TYLERTXSS Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 (edited) I am getting everything in my trans replaced by a local spped shop. My buddies dad owns it and says that if he replaces everything in the trans with hard parts. Hes doing an 11k build that will put out a little over 500hp. I trust him cuz he knows his shit but I dont want to spend 3000 on a trans build when I could spend a little more for an 80 build. He said once he finishes the trans will be able to handle 800-900 hp. Just wondering some opinions. Edited July 2, 2011 by ViruSS (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8hnpSS Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 if your gonna spend $3000 on him to rebuild yours you might as well go with a proven shop that has nothing but great results. you can get an FLT unit for the same price. just imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TYLERTXSS Posted July 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Well the 3k was a round number, he said its about 2800 in the trans. He owned an SS until a couple years ago and worked as a GM Tech for a lot of years so he knows what hes doing but I want to do this once and be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprayed99 Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Well the 3k was a round number, he said its about 2800 in the trans. He owned an SS until a couple years ago and worked as a GM Tech for a lot of years so he knows what hes doing but I want to do this once and be done. is he including 300m billet input and output shafts for that price??? If not you are getting bent over hard by a so called friends dad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TYLERTXSS Posted July 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Yeah he named those specifically, everything that they make billet for the trans he is swapping out. Where are you at in DFW Sprayed99? I live in FTW over at the Haven at Western Center. I know your the man when it comes to all this, your input is invaluable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2bfast Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 PM sent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterp Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 (edited) Agree that $2800 is a lot for a fully-built 4L60, I would expect it to be $400-600 less than that - I'll say it this way, for 3-grand you should be receiving a really good converter too. AFA the 4L60 vs 4L80 question, it depends on the future plans you have for your truck. The 4L80 only adds 50-lbs to your truck, so weight gain is less an issue than people make of it, however the 4L80 is a much less efficient trans and it will cost you MPG, plus you loose that nice low 1st gear of the 4L60 too. So is your truck going to be N/A, or Radix, or turbo, or nitrous, or ... Mr. P. Edited July 3, 2011 by Mr. P. (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy Posted July 6, 2011 Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 Trying to weed through what you've put there. Who's doing an 11,000 dollar 500hp build and how does that relate to the trans question? My thought for you is in relation to the 800-900hp part. How many 60/65/70E's does this guy have under his belt making this kind of power? Almost every single person on here begins with "he know's his shit" and "he's been doing it for xx years". Before you drop 3k or more, find out how many he's done at that power level and I don't mean TH350's and 400's. Specificly 60E type transmissions. It doesn't mean he's not good if he hasn't done a ton, it just means that it's more of a gamble. You can buy a very proven unit for that cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TYLERTXSS Posted July 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 Agree that $2800 is a lot for a fully-built 4L60, I would expect it to be $400-600 less than that - I'll say it this way, for 3-grand you should be receiving a really good converter too. AFA the 4L60 vs 4L80 question, it depends on the future plans you have for your truck. The 4L80 only adds 50-lbs to your truck, so weight gain is less an issue than people make of it, however the 4L80 is a much less efficient trans and it will cost you MPG, plus you loose that nice low 1st gear of the 4L60 too. So is your truck going to be N/A, or Radix, or turbo, or nitrous, or ... Mr. P. For the foreseeable future it will remain N/A, Im going to turbo maybe late next year tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowsniper3006 Posted July 7, 2011 Report Share Posted July 7, 2011 http://www.finishlinetrans.com/transmissions/maximumPerformance4L65.htm I keep hearing that 3 grand is a lot for a trans, and i keep hearing that "x" person can do it for less money and it will hold more power. Like zippy said how many transmissions has this "x" person built for the 5400 pound trucks and how many of those have failed. Does "x" person test every trans before it leaves on a dyno. Does "x" person get to see the results of these trans and have to pay for the warranty work if it fails. Does "x" person even give you a warranty. Does "x" person learn from the result of breaking parts or just put the same part back in. Does "x" person do R&D to know why he is doing what he is doing, or just because he heard that was the best part to put in. Sometimes more money doesn't get you better hard parts but it does get you the little details that will make your trans hold up to launch after launch, or first gear down shifts, or shifting to second while your doing a burn out. Experience and learning from the results is what you pay for.....and a warranty if something does go wrong. I'm not saying you have to go FLT, but go with someone thats job is to make a trans that see's a quarter mile after every stop light. Maybe instead