1996 Mr.Pink

[3X00-Modified]

Parts are not easy to come by.... Right now I'm fuked because fedex broke the box open and lost the output shaft... Gotta find another 4t60e-hd which was a 1 year option used in some 3.8 s/c cars before they switched to the 65e-hd. Found another trans locally for 250 so I'm picking it up for the shaft and a spare diff.

I mean I guess the diff is the same for the 60e-hd and 65e-hd, or at least I think it is... the part that is very rare is the 96 output shaft... Has the roller bearing on the end and is about 1/4" longer than the regular 60e shaft and NOT the same as the 65e-HD one.

One cool thing is this swap ONLY makes me have to change the diff cover and passenger side inner axle joint... it's the same overall length so I don't have to mess with any custom length stuff.

[3X00-Modified]

As many know I take apart everything to look it over... so here is the side by side comparison of the HD diff spiders and pin and the stock non HD stuff...

[snowblindburd]

Well, dang. Slight difference...

[3X00-Modified]

One thing after another... I just can't get a break here...

I'm trying the longer ARP main bolts listed on WOT-Tech said to work with a windage tray and um, call me crazy but the oil pan wont fit now, it hits the tray.

The double washers under the bolts as well as the taller nut that the tray is sitting on raises its position at least .25" further away from the mains closer to the pan. The height of the double washers is .250 so I can only assume the nut is the same .400 height as the old bolts had, SO if there was enough thread on the studs to run with no washer and the nut had a collar built in it would probably be the same height but there is no way this will work without cutting up and bending the whole front section of the windage tray to clear the oil pan. I'm tempted to just run the factory hardware to avoid that headache.

[Slinky]

Page 5, halfway down.

http://www.grandamgt.com/forum/showthre ... 721&page=5

[3X00-Modified]

Yeah that's the only way to make it work but Ben sells a second set of nuts with it indicating you put the tray on above the torqued nuts, because if you sandwich the non hardened tray metal between the main torquing nut and the hardened washers you may alter the compression being applied to the mains.

[3X00-Modified]

Ok so here are some photos of the height differences so you can see what I'm talking about.



How you install the kit Ben sells for the windage tray.


You can see where I hammered one part of the tray to see if that was the only spot hitting... After that the front area hit.


Spots the windage tray is hitting... And it's about a 1/4" away from the block when it hits, so it's not just a tiny bit.

[Slinky]

Gonna haveta grind the pan i suppose, i assume your not getting many answers from Ben, i never have LOL
Im kinda glad i went stock mains now

[3X00-Modified]

Can't grind the pan 1/4" That would grind a hole into it...

I can still put the stock main bolts right back in if I want, no harm done since my engine did not need a line bore with the ARP hardware installed so it's still stock spec.

I just sent him an email today and no one has said a word on 60* at all... That does surprise me a little.

I feel like I'm always a guinea pig somehow... like how have these never been bought and installed/tested before to ensure fit?

Ben just replied, He's going to check into it tomorrow, not sure if he means fit, or if anyone else has purchased that kit... So I'll let you know what I find out.

[1988GTU]

If you end up using that and getting it to work without spending much more investiment, I'd like to see how it ends up.

Sucks for the road block, but it is what we often are up against with these 'famous' platforms.

[3X00-Modified]

Road block not so much... I still don't have my heads back yet... and when I finally get those I still need to do some finish work on them and coat the combustion chambers THEN install and measure for pushrods... and wait a week for those to show up...

[1988GTU]

I hope for you the best. For me, I view any obstacle that can disturb the project’s progress will in some way hinder the outcome. Trying to mitigate those encumbrances upfront is always something to strive for imo.

[Slinky]

I feel like I'm always a guinea pig somehow... like how have these never been bought and installed/tested before to ensure fit?

I feel like that from time to time, ben is weird with his hardware, I think it happened twice to me where I ordered stuff off of him hardware wise and it did not fit correctly or at all, one of the occasions was with the headers I ordered from them and be locking header bolts, they did not even fit without grinding the headers, I think he tries a lot of stuff on one 3x00 engine and there are slight variances on the other 3x00 engines.

[3X00-Modified]

There are no variations when it comes to main stud and windage tray mounting... Headers on the other hand that varies with bends and whatnot. The other hardware that didn't work for you was the torque converter bolts... They were meant for a 4t40e/45e style converter and not stated anywhere in the listing.

[3X00-Modified]

I will be taking the original 3500 tray and cutting all the mounts off it tonight to see if I'm able to drop the tray .25" closer to the mains and then re-weld the mounts. I see this as the only way to fix it without doing something else crazy.

I will post pics of what I end up doing just so everyone knows.