put it on the output of the tranny, keeps having another sensor in the tcase to let the computer know if its in low or not. also allows you to run a different low range tcase.

it would be no different than on a 700r4, the VSS just took place of the governor. with a 700r4 the shift points didn't change, but the rpm it shifted would change because of the different ratio or tire size. going from 3.42 to 4.56 will move the shift points sooner, but the same thing goes with a 700r4.