3800/4T80e motor plates (solid 4 corner mounting)

[Turbocharged400sbc]

i guess you should call em drivetrain plates...since it's kinda hard to utilize solid plates on a transverse drivetrain lol

we will be picking up an 80e tranny this weekend for the front of the 442 and i was wondering what some of your thoughts are on a nice 4 corner mount system to finally dlete the W body Tq links and associated crap and drop the CG a bit along with a nice solid

the 80e has bolt boss's for the OE front and rear mounts so that would be easy to fab up small solid mounting ears

we will be having to make our own trans to engine brace but i dont see much of an issue to turn that into a solid mount

the passenger front is where i have been trying to figure on a solid setup...i could do plate that uses the orig W body mount bolt points and tie it into the AC compressor forward to bolt directly to the subframe

i want to do a solid setup but at the same time the minimal movement of a polyurethane sleeve bushing wouldnt make things much smoother (it's the 442....the vibration will just add to all the other pumps/etc lol) but maybe the slight give would help
solid double shear bolting is pretty cheap though...and it is a race car that is still street drivable (hey if your willing to put up with anything...anything is streetable )

any idea's lets hear em... i cant wait to do mockup...

[91parkave]

one question though why would you want the 80e in the front ,isnt the rear motor going to make the most power? but its ard to give any suggestions on that if we dont have some pics to work with

[Turbocharged400sbc]

look at the thread in performance and brainstorming on the bonneville club.com forum...

[91parkave]

lol yea i got banned from bonneville club so thats out the question

[Turbocharged400sbc]

i think i may have figured it out since i think the OE 80e mount may work with the 1st gen W body trans mount on the cradle (almost boltin!!)

we need the 80e in the front and rear for the constant 4 wheel burnouts...

seriously the front at the track could probably get away with the 65ehd...the problem is the front engine on the street is called upon to haul the whole 4500lb beast around...and the $$$$ 1 inch chain option for the 65ehd is OEM on the 80e...., everything is bigger and stronger than the 65... and it's practically a bolt in mod! yeah there is some work involved but hardly out of the realm of a moderate DIY'r

and we just scored a recently reman 80e from the local u pull it for 160$...yup thats right you heard me...160$

looks like we scored the muther ****ing load! trans was from a sedan deville with interior burn damage (engine compartment was clean, engine already gone) from the looks of things the trans was reman'd very recently possibly by GM since the filters were made in the usa and the papers had the OE type GM imprint...

got the trans, Tq converter, tulips, range switch, lines and mounts for the 160$


ohhhh boy does this bad boy put the 65's to shame...

on a side note...we found a 98 aurora burn victim (again looks like it originated from the fuel line area...sigh) that has all the bolt in mounts etc for eric's 98 riviera (a G body just like the aurora's) so he needs to grab that...at least you know the car didnt go to the Jyard because of the trans....lol for 160$ it's worth it...i mean it's 3.11 fdr (better fuel economy than his 3.29 4T65E-HD) and a factory 1 inch chain....i think more people need to look into these transaxles....overkill is better than a towbill

Goodnight yall!

[91parkave]

hey what was the weight diff between the 2 and would the 80-e be a plug and play swap with a 65-e? besides the mounts?

[Turbocharged400sbc]

it's not a boltin boltin but it will boltin dig?

you have to drill the belhousing for the two additional holes (not used on the N* and auropra) and either use only 5 belhousing bolts (prob fine for many swappers) or drill the back of the block with a new hole and thread it to use the lower rear belhousing bolt...

flexplate needs to be scribed with the Tq conver lug pattern radius and drilled for the 4 bolt 80e Tq converters (newer Tq converters arent as desirable because of TCC NVH crap that hinder power capacity of the TCC-think of the fuel economy of being able to stay locked under boost...)

a custom 3800 to differential case brace, this isnt too bad to do and you can always modify an OE 3800 and N*/aurora braces to make one

because of exhaust X-over routing you may want to relocate the trans range switch to actuate off the shifter to keep heat away this isnt too big an issue and if your into it a newer 80e with the internal range switch would be ideal if your not into moving the switch to the shifter and would wrather solder wires...

you have to bend up your own translines...not too bad if you can at least get the rear line intact with your used unit...not a problem for me, i tend to do good work at OE purdy hardline bending...

mount, i didnt concentrate on you 2nd gen W owners but the mount looks to bolt to a 1st gen subframe, and it looks like the lower front Tq mount and rear Tq mount that were available on different 80e equipped cars are easy retrofit's to any subframe with some needing more mod's than others...

if i remeber pontiac jeff's thread mentionedthe 80e being ~55lb heavier

The -65 weighs 195# with converter, the -80 weighs 245# with converter.

if you cant tell the 80e diff and output shaft is on the left....

i'm thinkin an ole' fashioned lincoln locker would work....

[1/4mileHOR]

do you know how hard its going to be for me to find another 55lbs to remove off the car to justify this swap


looks like its back to my original diet plan

[Turbocharged400sbc]

hey at least most of that 55lbs is in front of the axle centerline...

then again i bet you could figure out some more excess grams to remove in the GA brake swap that ron dropped 19lbs with... (most was the rotors)


remember the weight difference is less if the 65 has some heavier duty internal components (ie 1 inch chain etc)

dont forget you could remove the extra rotational weight of the 4th gear section...

plus looking at the hydraulic diagrams i could see an 80e with it's multisection pumps readily handling a trans brake

even as i consider the additional parasitic loss of the heavier internals (without removal of 4th) i think about how the sump system in the 80e might minimize the drag of the trans fluid on the internals....what if you could run an external sump resevoir that could further improve this

regardless it must be realised that stock fer stock the 80e is the badass... 1 ton FWD tranny
at the $ of a high strength 65ehd many may wish to simply "pile on more power" to overcome the additional loss of the 80e instead of spending it on trans parts.

to Scott and crew i say this, why not give the 80e time to shine? delete 4th and see how a stock 80e 3rd gear holds up to some serious power...
i know ya'll could wring out some testing, hell i know that you guys have probably tried almost everything with the 65hd, let it go the way of the th350...capable of being built to handle big power, but not the big dog on the porch
of course these are the demeted ramblings of a psychotic gearhead

i dont know but call me nuts for ditching the 4l60e in a buddy's van for a 4l80e after his third 60e trans went out...i havent heard from him in some time...so it must be doing good considering it hauls a 32ft thunderbird boat among other things...

i hope Tim can keep a 4l60e alive behind the monster he has

woah i read this and have to wonder am i hard to follow? wow i realised you'd think i finished running through a burning cannabis field with that fragmented set of thoughts...lol