Going Turbo LSx '69 GTO Judge Clone

[John]

Badass! Definetly my favorite build on the site ever. I can't wait to see it in person in the upcoming car show season. Hopefully that bad boy will take some awards this year at Goodguys.

Thanks man! Thats what makes it all worth it.

[stangin4lyfe]

Badass! Definetly my favorite build on the site ever. I can't wait to see it in person in the upcoming car show season. Hopefully that bad boy will take some awards this year at Goodguys.

I too agree.
Please keep the pictures coming and good luck to the OP!

[2165 Turbo Rail]

Thanks man! Thats what makes it all worth it.

X2

this started out as a little project and has grown to a full on obsession for me... John would surely agree haha

John I couldn't have done this with out you and I sincerely appreciate everything you have done on this project and everything else since we have been friends...

[Slowhand]

Jesus, you dudes work quick!

[Zfan]

Beautiful ride, love the LS/turbo set up!

[2165 Turbo Rail]

Got the other rear spring today

[2165 Turbo Rail]

Worked on the car till 2:30 or so this morning.
Here is the carnage





Here is the replacement





And here's the new uppers and lowers with the drop spindles, new stock height springs and 13" disc brakes

[2165 Turbo Rail]

Got the car put bak together and as I pulled out on the street the car shifted I to 2nd and popped. Then I lost drive. I can put it in 1st and take off and manually shift it even went on the highway fine in OD but won't take off in D. We assume that when the rear end broke it must have taken a part of the tranny out. We are thinking maybe the sprag but we aren't tranny guys so looks like we will be pulling the tranny soon too see what happen

[turbostang]

Damn, you have the worst luck!

[2165 Turbo Rail]

I'm sure feeling like it!

[NoClassic]

4l80e?

The 60 will just continue to give you trouble.

[Thehead]

sounds just like when the sprag went out in my TBSS..... get the upgraded one when you pull it apart.

[2165 Turbo Rail]

sounds just like when the sprag went out in my TBSS..... get the upgraded one when you pull it apart.

thats what I plan to do.. might upgrade a few other parts while we are in there. Someone told I should do the Sun Shell and get a wider band and a couple other little things too... what ever all that shit is! I know nothing about transmissions

[2165 Turbo Rail]

OK... so its been a while since I've updated this thread because nothing GOOD has happen lately...

so we know the tranny broke when the rear end did.. and we know that the original tranny guy didn't install the shift kit (which he finally gave me $200 back)

so a friend of mine that isn't a transmission guy, but has rebuilt several and knows a lot about what to do to make them last, said he would help me out. Since we were going to be in the tranny to replace the sprag there are other week points of these 4L60e's so he suggested going ahead and upgrading those while we were there.

I bought a new sun shell, case saver, another transgo HD2 shift kit, forward clutches and steels, torlon check balls, new double cage sprag, aluminum 1-2 accumulator piston, seals, 3-4 z-pak, hardened rings for the pump, a transgo no yo yo kit (to help the pump when in higher RPMs, and he also had me get some other valve things but can't remember right now what they are for

so we put it all together and put it in the car. I took it for a test drive and it ran and shifted great. We went back to the shop to let John drive it and the first time it shifted into 3rd it slipped.. but the 1 and 2 gears were still fine. he brought it back and we called it a night.

pulled it the next night to find that the new z-pak was toasted... so the next day we went with a different set up and put in the 3-4 clutch stack like a 4l65e has (8 or 9 clutches instead of just 6 like the 4l60e)
put the tranny in and first time it shifted into 3rd it slipped so went straight back to the shop and pulled the tranny out again and pulled the pump out because it was making some noise and we figure it HAS to be something pressure related.

The pump did show some signs of wear so we went to a buddy's house and got another pump that was apart. We cleaned it up and put it back together. put the tranny back together and put it back in the car (twice in one night we did a shallow rebuild and install)

backed out of the shop and put it in D and 1 and 2nd both slipped. So I went straight to the bay door and we put the car up for the night (this was 3:30am this morning)

SO... now I don't know what I want to do next...I really thinking I should just buy a built 4l60e and see what I can get out of mine seeing how it has all these good upgraded parts.

UGH.. the life of a hot rod I guess, but I HAVE to get this thing going because Good Guys is in 10 days!

any suggestions?


good news is that we can now pull the tranny in about 20 mins

[Kyle]

You should definitely take the tranny somewhere to be built professionally lol.