GM 4L80E swap into a 1968 GTX Resto-Mod

dpaul63 · Sep 9, 2016

Donny said:
Glad you were able to do 21 yrs in the military! I also did the same. I deal with the more extreme 'purist' in the Porsche world, they are almost as bad as the Corvette purist. After doing like 200 car blasts so far I see 'em as just a car, Superbirds and Daytona's are the same as their cousin cars, and rust and crud affects them all the same. I think you'll have to cut up the Floor a bit to get GM transmission to fit.

Donny, I posted a header thread for the 6.1 Hemi that is being stroked out to a 433 c.i. and one person responded. I feel the same about trying to bring a Mopar back to life because I like to bring them back to life. Honestly driving my 68 GTX before the resto-mods she was damn scary. I had forgotten what it was like to drive an old car with manual steering and drum brakes. She wasn't fun to drive, nor was she reliable. I want the best of both worlds. I'll probably have $150K in her when I'm done, but she will be what I want her to be. I'll post a thread on her after she's gone through the fabrication process. She's going to have an 1 1/2 added to her quarters and a lot of suspension work to include air ride for my comfort!

lxmodguy · Sep 10, 2016

dpaul63 said:
lxmodguy, I always appreciate your advice, and you're also one of the good guys in the forum. I figured there would be some tunnel mods, but the good news is that she is still in the fab phase of the restoration. What's a few more bucks when she has me siphoning money off my mutual funds! I'd laugh my arse off if this wasn't my problem, but old dreams die hard!

Thanks for the kind words. If you reach out to Greg at Phoenix Transmission in Weatherford Texas he has a kit. Hes a great guy, loves his mopars, and builds a great transmission. They do a lot of these swaps and he can help you with the whole thing. Tell him Brian (lxmodguy) sent you and he will get you everything you need and take good care of you. By the way, when I had the 4L80 in my car it was great to drive. Was averaging 19 on my one highway trip with a Indy headed 440 and a fast EFI setup.

HYRDGOON · Sep 13, 2016

That's exactly why we have a restomods and pro-touring section so these questions can be asked without getting torn to shreds by purists. Plenty of us appreciate these builds

Riverdawg · Sep 13, 2016

dpaul63, Thank you for your service. Sounds like a great build. My brother put a 4l60e behind a 572 HEMI in a 70 charger recently. I believe it was over 700hp and I know with the Nitrous kit it was over 800hp. I know he did some hammer/dolly work on the tunnel for it to fit, as far as i know he didn't have to cut into it. When he was taking the car back to the customer and cruising down the freeway, he said it ran and handled really really well. He really liked the transmission.

dpaul63 · Sep 13, 2016

Thanks for your input riverdawg! Every time I run into an unexpected expense I say I'm never going to restore another Mopar. Yet when I sees black Charger I think there's room for at least one more. I just talked to Animal Performance Transmissions and they build a 4L60E that will hold 1000 hp and offers a 2 year warranty to boot. So it looks like I'm going with the 4L60E!

Riverdawg · Sep 13, 2016

Always room for more. Working on getting my 65 coronet drivable, probably have to wait until next spring now. Sounds like a great transmission. Also, Don't wait until after fabrication to setup a build thread. Get one going and keep us up to date on the progress. You'll be happy you did. All the encouragement you'll get will make it easier to keep on going. Good luck and keep us posted.
Oh, I looked at you photo garage and I like the wheels you picked out. Are those Mob Steel rims? and put some current or prior to the build picks up of the car.

dpaul63 · Sep 13, 2016

Riverdawg, I'm terrible at taking pictures, but my fab guy should have plenty. Now I'm really in a pickle because I just found out that Joey Arrington has already built the short block and now he wants the supercharger (which I don't have). Hell it's only $6 - 8K for a roots style blower. I had plans to use a F1 procharger because I laid out over $1,200 for an intake and porting and polishing. As far as the wheels, I ended up selling the Detroit Steel wheels and had USA Wheels to build me billet wheels (335x22) and am currently having an accuair air ride installed on my IFS and my custom air ride 4 link system. She's going to be sick! My avatar is the rendering of her. I'll keep the forum updated on my progress.

