Curious if anyone has installed one of these in a 3rd gen. My new 4L80E & torque converter are here along with harness. The wiring doesn't worry me nor doing the install, other than the fact that I have to get this installed in one day as I cannot have a hoist tied up longer than that. My question I guess is what about driveline length ( have a 9inch & 700r right now) what about torque arm, and rear trans mount differences in length and location (my torque arm is not located on the trans anymore but onto a crossmember w/heims joint) what about tunnel clearance to trans case, any mods there? Does anyone have pictures or insight on this??If so please reply, thank you, Scott................

 

you're probably one of none. unique putting a truck designed trans in a car. should drive like a th400 with a overdrive. smooth shifts could be made firmer by altering the pressure control solenoid wiring with resistance or a aftermarket controller that does this. a trans brake might be an option because it has a band in the back like a th400. a bit heavy for autocross. a bit heavy for drag racing. just right for cruising and pavement pounding. probably too pricy eh? should fit nicely I think//driveshaft will probably be shorter and not fit a 9";custom all the way. I've worked on many/many of these and they run extremely hot-so hot that they melt plastic things affixed to them and around the trans. an excellent cooler ran through the radiator and then through a external cooler is a must!!!!!!!! or meltdown is emminent.

 

Try a search, I don't have any experience with this but I recall discussion on here about it requiring floor pan/tunnel modification because it's larger. Not sure though.

 

it's got girth. on top yes. a sledge hammer will probably suffice? nice pic of the rear.

 

I doubt it could be done in a day.

Is your crossmember designed for a 4L80E? The mount will be a few inches farther back.

The transmission is a lot longer meaning you'll need a much shorter driveshaft. The proper length is to slide the slip yoke into the transmission all the way then pull it back out 1". Measure from the center of the slip yoke u-joint to the center of the diff u-joint. That's the required length. The 4L80E uses the same larger slip yoke as a TH400. The yoke for the 700R4 won't fit.

You have a transmission and harness. What about the computer to control it?

 

Somebody sells a crossmember setup for it, its either Spohn or BMR, i know Mosers M9 setup is available with the 4l80 crossmember. The mount is a lot further back. I've seen pics of a Camaro with the trans in it, its been posted here a few times by somebody, let me check.

TPI383 posted some pics of the car, its a white maro with orange? stripes, minitubbed ect. Sweet car, not sure who's it is. Maybe PM him for the pics.

 

Ok, here's where I'm at....After much conversation with various trans/torque converter builders & a vast array of prices, I settled on the 4L80E & accompanying torque converter from CK Performance out of New York. The transmission is a full manual valve body with trans brake so no additional computer is required however it did come with a wiring harness so the speedometer can be interfaced through my Fast XFI computer & torque converter performance & shifts can be observed. The guy at CK Performance was very patient & considerate of the trouble I have had with the Neal "Take a Chance" torque converter that I have infront of my built 700R4. CK Performance even makes some CNC parts for TCI and the guy was extremely knowledgable & helpful. My new 4L80E was accompanied by a 12 month, 1200hp guarantee & 3 torque converter tweaks at no charge if necessary!!! That's hard to beat!!! My Chance converter was supposed to be 2800 stall w/3200 flash & was flashing clear up to 5700!!! No wonder everything we did to the car made it sound more PO'd (replaced the P1SC with and F1, stiffer valve springs, titanium retainers/locks, bigger injectors, etc......) but the dyno numbers kept going down, down, down. This car should have been getting 650-700 rwhp and was now down to under 400 rwhp!!!! All the trans & torque converter guys I talked to said they could sell me a lockup converter that would hold but that my 700R4, no matter who built it or what parts were in it would problbly lunch out in short order and said I should sell the trans while it is still unhurt (built 700R4 was over $2000 & had all the goodies). At this juncture, I have just ordered a chromoly driveshaft w/ stainless yoke from Hawks and it is a Spohn piece for less than Spohn sells it for!!! The new 4L80E is 31 11/16 from bell housing to tail shaft housing, the 700R4 is aobut 30 1/2 (not too much difference) however, the rear mount on the 700R4 is about 23 1/4 from the bell housing back and the 4L80E is about 30 1/2 back so I will have to make a new crossmember for that which shouldn't be a big deal. Don't know what I will have to do to the tunnel but most are saying a "massage" with a ball peen hammer will do. I'm not big on that kind of modification so I may just cut out part of the tunnel & redo as when all this comes together I will be putting in a roll cage anyway & will have to take out the carpet & reinstall no matter what. I will keep you posted with pics & info as time allows if anyone is interested. Thanks for you input & any additional input is welcome. PS.....I had heard that Ed Wright out of Oklahoma was a great dyno guy to use on computer controlled fuel injected cars with blowers. My experience was very lack luster at best!!! He is the reason I brought my car back home & changed manifolds, throttle bodies, injectors & rails, installed a larger supercharger, etc....chasing the problem of why my car wasn't performing like it should have.......after about $6000 additional that I probably wouldn't have had to spend to get results and alot of time out the window and still no dyno results ( and he had the wrong distrubutor entered into the FAST program & did dyno pulls on my car with the slip tube on the Hooker headers blown clear off the head & the gasket frayed all to pieces ) I took this car to Chris Lovett of Wichita Dyno in Wichita, Kansas who did a fabulous job with the car & pegged the torque converter as my whole performance problem. I would highly recommend him for any computer dyno work!! He is knowledgable, has a great attitude & will take the time to find & fix problems. He works on alot of very high horsepower blown & turbo cars, street & strip & knows what's up. Give him a call, 316 295 4285. I wouldn't take mine anywhere else!!!!!!

