Order, or not to order
Thread Starter
Banned
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 505
From: Jax,FL
Order, or not to order
what would you do?
order a nicely built 4L60E online and have it delivered.........or have it locally rebuilt?
Its not looking like i have any very good transmission shops around me.
order a nicely built 4L60E online and have it delivered.........or have it locally rebuilt?
Its not looking like i have any very good transmission shops around me.
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,634
From: Newark, Delaware
Well...Um...You probably know what I'm gonna say...LOL If you plan on leaning on this thing pretty hard, you might be better off with a 4L60E specialist. If you're looking online, check out as much about the company as you can. Check their customer satisfaction backround. Look for post, on here, about the builders. The search feature is a great thing. Don't get caught up in "gimmicks", though. Some companies will offer free this or free that, mainly because they can't rest on the reputation of their transmissions. Compare what each transmission includes in the build.
http://www.geocities.com/cahallperfo...l60ebuild.html
There are 3 supporting vendors on here who "specialize" in the 4L60E.
www.cahallperformancetransmissions.com
Thanks,
Frank
CPT
http://www.geocities.com/cahallperfo...l60ebuild.html
There are 3 supporting vendors on here who "specialize" in the 4L60E.
www.cahallperformancetransmissions.com
Thanks,
Frank
CPT
Banned
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,970
From: Goochland, Va.
[QUOTE=hey01;4714317]what would you do?QUOTE]
Get someone that knows what they are doing......Seems like everytime someone get a local rebuild they are here a week later with no 2nd or 4th gear.......
Get someone who specializes in 4L60's
Spend you money wisely
Get someone that knows what they are doing......Seems like everytime someone get a local rebuild they are here a week later with no 2nd or 4th gear.......
Get someone who specializes in 4L60's
Spend you money wisely
Supporting Vendor
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,014
From: BLOOMSBURG PA
A 2500 stall should require no tuning , But honestly any 2500 stall you get will be a 12 inch likley restalled stocker I would jump to 2800 at least and get a 9.5 inch converter, loose 12 pounds of rotating mass you would not be sorry and likley would still not require tuning though tuning is always benificial
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,634
From: Newark, Delaware
You can run as much as a 3200 stall behind a bolt-on LT1.
Did you get a chance to try a search? One other thing I want to mention. You run across shop that advertise that they have these transmission in stock. Ask yourself why. Where did the core they built come from? We've got some pretty ugly stuff in our shop that we've bought as cores....Stuff that's been sitting out in the weather for years, and been rained in. We've seen it all, first hand. We've had low milage rebuilt transmissions (from other suppliers) that have came in, and the previous rust issues were causing problems. If we buy cores, we only buy good cores
Another question....Why do these places have so much time on their hands? We can't keep up with the demand for what's coming in the door, let alone time to build stock units. Sure, we could hire more people, but then the quality of the products go down. I, personally oversee EVERY transmission that leaves our shop. I couldn't hold that same level of quality, if I had more builders. Why would a small shop have time to build units to put on the shelf? That's simple...because nobody is buying their stuff.
Many shops don't give you back what came out. It may not be the same year, but it's "close". It isn't out of an F-Body, but it's "close". These are important factors. Putting the wrong year 4L60E in can cause some serious issues. Gm changed both the lock-up, and 3-2 down strategies in these transmissions between '94-'97. Some shops will try to "modify" the wrong year to work. That's only going to cause problems. The vehicle it came out of isn't as much a factor with our builds, because we build them all the same for each build level. We've seen regular truck units come out of F-Bodies that people had bought as pre-built units.
Yes, we have a week turn around time right now. We've worked our butts off to get that down from a 3 week turn-around time. Yes, we do build cores on occassion. Only if I have a GOOD core available. We've found it much less complicated and we're able to give the customer a better product, by building their core.
The shipping sometimes frightens customers from wanting to ship their core to us. People tend to think shipping is more expensive than it is. It only costs $100 to ship a transmission from one coast to the other. Even if you lived in California, shipping total would only be $200. Add that to the price of our 9 second capable unit, and you've still only got $1600, total. Some offer free shipping. Take a look at their total price. I can assure you that you're paying for shipping.
