The next time my 700r4 goes bye bye-I'm seriously considering a way to upgrade. Are the physical dimensions/mounting bolt holes the same? I understand that there are stand alone control modules for the "E" trannys so that shouldn't be a problem. I have a vette-caould I just swap the tails to match it up? Thanks for any info.

 

I don't think there is an easy way to do this. I know there is a guy on the www.corvetteforum.com that has done or is doing this. He made a cool bracket for the torque arm to bolt to. The tailshaft housings are different bolt pattern so you can't just swap those from the 700r4 to the 4l80e. If you do manage to do this swap it should cost you about $3000 for a well built 4l80e and who knows what for the electronics and bracket for the torque arm. Take a look at my trans conversion project. It is going to cost me about $4000 for parts. But when I'm done I think I will have a stronger unit than a 4l80e. And I will have 6 gears. And if I ever destroy the th400 it should be much cheaper to have rebuilt than a 4l80e. The setup I'm doing is what Callaway did for their auto equipped twin turbo Vettes so I think it must be a good way to go. Here is the page on my web site to look at. Feel free to contact me if you have any quiestions.

http://temp.corvetteforum.net/c5/bob...nversion.shtml

 

Are you planning to control this manually? If you or someone else could design a microprocessor controlled shifting device, you'd end up with a close ratio 6 speed auto. That' be incredible.

How fast is the overdrive at changing gears?

 

The Gear Vendors unit works as an automatic or manual. There is a dash mounted thingy that has a switch for manual or auto. When you set it to auto the overdrive will automatically engage at I think 55 mph. Then it automatically shuts off below I think 20 mph. You can also control it with a switch. I am putting the t-handle on my Megashifter with the little button on the side for doing that. I will take a picture of that after I get the interior back together. I had to take a bunch of it apart to do the wiring.

 

The tranny is very long and heavy. About 80% of the internal parts are TH400. It could be swapped in but it's an expensive conversion. It would be a lot cheaper and easier to install a built up 200R4.

There's already a company that sells an electronic reprogram kit for the 4L80E. Since it's an electronically controlled tranny, the reprogram kit does a split shift with the overdrive to make the tranny into a 6 speed.

1, 1OD, 2, 2OD, 3, 3OD (fourth)

I don't have one in my truck. There's also a dash mounted shift controller available. Just like adding a shift kit to make the shifting firmer, the dash mounted unit plugs into the ECU harness and tells the tranny computer to increase line pressure to firm up the shifts. There are 4 positions on the controller. Stock, stage1, stage2, race. Just think. Drive to the track in stock or stage1. Switch it to race to get a race tranny shifting feel then switch it back to stock and drive home without the tires chirping at every part throttle shift. All without pulling the oil pan off and changing the valve body spacer.