of just trans upgrade in the track times section we can include a builder code, this help to know who is running who's trans and how much hp it is taking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcsilveradoss Posted July 7, 2011 Report Share Posted July 7, 2011 http://www.finishlinetrans.com/transmissions/maximumPerformance4L65.htm I keep hearing that 3 grand is a lot for a trans, and i keep hearing that "x" person can do it for less money and it will hold more power. Like zippy said how many transmissions has this "x" person built for the 5400 pound trucks and how many of those have failed. Does "x" person test every trans before it leaves on a dyno. Does "x" person get to see the results of these trans and have to pay for the warranty work if it fails. Does "x" person even give you a warranty. Does "x" person learn from the result of breaking parts or just put the same part back in. Does "x" person do R&D to know why he is doing what he is doing, or just because he heard that was the best part to put in. Sometimes more money doesn't get you better hard parts but it does get you the little details that will make your trans hold up to launch after launch, or first gear down shifts, or shifting to second while your doing a burn out. Experience and learning from the results is what you pay for.....and a warranty if something does go wrong. I'm not saying you have to go FLT, but go with someone thats job is to make a trans that see's a quarter mile after every stop light. Maybe instead of just trans upgrade in the track times section we can include a builder code, this help to know who is running who's trans and how much hp it is taking. thats a pretty valid suggestion. I second it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy Posted July 7, 2011 Report Share Posted July 7, 2011 Your point is very valid Brad. I've made that point for quite some time. It happens with engines on here also. Fairly regularly I see a post of I'm having a friend, relative, local shop, etc. and almost always there is in the story of how that person has been doing this for a zillion years and/or has been doing race cars, etc. After a few months you see that same person posting up that they broke their transmission and posting how much they hate 65E's. What I find even funnier is that quite often you see guys who had their stock transmission last longer than their built unit. Having been on this site alone since 2002, before the SSS's have even come out I've seen just about every story from the SSS guys there is. I've had a good share of my own customers as well. If I weren't going to build my own transmission, I'd buy one from Rossler. To say it's only parts is like saying having Kurt Urban build your motor is the same as having Jasper build it. Jasper builds many engines every day and I'd rather have a used 100k mile engine than one of those pieces of crap. I'm not saying that the guy who posted this is going to get a piece of crap if he goes to this GM tech, I'm simply saying for that cost I'd just buy a proven unit. Building a stout unit with 300m input and output shafts can be pricey if you're marking the prices up to retail. The 300m shafts are excessive until you're making enough power to get you into the 11's. You can break the stock shafts with stock power if your shifts are too hard. If the shifts are correct and the converter isn't too tight you can get away with the stock shafts all the way into the 11's. The first breakage you'll see before power breaks the shafts is the input drum usually shatters around the input shaft. The 65E gets a hardened input shaft, but the drum is weaker than the shaft even on the 60E so it's cool to have the hardened shaft, but not that great of a deal. The output shaft on the 4wd's break way much easier than the 2wd's since there isn't as much room for twist to happen. The 65E also gets a hardened shaft, but the 70E uses a different hardening process and is not only more expensive, but much stronger. The stock 65E output shaft will break on the shifts if you have an overkill hard shift and a tight converter. With a looser converter the converter will take some of the hit, but isn't a fix. The 70E shaft will take more than the 65E and for a high 11's truck with a proper shift it should be just fine. The limiting factor there is going to be how hard the truck launches and overall torque output. Putting price as the factor the last race built 70E I built was over 2000 if I remember right, just in parts alone not including the converter and I could have spent more on it easily. That was built for a GTO with a 402 and the occasional use of N2O. Granted it was for up to a 250 shot at that. On motor alone it makes just shy of 500rwhp unlocked with a 3600 stall which considering that it was built mild I was happy with that. That trans deals with worse things than racing which is burnouts into 3rd gear and full power kickdowns. It even has to deal with 7k rpm plus manual shifts on occasion which requires changes in the build and I don't mean the Transgo rev-kit. It is very easy to spend big money on a build. For builds like that as an example I only use Blue Plate clutches. List price on the 2-4 band, clutch fibers, and brand new set of steels is well over $300. The torque drive 300m input kit, sun shell kit, reaction carrier hub, sprag upgrades, billet forward apply piston, rollerized reverse input drum, 300m output shaft, servo's, etc, will come in creaping up on 2g's list price and that's just a small list of parts available for it. When it comes time to freshen that GTO trans up I'm hoping to upgrade it to the 6 pinion planetary kit which is around $1200 with shipping and a few other minor upgrades for testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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