4L80E early to late conversion

[Mr_Roboto]

Anyone ever done this? I've read a few things on the differences, one guy who did it swapped the entire VB setup, another says it's a valve/passes in the accumulator body and the separator plate being the differences. I've also read the force solenoid is the same for all years. What of this is true and what is false? Would love to actually know how difficult it'd be to do and if I'm just better off digging another 80E up. Would love it to be a simple swap in chassis so I didn't have to drop it. These things are frickin heavy!



I have a 91-93 model unit, wanting to go to 94+ so I can use a stock box with it. If I did it I'd also want to swap over to the later pan that has a drain plug in it. I don't think the pan pattern changed, but figure I'd ask to be sure.

[MarkB]

You can swap a valve body from 1991 to 1996, but the '97 -04 & '04 -up cases and valve bodies are different and will not interchange. The force motor (EPC solenoid) is the same from 1993 - 2004 (black small diameter) the early '91 - '92 is the large silver style, but you can and should update to the later black style EPC solenoid. The '97 - up style pan will not work on the the early version due to the lube tube, but you can possibly locate a '93 - 96 OE pan with a drain plug. Worse case you can upgrade to an aftermarket cast aluminum or sheet metal aluminum pan with drain plug.

I guess I would ask the question, what are you looking to accomplish by changing the valve body? You can just install Sonnax updates in your valve body, install a new internal wiring harness with the updated EPC solenoid and even a shift kit if desired.

I hope this information helped. Let me know if you have other questions or need any of the parts to make this happen.

Thanks,
Mark

[Mr_Roboto]

I'm trying to expand my ECU options since the trans is in vehicle already. I have a Megashift and if I get totally fed up with it I'm thinking about digging an 0411 up and swapping to that and a Vortec or LS based engine. Probably a pipe dream, but you never know what aggravation and impulsiveness will do to a person.