The problem with that structure is this...Everyone is paying for shipping! Even local customers that don't need it are getting charged for it. We only charge the customer for what we sell them.
Hard parts? There's alot of confusion about this one. Hard parts are simply parts that aren't normally replaced in a rebuild. This may include a pump, planetary, drum, etc. These are different than the parts we already include in the rebuilds. We already use the best sun shell, sprags, clutches, bands, etc. These are parts outside that. We do have a $300 "ceiling" on hard parts. This means that even if everything in the transmission is trashed, you will only be charged $300 maximum. This does exlude the case, itself. Some shops don't charge extra for hard parts. Again, trust me...you're paying for them. Again, they're using the "average" method. In other words, if your transmission needs no hard parts, you're paying for someone elses! We only charge the customer for what hard parts we use in their transmission. If we have to charge any extra, we provide pictures, or videos of the damaged parts. On some occassions, I've even sent the bad parts to the customer. The fact is most 4L60E's need very little (if any) hard parts
Now...Knowing all this makes all that "free" stuff look a little less appealing, doesn't it? If you choose to order one from online, make sure you do some research, and look at what you're really getting. The last thing you want to do is buy one online that you have to keep pulling out and sending back. I hear horror stories about this all the time.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to call me. 302-250-1202.
Thanks,
Frank
CPT
Did you get a chance to try a search? One other thing I want to mention. You run across shop that advertise that they have these transmission in stock. Ask yourself why. Where did the core they built come from? We've got some pretty ugly stuff in our shop that we've bought as cores....Stuff that's been sitting out in the weather for years, and been rained in. We've seen it all, first hand. We've had low milage rebuilt transmissions (from other suppliers) that have came in, and the previous rust issues were causing problems. If we buy cores, we only buy good cores
Another question....Why do these places have so much time on their hands? We can't keep up with the demand for what's coming in the door, let alone time to build stock units. Sure, we could hire more people, but then the quality of the products go down. I, personally oversee EVERY transmission that leaves our shop. I couldn't hold that same level of quality, if I had more builders. Why would a small shop have time to build units to put on the shelf? That's simple...because nobody is buying their stuff.
Many shops don't give you back what came out. It may not be the same year, but it's "close". It isn't out of an F-Body, but it's "close". These are important factors. Putting the wrong year 4L60E in can cause some serious issues. Gm changed both the lock-up, and 3-2 down strategies in these transmissions between '94-'97. Some shops will try to "modify" the wrong year to work. That's only going to cause problems. The vehicle it came out of isn't as much a factor with our builds, because we build them all the same for each build level. We've seen regular truck units come out of F-Bodies that people had bought as pre-built units.
Yes, we have a week turn around time right now. We've worked our butts off to get that down from a 3 week turn-around time. Yes, we do build cores on occassion. Only if I have a GOOD core available. We've found it much less complicated and we're able to give the customer a better product, by building their core.
The shipping sometimes frightens customers from wanting to ship their core to us. People tend to think shipping is more expensive than it is. It only costs $100 to ship a transmission from one coast to the other. Even if you lived in California, shipping total would only be $200. Add that to the price of our 9 second capable unit, and you've still only got $1600, total. Some offer free shipping. Take a look at their total price. I can assure you that you're paying for shipping.
The problem with that structure is this...Everyone is paying for shipping! Even local customers that don't need it are getting charged for it. We only charge the customer for what we sell them.Hard parts? There's alot of confusion about this one. Hard parts are simply parts that aren't normally replaced in a rebuild. This may include a pump, planetary, drum, etc. These are different than the parts we already include in the rebuilds. We already use the best sun shell, sprags, clutches, bands, etc. These are parts outside that. We do have a $300 "ceiling" on hard parts. This means that even if everything in the transmission is trashed, you will only be charged $300 maximum. This does exlude the case, itself. Some shops don't charge extra for hard parts. Again, trust me...you're paying for them. Again, they're using the "average" method. In other words, if your transmission needs no hard parts, you're paying for someone elses! We only charge the customer for what hard parts we use in their transmission. If we have to charge any extra, we provide pictures, or videos of the damaged parts. On some occassions, I've even sent the bad parts to the customer. The fact is most 4L60E's need very little (if any) hard parts
Now...Knowing all this makes all that "free" stuff look a little less appealing, doesn't it? If you choose to order one from online, make sure you do some research, and look at what you're really getting. The last thing you want to do is buy one online that you have to keep pulling out and sending back. I hear horror stories about this all the time.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to call me. 302-250-1202.