Greg Ducato · Sep 14, 2016

Really looking forward to following along as you get this build going

Mocajava · Sep 14, 2016

Dpaul63, I am doing that right now! I have a thread under Engine,Trans,Driveling that I started two months ago asking the same question. The post is 1969 Coronet Surgery...Help! and I have pictures of how I did it. I got the adapter plate from TCI for mating the 440 to a 4L80 E which worked well even though it really is a mid engine plate that you have to cut out after you mate it up. Cutting up the pristine tunnel on my 69 Coronet was the hardest part...not because I am scared of doing that, just because it was untouched. You can see by my pictures that I built a cart to mount engine, tranny and K frame on which worked perfectly, I can test fit in less than 5 minutes...in and out. The tunnel was about 5" wider and 1 1/2" taller and works great. I had bought a TCI 6 speed and was initially intending to put it in my 55 Belair behind an LS3. Plans change and I decided to use it for my Coronet. PM me if you want to chat and good luck with your build. Mocajava

dpaul63 · Sep 14, 2016

Mocajava said:
Dpaul63, I am doing that right now! I have a thread under Engine,Trans,Driveling that I started two months ago asking the same question. The post is 1969 Coronet Surgery...Help! and I have pictures of how I did it. I got the adapter plate from TCI for mating the 440 to a 4L80 E which worked well even though it really is a mid engine plate that you have to cut out after you mate it up. Cutting up the pristine tunnel on my 69 Coronet was the hardest part...not because I am scared of doing that, just because it was untouched. You can see by my pictures that I built a cart to mount engine, tranny and K frame on which worked perfectly, I can test fit in less than 5 minutes...in and out. The tunnel was about 5" wider and 1 1/2" taller and works great. I had bought a TCI 6 speed and was initially intending to put it in my 55 Belair behind an LS3. Plans change and I decided to use it for my Coronet. PM me if you want to chat and good luck with your build. Mocajava

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Mocajava, excellent post! The picture of the reworked tunnel was very eye opening. I will show this to my fab guy and have him start the process as soon as my engine arrives. Now I wish I'd bought a old 5.7 block to do the mock ups with. I just got hit with an unexpected bill, so life with this build is a series of ups and downs. My builder prefers Edelbrock blowers, so now I've got to dig up another $6K and then another $8K or so for the builder. Now I'm really wondering if all this is worth it! Here is a picture of my short block

Mocajava · Sep 14, 2016

Dpaul63 that block sure looks nice and you KNOW it will all be worth it at the end of the trail! You are building a monster and I envy the direction you are taking. My 383 is still at the engine builder and will be a 468 stroker when it gets done. I can sure relate to the "unexpected" things that hit you as you move through these projects. They take so long that something is always coming ups to draw the bank down. This week it was major dental and more books for a university freshman....a guy can't win! I do the fab work myself with 30 years of welding behind me....keeps me off the streets as my wife says. Keep us posted as you move thru the build, I love to take notes from others successes. BTW....when you get ready to put headers on yours, please post where and how you got them. I am afraid that the width of this tranny is going to really be a pain in getting some headers to fit. My 4L80 is over twice as wide as the 727 that came with the car and I really want headers! Mocajava

dpaul63 · Sep 14, 2016

Mocajava said:
Dpaul63 that block sure looks nice and you KNOW it will all be worth it at the end of the trail! You are building a monster and I envy the direction you are taking. My 383 is still at the engine builder and will be a 468 stroker when it gets done. I can sure relate to the "unexpected" things that hit you as you move through these projects. They take so long that something is always coming ups to draw the bank down. This week it was major dental and more books for a university freshman....a guy can't win! I do the fab work myself with 30 years of welding behind me....keeps me off the streets as my wife says. Keep us posted as you move thru the build, I love to take notes from others successes. BTW....when you get ready to put headers on yours, please post where and how you got them. I am afraid that the width of this tranny is going to really be a pain in getting some headers to fit. My 4L80 is over twice as wide as the 727 that came with the car and I really want headers! Mocajava

