Replacing a 700R4 with a 4l80E in a 68 Camaro.

[ty1295]

Myclone hit my opinions on the nose.

The electronic stuff I love. To me it is like the difference between a carb and fuel injection. Once you understand it you don't want to go back.

Internally the 700 the 60e are very close to the same and share a lot of hard parts. 60e is just electronic, removing the TV cable as you said.

I gave up personally on 700 after helping my buddy go through 3 of them in 3 months with his basically stock syclone (with more boost). 1 blew up while being emission tested, 1 just broke and the 3rd and one built with nice parts just broke a hard part inside. At the point hard parts are breaking not much else you can do except search for someones special vodoo magic material, high dollar parts or move to a bigger trans. Now as Myclone mentioned we do have AWD so traction isn't an issue, and our little v6 makes BB chevy torque #'s at low rpms. Big torque on one end, traction on the other something in the middle is going to give up.

Remove the torque or traction the the 700/60e will probably live just fine. Heck I have a 60e in my tahoe with 147k miles, and doing ok. I just hate not being able to safely tow in OD and plan to yank it out and throw an 80e in it also. Did I mention I like the 80e?

I still find it extremely funny to see everybody assume the 80e takes more power to turn though. Same engine, same tune and the syclone we did went .2 faster on same track very similar weather. It now is as far as I know the fastest stock turbo/motor syclone around. I don't think the tranny made it faster per se, but it surely didn't hurt it either even though it does weigh a bit more.

[DeltaT]

ty1295,

When are you locking up in the 1/4 mile? What gear?

Thanks,

Jim

[myclone]

ty1295,

When are you locking up in the 1/4 mile? What gear?

Thanks,

Jim

While I cant speak for ty1295 Id say 80-90% of the syty ppl are manually locking the TC on the 700/60E right out of the gate. It wont lock in 1st but it will lock as soon as the 1-2 shift is made if there is a manual lock up switch wired in. Since these are turbo motors they absolutely love to be loaded down to make the big tq. When I started locking my 2800rpm tc manually I went from running 8.0 in 1/8th to 7.70 with no other changes. Yeah, its hard on the trans but a kick in the shorts if youve got a tc that can hold it.

ty1295 may be doing otherwise and Im not trying to stick my nose in here just passing along info.

[DeltaT]

Yeah, I have mine set to lock up at WOT plus speeds >45mph, so I figure it's locking up in 2nd at WOT soon after it shifts.

Jim

[myclone]

Yeah, I have mine set to lock up at WOT plus speeds >45mph, so I figure it's locking up in 2nd at WOT soon after it shifts.

Jim

Jim,

I thought you were talking about a 700/60e when I replied the first time...sorry. I cant really say what other ppl are doing with the 80e lock up but Im locking it @ WOT/45mph as well. After a half dozen WOT 25psi floggings back to back the 80e didnt seem to break a sweat and the fluid temps never got above 170 deg with mid 90s ambient temp.

An educated guess is that I havent even made it even remotely work hard in my 3400lb AWD vehicle...yet

[Steve Chryssos]

......I cant really say what other ppl are doing with the 80e lock up but Im locking it @ WOT/45mph as well. After a half dozen WOT 25psi floggings back to back the 80e didnt seem to break a sweat and the fluid temps never got above 170 deg with mid 90s ambient temp....

Wow! 45mph? Temp s one thing but the actual friction lining surface area for the lock up clutch is quite small. I would think that the lining's life span is short at 45 mph. How long have you been doing this? Not criticizing--just curious, since I make "safe" recommendations to my customers when tuning over the phone.
I presently restrict my WOT lock up parameters to 65mph so that there is sufficient vehicle momentum.

Are you using a multi disc lock up? I wanna try one.

[myclone]

Wow! 45mph? Temp s one thing but the actual friction lining surface area for the lock up clutch is quite small. I would think that the lining's life span is short at 45 mph.

I would assume the LU clutch in a stocker isnt designed to handle WOT high tq lock ups but then again Ive never cut an 80e converter apart to take a gander at the innards to see how beefy they really are.

How long have you been doing this? Not criticizing--just curious, since I make "safe" recommendations to my customers when tuning over the phone.

No criticism taken and the ~six WOT lock up blasts were back to back. I dumped enough cash into the 80e so I wanted to make it earn a little of it LOL.

I presently restrict my WOT lock up parameters to 65mph so that there is sufficient vehicle momentum.

Thats probably pretty safe IMO and should make for a long lasting tc/trans. Im used to pulling the 700 twice a week for freshening so if I get a full season out of an 80e I'll be happy. Soft part rebuild kits are cheap and easy to install in an 80e but with a 700 it gets a little old replacing broken high dollar hard parts.

Are you using a multi disc lock up?

Yes, a Coan high zoot piece and so far Im 100% pleased with it. Its not loose like a B&M/TCI at light throttle but once the motor starts putting some tq through it at about ~8psi of boost it builds to 15lbs lightning quick. Its like the best of both worlds really....docile at light throttle but hold the brakes and give it a little throttle and spool up is as close to instant as I'll ever get without a little shot of N2O.


BTW, the temps I mentioned really dont tell the whole story. The trans cooler was moved to under the bed of the truck with minimal air flow when I did the 80e swap (I added a spal fan) and its no longer plumbed in series with the cooler in the radiator anymore. The 170 deg temps were with the fan off just to compare the temps with what I was used to seeing when I ran the 700. After the 1st WOT/TC lock up pass on a 700 the fluid temps would have passed 210 deg and rapidly climbing.....thats with the cooler mounted behind the grill as well as having the stock cooler in series too.

To sum it up I now have WAY less cooling capability with the fan off and no radiator mounted cooler in line and the temps are 40+ deg less with 5 times more abuse. Im not an engineer by any means but that leads me to believe the 80e really isnt breaking a sweat.

Im just waiting to find the next weak link in the driveline though LOL.