Best 4L60E trans?

[DPGDirk]

Well, my '03 Yukon has 165k on the clock and I'm looking to beef up performance a bit.

Motor is stock with airbox mods, AiRaid tube and I have LT's, ORY and Cat back on the way.

Thinking E-Fans, new radiator and cam once spring rolls around.

I'm thinking I might be better off just redoing the trans altogether. I saw multiple Trans shops on another forum that offer ready built units and am thinking about just ordering a complete rebuilt 4L60E ready to swap in. Also thinking about a Yank TT3000 torque converter.

Any recommendations on a good trans shop for this? Any stand above the rest for quality?
Looks like I'll need a trans cooler too.

This truck is a daily driver and just want to maximize performance at a milder level. Don't need huge HP, but do want to improve launch, shift points and reliability.

Thanks!

 

[ezdaar]

Performabuilt
And
Transbuilderguy a member on performance trucks.net

If, and this is a big, if. I was to ever rebuild a 4l60 it would only go to one of those two.

Now thats said, i wouldnt rebuold a 60, i would swap in a 80.
Even bone stock and used ot handles mpre power than a built 60 costing in excess of 2k. A used 80 can be bought for 500$, not counting swap costs, 1k-1500 depending how crazy you go.

Everything you need to know to swap in a 80 is on performancetrucks.net including a tubular crossmember specifacly made for the 80 swap.
The 60 was designed as a car/light truck trans and was never intended to go into fullsize leta lone a SUV. But gm and their penny pinching habits chose to use it.

If your considering perfomance mods like a convertor and cam, dont dick around with a trans that even once built will still fail.
Get on that website and into the drivetrainsection, read the thousands of posts from guys killing stock-wildly modified 60's non stop, then finnaly making the swap to a 80 and never blowing up a trans again.

 

[DPGDirk]

Performabuilt
And
Transbuilderguy a member on performance trucks.net

If, and this is a big, if. I was to ever rebuild a 4l60 it would only go to one of those two.

Now thats said, i wouldnt rebuold a 60, i would swap in a 80.
Even bone stock and used ot handles mpre power than a built 60 costing in excess of 2k. A used 80 can be bought for 500$, not counting swap costs, 1k-1500 depending how crazy you go.

Everything you need to know to swap in a 80 is on performancetrucks.net including a tubular crossmember specifacly made for the 80 swap.
The 60 was designed as a car/light truck trans and was never intended to go into fullsize leta lone a SUV. But gm and their penny pinching habits chose to use it.

If your considering perfomance mods like a convertor and cam, dont dick around with a trans that even once built will still fail.
Get on that website and into the drivetrainsection, read the thousands of posts from guys killing stock-wildly modified 60's non stop, then finnaly making the swap to a 80 and never blowing up a trans again.

Thanks once again for some good solid advice. I'll check into an 80...

 

[DPGDirk]

Well, I didn't wanna do the conversion and we have a real solid trans shop in our area that I've known for many years, so I had them build me a fresh 4L60E. I'll never be making even 400HP, so it ought to live. Spoke to Yank and he didn't recommend his 11" converter that I was looking at. 3000 RPM's sounded great, but wouldn't work well for those 3 hour trips towing the polaris ranger down the freeway at 75mph. My truck downshifts all the time and lock-up wouldn't be staying on.

Anyway, they built me a stock style (12"?) converter that's stalling right at 2500RPM's. Trans has all the goodies- Sonnax Smart-tech input drum assy, with HD sleeve kit, TransGo HD2 shift kit, Vette 2nd servo, billet 4th servo, Beast sun shell, 10 vane billet rotor, etc, and a Tru-Flow trans cooler.

She gets out of the hole much better now- even a little tire spin. Shifts pretty smooth under moderate throttle, but hard when you get on it. Very noticeable upgrade.

Now for the LT headers, ORY, cat-back and BBP autocal retune! Oh- and E-Fans and a new radiator...

 

[t_ahan]

i did a Performabuilt heavy hauler/level 2 and it was fine in my 03 denali with bolt ons even with a cam and heads, but now with the bottom end worked the trans is starting to let go again 2-3 WOT up shift. i am at the point that i need to do some homework to do the 80 swap........
i am have burned it up when i turned off torque management. the damage is already done but i turned tq management back on to help limit the revs when i romp on her!

 

[5280Racer]

I built mine myself but I was a Chevy tech... any reputable trans shop in your home town can rebuild a 4L60 its simple only takes a few hours. converter I'd stick to as close to stock as possible no need for billet shafts and stuff.. upgrade your cooler yourself.. by the fittings the replace the e clip factory ones build your now lines and mount the cooler in the same place very easy to do.

 

[0Tahoe3]

Hey racer, I have seen a few videos rebuilding the 4l60...would you by them, or have you done that many?
My xmsn has acted up a few times in the past month or so, but 2200 for a monster ss is a bit steep for me.

 

[5280Racer]

youtube! I went to UTI many years when I was getting retired from the Army. There are a few specialty tools you'll need mainly piston compressor and snap ring pliers but can be purchased easily.. if you take your time and follow the directions its so incredibly simple. I order my rebuild kits from Transpartswearhouse.com clean it really well and get some trans gel and rebuild.. I could give you my number too if you have any questions during the process..

Hey racer, I have seen a few videos rebuilding the 4l60...would you by them, or have you done that many?
My xmsn has acted up a few times in the past month or so, but 2200 for a monster ss is a bit steep for me.

 

[bottomline2000]

The key to keeping a 4l60 alive is torque management. I just finished swapping a cammed 6.0 in my truck and had BBP add some TM back into the tune. I have a Jasper Engines reman unit with shift kit and big cooler and i added a circle d 2800 stall with the new engine. All I can is nobody offers a 3yr/100 warranty like them. The guy said if I can break it they'll fix it. I put roughly 50k miles on it with a tuned 5.3 with no TM and only had to replace 1 shift solenoid and do a fluid change. It's worked out so far , but if I had known then what I know now I would have went 4l80 and regeared the truck to 4.11 which will happen eventually.

 

[boomboom baker]

Performabuilt
And
Transbuilderguy a member on performance trucks.net

If, and this is a big, if. I was to ever rebuild a 4l60 it would only go to one of those two.

Now thats said, i wouldnt rebuold a 60, i would swap in a 80.
Even bone stock and used ot handles mpre power than a built 60 costing in excess of 2k. A used 80 can be bought for 500$, not counting swap costs, 1k-1500 depending how crazy you go.

Everything you need to know to swap in a 80 is on performancetrucks.net including a tubular crossmember specifacly made for the 80 swap.
The 60 was designed as a car/light truck trans and was never intended to go into fullsize leta lone a SUV. But gm and their penny pinching habits chose to use it.

If your considering perfomance mods like a convertor and cam, dont dick around with a trans that even once built will still fail.
Get on that website and into the drivetrainsection, read the thousands of posts from guys killing stock-wildly modified 60's non stop, then finnaly making the swap to a 80 and never blowing up a trans again.

How hard is it to swap