Mocajava, I spoke with Animal Performance Transmissions and they told me that they could build me a 4L60E that would hold up to over 1,000, but it requires a special torque converter. It's beginning to look like it's apples or oranges when it comes to transmissions. Animal will build the 4L60E for $3,675 with a two year warranty and $1,100 for a converter that will allow it to hold 1,000 hp and allow it to run at interstate speeds and will hold the boost without burning up the tranny. So if anyone has had any experience with Animal Performance Transmissions please jump in on my thread and let me know if they are a good company. I wanted to go with Phoenix Transmissions, but they don't build a 4L60E that will hold over 650 ho.

aldal · Sep 14, 2016

I planned on a 4L80E but did not want to change my stock shifter and the tunnel so I am going Gear Vendors....but more power to ya keep the hobby alive man! :thumbsup:

Mocajava · Sep 15, 2016

I also went with the 4L80 and mine was from TCI but I paid $7300 for mine. UGH! Came with torque converter, wiring, top notch shifter plus linkage and programmable computer. A full covered package that handles 700tq and 700 hp, but in retrospect..expensive. The gear vender was an option but as others posted, the final gear ratio wasn't enough to satisfy me, I was looking for a .60 to .65 and since I had to cut the tunnel anyway, I went another direction.

dpaul63 · Sep 15, 2016

I just got this picture from Joey. He's definitely making progress (faster than my bank account can handle!). I hope you guys like it! On the short block picture you could see the block girdle that looked like it can handle some serious hp. I guess I'd better poney up the money for the blower ASAP!

Mocajava · Sep 15, 2016

That looks so good! Mine will look like a chevy 4-banger compared to that. Will you be putting the engine or car on a dyno to see what true numbers you will have?

dpaul63 · Sep 15, 2016

Mocajava said:
That looks so good! Mine will look like a chevy 4-banger compared to that. Will you be putting the engine or car on a dyno to see what true numbers you will have?

Mocajava, Joey is going to break it in on motor only, then add the blower and tune it for the blower. When I get it, it will be turnkey.

dpaul63 · Sep 16, 2016

HYRDGOON said:
That's exactly why we have a restomods and pro-touring section so these questions can be asked without getting torn to shreds by purists. Plenty of us appreciate these builds

HYRDGOON, it's good to hear from you again. One of the reasons I like the forums is because of the diversity of the forums. I brought my concern up is because I still see other members take over a forum and say something snarky about another members build. I love restored Mopars, but I also like the modern conveniences of my SUV. I have seen resto-mod b bodies bring more money than their stock brethren. I hope to never have to sell her, but if I do I'm hoping the modern conveniences will be recognized by others, and hopefully she'll sell for the kind of money she deserves!

dpaul63 · Sep 16, 2016

Mocajava said:
I also went with the 4L80 and mine was from TCI but I paid $7300 for mine. UGH! Came with torque converter, wiring, top notch shifter plus linkage and programmable computer. A full covered package that handles 700tq and 700 hp, but in retrospect..expensive. The gear vender was an option but as others posted, the final gear ratio wasn't enough to satisfy me, I was looking for a .60 to .65 and since I had to cut the tunnel anyway, I went another direction.

Mocajava, did you go with the TCI six speed? I've thought about buying one, but at this point in the build that I can afford an extra $7,300 of unplanned expense. I'm looking at about $6K if I go with the animal performance 4L60E, but I won't have to worry about that for a couple of months. Picking a tranny should be an easy thing, but maybe my recent sticker shock has clouded my judgement!!

Mocajava · Sep 16, 2016

Dpaul63...yes I did! That $8500 total included flexplate, Outlaw shifter plus cables and mounts, ECU and all the wiring, 1350 series splined yoke, 6 speed 4L80E tranny plus shipping to Alaska. I covered all the bases, just initially ordered it for the wrong car! I ordered it for my 55 Belair with an LS3 in it, but that project got sidetracked when my body man passed and then the Coronet came up in a local Craig's list. I went from fun car to DREAM car in the blink of an eye!

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