tranny question?

[2001V6Power]

i have stage three abbott racing heads,cam,nitrous,and some gears. what do i need to help out the tranny life or improve the performance of the tranny. can someone give me a website?

[Marty85]

Is it a m5 or a4. If its an automatic I can give you lots of good advice for sprucing up the 4l60E tranny. As for the m5's, im not to keen on whatever can be done to them to make them stronger.

[2001V6Power]

sorry its a a4

[Marty85]

Alright thats what I needed to know. Before I go any further I would like to state that SHIFT KITS DO NOT HARM A TRANSMISSION IN ANY WAY. Yet they may cause an already worn out tranny to show its problems a little earlier but it was alread failing to begin with. Ive worked in the automobile repair industry for about 2 years now. One of those years was helping to rebuild trannies only, mostly 4L60E's and ive learned alot about them and what can be done to increase their durability.

Now with that out of the way ill go ahead and list what you can do to your tranny to make it somewhat bulletproof.

1st on my list is to get a shift kit. From what I hear TransGo shift kits are about the best you can get. A shift kit will allow the clutches to engage faster. Faster engagement = less slip which in turn = less heat generated. The less heat there is the longer your tranny will last. On top of engaging faster most shift kits will quicken the transition from one gear to another. Also with any shift kit worth its name it will include an installation video that will walk you through it before you start to give you an idea of what you will need.

2nd on my list would be to buy a corvette servo. What the servo does is apply the 2nd clutch drum band which basically holds the tranny in 2nd gear. The harder it holds and the faster it holds it, the quicker and harder the shift. Again as I said, faster shifting with less slip, equals less heat and longer lasting clutches and tranny fluid. The corvette servo is what comes standard on automatic vettes that got the 4L60E auto tranny which is basically all auto's from probably 94 and up. This servo piston goes into the side of the tranny. Of all the upgrades available this is prolly the easiest to install. Its just under a cover on the side of the tranny on the passeger side. All you have to do is snap out the little ring holding the cover in place and pull it out and follow the directions that will probably come with the servo piston.

3rd on my list would be to change the position of the accumulators. There are two accumulators on the 4L60E. One is under the valve body. This is the 2nd-3rd accumulator. The easiest one to access is the 1st-2nd accumulator which is held on with 3 10mm bolts just to the rear of the valve body towards the tail shaft of the tranny.
Now for a brief description on their purpose. For a quick picture imagine a flat disc on top of a spring kinda like a shock absorber. When fluid is directed to the clutch assemblies to apply them they push on the clutch pistons to squeeze the clutches together. Also at the same time the same fluid is allowed to push down on the accumulator piston against spring force to "absorb" the "shock" of applying the gear. All they do is basically make the shift smooth and soft so its not harsh feeling. But they also allow the clutches to slip slightly.
To modify them all you do is take the piston and spring assembly and turn it upside down so that the fluid no longer has nothing to push on besides itself and we all know that fluid cant be compressed. What this does is allow the fluid to just apply the piston and thats it. It doesnt have to push on anything else while its doing it.

4th would be to increase line pressure. Im not gonna recommend you do this as I already know if I do recommend it somebody is going to flame me for giving what is considered in the tranny world to be bad advice. In my opinion though its not harmful. And contrary to what alot of people will say it wont cause your tranny to overheat no matter what. The roller vane pump operates at maximum capacity all the time. The valve body just bleeds off what it doesnt need back into the pan or into oiling lines. Increasing line pressure though is not hard at all since the 4l60e uses what is known as a "force motor" which is mainly controlled by the computer to regulate line pressure but also has an adjusting screw on the end to turn the initial pressure up or down. Factory its set to 55 psi. Ive turned mine up to about 63 psi which no problems even after 13k miles of hard as hell driving. And even that was enough to make my ear end break loose in the rain from 1st to 2nd under light throttle.

After all these modifications you can go on to more hardcore mods such as heavy duty clutch plates and disks, hardened parts such as sprag assemblies, sungears, planetaries, and reverse shell.

Also for more performance track wise, a higher stall torque converter will allow you to launch at a higher rpm allowing you to get your engine in its powerband faster for harder pulling when blazing down the street or strip.

You can get parts for your tranny here....
http://www.transmissioncenter.net/4L60E.htm
They have everything you could ever think of for our trannies from what I listed in this post to even more stuff like upgraded pumps and the like.

Thank you for your time and im sorry if anyone doesnt like my advice but its what ive learned over the years from research and first hand experience.

[2001V6Power]

thanks for the advice [img]smile.gif[/img] it was detailed and to the point. thanks bro

[CamaroRob97]

Marty85 pretty much said it perfect. A tranny built like that with a good match converter will tear hard! I would even think about making that a sticky very good information in one post.

Probally would want to change the tittle to bulding a 4L60E though.

[matt3989]

wow thanks man this is just the post i was looking for, but i do have a question for you marty, my tranny goes in and out of gears at low rpms escpecially when i go up hills, i also get a really bad vibration when it happens

will what you said fix this or make it worse?

[Marty85]

When you said goes in and out of gears what exactly do you mean? Is it like it drops out of gear or just changes gears frequently? If its just changing gears frequently then thats normal, especially in such a dynamic environment such as mountainous areas. As for the vibration im not too sureon that one. Might be a tranny mount loose or worn out or possibly a U-joint fixing to go.

And thank you guys for giving me credit. Out of all the times ive spent the time to even type out a small portion of what I just said in posts such as these, noone ever gave me notice or credit. As for sticky material, if one of the mods thought it to be good Drivetrain sticky material then I would gladly make it neater and more organized that what it is now.

[rhodeymark]

Marty - I read this with interest too, thanks a lot. The $19 Vette servo seems like a no brainer, but the Raptor servo @ the link you provided for $89 looks bulletproof. Overkill for our cars?

[Marty85]

Actually that would probably be a better buy since it comes with not only the 2nd clutch servo piston but also the 3rd gear servo piston.