Mild 6.0L Build Suggestions?

[Matthew Jeschke]

Wow, makes since now. Damn bolt is impossible haha

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[Rocket Man]

Wow, makes since now. Damn bolt is impossible haha

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Whatever their reasoning was, they quit putting a drain plug in period around 04-05 iirc.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

My dad had a chevy malibu around the 2002ish vintage. They didnt even put a tube to check tranamission fluid. said it was a lofetime fluid. Eventually I advised they ignore the manual. They had it serviced but not even sure how they got into that case.

Wonder if same thinking was floating around in minds at GM if there was a fight ofver it and compramise was to remove that plug haha... I am an engineer now in sales. Used to share cube with former GM engineer. he said that is how things worked there [emoji1]

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[ks03]

My dad had a chevy malibu around the 2002ish vintage. They didnt even put a tube to check tranamission fluid. said it was a lofetime fluid. Eventually I advised they ignore the manual. They had it serviced but not even sure how they got into that case.

Wonder if same thinking was floating around in minds at GM if there was a fight ofver it and compramise was to remove that plug haha... I am an engineer now in sales. Used to share cube with former GM engineer. he said that is how things worked there [emoji1]

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The Malibu would have had a fill plug on the case. To check the fluid level you needed the car warmed up, running and level, then you could pull the plug. If none came out, add until it did. ...basically sucked unless you have a hoist, and an oil reel with atf.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Yeah looked like a stupid setup. Although the car ran like a champ till minnesota salt ate away the chassis. Seemed to be a good little drivetrain.

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[livingez_123]

WOW, that's crazy! I kind of like the simplicity of the 4L60E... Take that with a grain of salt, as I've not rebuilt any transmissions haha Although 4 gears, versus 6 or more in newer transmissions.

Well, latest curveball. This truck is good at throwing them. I got an easy out. It just rounded the head on the transmission pan drain bolt haha I hate to drop this and just have transmission fluid go EVERYWHERE. But maybe I just need to take the pan off and say the hell with it? Otherwise was thinking of trying to get a pump down the dipstick tube.

View attachment 277297

Weld a bolt to the trans plug, I've had to do that before on a customer vehicle.

 

[livingez_123]

The Malibu would have had a fill plug on the case. To check the fluid level you needed the car warmed up, running and level, then you could pull the plug. If none came out, add until it did. ...basically sucked unless you have a hoist, and an oil reel with atf.

Both of my Cadillacs had the same fill plug on the side of the trans case, major pain in the ass. The CTS was the worst, the exhaust pipe ran right by it. The SRX4 at least had some working room.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Weld a bolt to the trans plug, I've had to do that before on a customer vehicle.

I had thought of that and have a welder. Just a bit nervous about welding on truck with ECU, gas tank, etc. probably more so because I uave about 30 seconds of welding experience.

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[mattt]

The factory started installing those bolts with a thread locker that will not submit to any amount of force or heat known to mankind. There was some reason they don’t want them to come out, I forget why. You can get a Dorman pan with drain plug for cheap at most auto parts stores and although I stay away from their crap in this case it was a good thing. GM doesn’t sell a pan with a drain plug.

WOW, that's crazy! I kind of like the simplicity of the 4L60E... Take that with a grain of salt, as I've not rebuilt any transmissions haha Although 4 gears, versus 6 or more in newer transmissions.

Well, latest curveball. This truck is good at throwing them. I got an easy out. It just rounded the head on the transmission pan drain bolt haha I hate to drop this and just have transmission fluid go EVERYWHERE. But maybe I just need to take the pan off and say the hell with it? Otherwise was thinking of trying to get a pump down the dipstick tube.

View attachment 277297

I got mine out using this with a long breaker bar. CRAFTSMAN 5 Piece Bolt-Out Bolt/Nut Remover Set With Case 952160 Tool Kit NEW 24721521606 | eBay



I guess I found the right amount of force with ingenuity, & no heat, and a LOT of patience to get my 04 Tahoe factory original one out. It was a real ***** to get out and I almost gave up, but now that I've used it multiple times, glad I didn't throw in the towel. I didn't see any thread locker on the original when it came out. The way I heard it, it's the O-ring getting stuck to the bottom of the pan from heat cycles. I've since had it out 5-6 times to 'refresh' the trans fluid every so often. Pulling that plug drops about 3.5 quarts out of 8-10 total in the trans and converter. I have a handful of good cond, original drain plug bolts that I harvested from dead vehicles.

 

[Rocket Man]

I got mine out using this with a long breaker bar. CRAFTSMAN 5 Piece Bolt-Out Bolt/Nut Remover Set With Case 952160 Tool Kit NEW 24721521606 | eBay



I guess I found the right amount of force with ingenuity, & no heat, and a LOT of patience to get my factory original one out. I didn't see any thread locker on the original when it came out. The way I heard it, it's the O-ring getting stuck to the bottom of the pan from heat cycles. I've since had it out 5-6 times to 'refresh' the trans fluid every so often. Pulling that plug drops about 3.5 quarts out of 8-10 total in the trans and converter. I have a handful of good cond, original drain plug bolts that I harvested from dead vehicles.

I heard it depends on the year. The impossible ones are supposedly in the 1-2 years before they decided to do away with them. Now, I don’t know this for sure but I read it on the internet so it must be true but the higher-ups were concerned that owners were just draining the fluid not dropping the pan and replacing the filter so they decided to make it so you had to pull the pan to drain it, thinking it would be more likely they would replace the filter. But they still had a shit ton of pans with drain plugs so the super thread locker stuff was used. IDK but there’s lots of differing stories about this, who knows what’s right.