 

Learn to use paragraphs. That's very hard to read.

You're going through all the trouble to buy and install a 4L80E when a TH400 has the same gear ratios (without an OD) is just as strong, cheaper, easier to install and much lighter. With 700 RWHP, there shouldn't be a concern about an OD since I doubt you'll be driving it long distances enough to be concerned enough about fuel mileage. Building a high HP engine and putting around under 1500 rpm is a waste of money.

If you want a tranny with an OD, a 200-4R is a better choice.

 

Ok, thanks for the critique on my lack of paragraphs. Anyway, here are a few pics of under the car etc... if they will load....still new to this part. As for the transmission selection, nobody had a recommendation of anything less than either a 400 w/gear vender OD or the 4L80E. Not only is this car making this kind of power but in full street trim with AC and all the seats in place, no Lexan, a real street car, I am wanting the overdrive so it will be less painful on Chevy Power Tours and the like.

 

PS...this car is whoopas on tap as soon as I can get the power to the ground. Even though there have been alot of changes, with the P1SC, the old manifold & throttle body, a different fuel management system and the old "chipped up" OBD II computer, this car, with cruise locked in at 70 mph, made as high as 21 mpg believe it or not.. I'm sure some of the adds I have done will change this to the negative aspect some, but with fuel management, the FAST XFI which can hold 4 programs, we are going to do 1 of the 4 tunes for highway economy and the dyno tuner I previously mentioned feels we can do this tune and still get the car to pull 18mpg on the highway. We are going to use 3 of the 4 tunes.. One tune will be "highway mpg", one tune will be "91 octane", and one will be for "E85" assuming my injectors are big enough. Tunes will be changeable through a key selector in the console. That's the plan, the 4L80E is going in irregardless of your opinion on that. 4L80E's are being used more and more on extreme street performance gms all the time. Big Stuff computers are set up for them. Stand alone computers for such installs are also available for them. It's 2009, get into the now. Attached are a few more pics. I built the torque arm crossmember, the side pipes, the ground effects which are sheet metal, all the brackets for the 9", moved the rearend bumpers inboard the wheel well, the subframe connectors etc... Installing a transmission should not be a problem, just wanted some input from someone who might have done this before, not really looking for critiscism.

 

Those are the cleanest side pipes I have EVER seen on a thirdgen! good job

 

Thanks Robert, I busted my as- on that to make it look right & the ground effects out of metal to make them look OEM but not catch on fire! Appreciate your comment very much!!!! Kindof the cannonball run look. Thank you!!

 

Very clean/nice ride. Good luck with the transplant.

 

Very nice job, very factory looking. Thats some of the best metal work I've ever seen.

Eric

 

I'd stick the trans cooler in front of the intercooler. the 80e runs hot-hot-hot
needs to be cooled properly-especially with a stall. run through the radiator first-then through the add on cooler. 1 year warranty sounds good-how does the pressure control work on the manual valve body? is it always at max-just like there is no power to it (the solenoid brings pressure down)-banging the heck out of the trans?

 

Before you take too much stock in his criticisms, take a look at the info on his car under his member name. Obviously, that car rides back and forth on a trailer, and the only time it sees any pavement at all is at the dragstrip! Hats off to you for having the determination and patience to build a wicked car that's still totally streetable! I've heard rumors of a few 4th gen f-body guys doing the 4L80E swap, so you might be able to glean a little more info if you search some of the 4th gen f-body sites. You've obviously already spent a sick amount of money on your project, so I wish you the best of luck that you'll be able to get it all to work out good in the end.

 

Very nice car. I'm hoping those pictures of the trans crossmember are before the swap. I would think that a stock x-member relocated would flex a little with that much power. Also sick exhaust.

 

Thanks to all you guys who are being supportive on this message board! I appreciate it!!! I've just recieved the chromoly drive shaft from Hawks. All I need now are is a shifter handle with 2 buttons, one for the line lock & one for the trans brake. Anybody know where to buy one? I've seen one before but not sure if the guy drilled & taped his own for the 2nd button. I think I want to go ahead & install a chromoly roll cage while I'm doing this. The car should run well into the 10's, I have no doubt. Anybody know where to get a good deal on chromoly tubing???? Anyway, it will be a bit but I will post pics as the car undergoes the change....Thanks again guys.

 

use a steering wheel with buttons ...

 

old thread but very good read. are you in Wichita?

 

well this is kind of irrelivant and off subject but i am a mech for the marines and i just think its cool you used this trans because we use the 4l80e in our HMMWVs (hummvees)