Thanks,
Frank
CPT
Thread Starter
Banned
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 505
From: Jax,FL
waoh, thanks for the input. I contacted the local F-body club here and 1 guy was recommended, i'll check him out on monday. I'll also look at your stuff CPT.
I did talk to the same exact shop as your talking about a few weeks ago......they have 4L60E's ready to swap in. I called up and said i want a built one with a stall......the sales guy said, oh we can make you a stall in house....i said NO! im getting a vig. Then i asked whats inside and how firm it would shift....he said "oh you have an electronic transmission you'll need a chip to make it shift harder..we'll just set it up so your ready for that,((RED FLAG RED FLAG)) but its a good transmission and if you don't beat on it at the strip every weekend it will last a long time.((RED FLAG RED FLAG))
i said
"Im not putting stall and a built 4L60E in my z28 to drive slow"
*click*
the guy that recommneded a shop is running an 11 second LS6 GTO......... so we'll see.
I did talk to the same exact shop as your talking about a few weeks ago......they have 4L60E's ready to swap in. I called up and said i want a built one with a stall......the sales guy said, oh we can make you a stall in house....i said NO! im getting a vig. Then i asked whats inside and how firm it would shift....he said "oh you have an electronic transmission you'll need a chip to make it shift harder..we'll just set it up so your ready for that,((RED FLAG RED FLAG)) but its a good transmission and if you don't beat on it at the strip every weekend it will last a long time.((RED FLAG RED FLAG))
i said
"Im not putting stall and a built 4L60E in my z28 to drive slow"
*click*
the guy that recommneded a shop is running an 11 second LS6 GTO......... so we'll see.
Last edited by hey01; Jul 7, 2007 at 05:01 PM.
Supporting Vendor
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,014
From: BLOOMSBURG PA
I did talk to the same exact shop as your talking about a few weeks ago......they have 4L60E's ready to swap in. I called up and said i want a built one with a stall......the sales guy said, oh we can make you a stall in house....i said NO! im getting a vig. Then i asked whats inside and how firm it would shift....he said "oh you have an electronic transmission you'll need a chip to make it shift harder..we'll just set it up so your ready for that,((RED FLAG RED FLAG)) but its a good transmission and if you don't beat on it at the strip every weekend it will last a long time.((RED FLAG RED FLAG))
i said
"Im not putting stall and a built 4L60E in my z28 to drive slow"
*click*
And if they are selling high performance transmissions they should be willing to back them up in your application as long as of course your ordering correctly for what you plan to do IE: Not ordering a level one when you obviously need a level 2 or 3. Of course a good company would not let you under order as long as they were being given the correct information. This is why I reveiw every order to make sure. My full time job 7 days a week is customer service and tech support. Making sure the customer gets what they need.
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,634
From: Newark, Delaware
Supporting Vendor
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,014
From: BLOOMSBURG PA
No we are not a 1-2-3 man company there are 15 employees at performabuilt alone Which is just a small part of the company. My job is full time customer support,design, trouble shooting, sales and promotion. I was a builder for over 20 years however.I was chosen for this job because of my technical know how and comunications skills. The only time I become involved in the actual builds is if and issue comes up that needs my personal attention which is rare or Production changes,design improvements etc. We are always learning and looking for new and better ways to do things. We also have a shipping dept, Accounting,aquisitions and more. I am just a small part of a big picture. my job is to make sure the customer is happy and get what they need when they need it. This is why I am available 7 days a week from 9 am till 1am. Im definatly not spliting my time between building and being on here I would never get anything done. We actually have two techs who work on the phone and online exclusivley.