Oops, there went the tranny.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, mkaake and I put a new (and quite awesome, if I do say so myself) custom CAI on my LeSabre. Well, Monday I finally got to drive it around. I drove it to work, and it seemd to be good. We drove to a store after work, and it was good. And then we started to drive the mile or so home from the store. I hadn't actually floored it yet, since it hadn't really warmed up yet. Here was a good chance to see what the new intake would sound and perform like under full throttle.

Well, I pulled onto the street and eased into full throttle at 5-10 mph. It pulled nice and strong, and sounded pretty good too, all the way through first gear. It shifted to 2nd... and I got nothing but rev-limiter. 😱 I let off the gas for a few seconds, and tried again. Nope, still nothing. So I put it in Neutral, coasted to where I had to turn to our street, and went to Drive again. First gear seems to be there, kinda, under light throttle. So I nursed it home, parked it in the garage, and on the way to park, tried Reverse. Reverse, just at a standstill, makes crunchy-grindy noises. I didn't stay there long, but put it into park and shut it off.

Bummer.

I'm not really sure what to do with it yet. I'm tempted to try to rebuild it in my own garage, but it's darn cold for that this time of year. I'm also tempted to just spend the money and not touch it. Or do something between those two options.

My advice is to stay the hell away from any local builders, Period unless they have lots of customers who you can contact that are happy with the transmission you have in your car. I would call the dealer and ask them how much one from them is. I know they offer the 4l60-e witha 3yr 50k warranty.
Matt

The Reaction Shell is stripped out. Its often called the "stove pipe" because of its shape. It has fingers on the end that flare out and break off. You might even find one or two in the transmission pan. Its somewhat common. If you decide to do it yourself, try and find the Reaction Shell that is heat treated (newer style).

Bernard to the rescue. Just anohter mention of someone to stay away from is Mad Dog Transmissions on Ebay 🙂

Matt

Yeah, I'm already quite wary of rebuilders. That's why if I were to go rebuilt, I'd probably try to do it myself. Unless it had a heck of a warranty on it...

Reaction shell, eh? It does sound like something just isn't meshing anymore, which would make sense.

What would cause such a failure? Well, beside the obvious full throttle run. It's a nice CAI, granted, but I doubt it added that much power. Do these things simply wear or fatigue?

Yes, its just wear and fatigue. It was probably 3/4 worn out before the CAI, it it was just a coincidence that it finally failed shortly after. I have torn these units down for other problems, and found the shells barely hanging on.

TeamTripp said:

Yes, its just wear and fatigue. It was probably 3/4 worn out before the CAI, it it was just a coincidence that it finally failed shortly after. I have torn these units down for other problems, and found the shells barely hanging on.

Click to expand...

Thanks man. That's what I needed to hear. In that case, I didn't "break it", exactly... It was already weakend, and I just caused it to fail here, instead of somewhere out of state.

I actually feel quite fortunate. If things had gone according to plan, I would have put this CAI on weeks ago, when I was visiting mkaake on the other side of the state. Naturally, I would have tested it there... And who knows if I could have driven it back? But as it was, the pipe didn't come in time.

Anyone know off hand if a 4T65E will swap in without trouble? I don't suppose they were made in the same highway final drive ratio though... I like cruising at 2000 rpm @ 70 mph.

The 4T65E uses a pressure solenoid instead of a vacuum modulator, and also has an Input Speed Sensor.

However, you can get different final drive ratios.

Sorry to hear about your tranny. I drive my Buicks like a gramma. Keep rpms low and in city turn off the overdrive. My 85 Buick Century with 3.8 V6 and FWD is on it's 4th transmission (car has 250k on it). Now I just baby it. The LeSabre we got this year is getting a full tranny service next summer just so I know where it's at on the maintenance schedule.

Thanks for the 4T65E info, teamtripp. Is there a workaround to those issues, or do they make it quite an impractical swap?

At the moment, I'm thinking of doing a rebuild in the back of the garage. Thinking. Still looking into options. It's awful cold out there right now...

you don't want the 65.

We'll do a rebuild in your garage... aided by some heat. I'll bring the heat, you bring the parts.

Sound good?

Oh, and get a performance rebuild kit from teamtripp... 🙂