Does anyone know about how much power you can put through the stock 4 pinion planet gear before they start to fail? I'm debating whether the extra $200 for the 5 pinion is worth it.

 

I have 5 gear planetaries front and rear...I'm right at 400 rwhp and have almost 3 years on the trans and its performing flawlessly...My builder believes that having the 5 gear planetaries is definitely helping it stay together...I say its worth the extra $$$...

--Alan

 

How much power are you looking to put through it? From what I've heard, the 5 gear are nothing more than hype until you get into some real high numbers. Planet gears don't often break....I'd put the money elsewhere.

My $.02

 

I figure about 550-600hp at the wheels. spraying out of the hole. I'm all for building a stout tranny, because I know I'll need it, but I haven't really seen any info on how much power they can take. All I see is people saying the 5 pinion is so much stronger, rather than saying at what point the 4 pinion starts failing.

 

Actually start doing some digging and you will find the 4 pinion RARELY break and more folks are having issues with the 5 pinion.

I have almost 3 years on my ProBuilt, has stock 4 pinion, the whole time of that the car has been at least cammed and as of this spring has been about 400rwhp BUT also consider the car is over 4000lbs without me in it, on slippery track nights it cuts 1.8s mostly 1.7s and last night it dipped just into the 1.6s. Consider that weight and that 60ft for a moment.

SOME good 4L60E builders like the 5 pinion but it can also be a sign of a shop that just tried to throw the latest parts at it with little understanding of how it all works which will end in you needing another tranny. Start asking questions about accumulation, if they say they block it RUN don't walk away, if they mention Kevlar RUN, billet servos are another thing some but not all good builders use but almost all bad builders will recommend them for high HP. Ask about the pump, if they say they "upgrade" to the 13 vane that is another BAD sign the 10 vane housing deserves 10 vane replacements leave the 13 vane for the pumps that got them stock.

Out of three friends that had 4L60Es built locally this summer 3 were bad within a few miles though 2 of them were in the same car so one guy actually came through the first 1K miles OK sofar. With this tranny pick your builder carefully you didn't say but I hope you found a shop recommended by someone using the 4L60E for perfomance use. I used a very good local shop once and within 16 months it was junk, they are a good shop just relatively few are capable of building this tranny for true performance use, they couldn't so after that I ordered one from ProBuilt Automatics out in California, I have more time/miles on it behind a lot more power and the latest pan drop was spotless so the future looks good.

 

I'm having the tranny rebuilt by a local shop that that does a lot of work with GM transmissions. It's being done as a side job though, so I was left with the task of buying the parts myself (saves money).