If you only were going to be allowed one truck.....

[Coby7]

The guy that bought my 48 ( now in his 80s ) still has it but won't part with it. I sold it for $600 to fund my college fees in 1974. He's asking $75,000 for it with all matching numbers.  Had I known!!! Pretty good investment.

Edited February 6, 2018 by Coby7

[Grumpy Bear]

1.) Gleaned from the Sonnax Transmission web site on the 6L80E. Designed for 375 HP. Notes that the 4-5-6 apply piston is not friendly to increased line pressures. One of the first things a trans tune does is increase line pressure. 

 

2.) From my work in oil. Bulk oil temperatures for non combustion areas reach peak lubricity at 160 F. GM likes 190F plus and makes it difficult to alter this. It's a fuel thing for them. It's a reliability thing for me. 

 

The first things I try to learn about a platform are it's weaknesses. Not to knit pick it to death and cry about it but to fix what I can and learning to live with what I can't.

 

Second on my list is to identify the things the manufacture and I differ on as an 'end game'.

 

Just some examples.  

Edited February 6, 2018 by Grumpy Bear

[j-ten-ner]

In my experience cars last the longest when left stock.

And that's what I'd do with the one vehicle I'm allowed to have.

People tend to "just keep it going". A vacuum leak and they will rip out all vac hoses and such. Or fixing the tail light with Tuck Tape.

It might work for the time being, but it'll catch up with you.

I'd still be driving the same way I do now. "Driving like a Grandpa" is what my wife calls it.

I'd do all maintenance and repairs myself except the tranny.

 

so long

j-ten-ner

[Donstar]

5 minutes ago, j-ten-ner said:

In my experience cars last the longest when left stock.

And that's what I'd do with the one vehicle I'm allowed to have.

People tend to "just keep it going". A vacuum leak and they will rip out all vac hoses and such. Or fixing the tail light with Tuck Tape.

It might work for the time being, but it'll catch up with you.

I'd still be driving the same way I do now. "Driving like a Grandpa" is what my wife calls it.

I'd do all maintenance and repairs myself except the tranny.

 

so long

j-ten-ner

I agree.  I have all malfunctions repaired properly as they occur and the same with all dents and scratches.  I also drive like a grandpa and drove the same way long before my kids started having kids!

[KARNUT]

It is possible to have a highly modified vehicle last a long time. I have a 25 year old 92 Chevy P/U and a factory modified 01 Acura intagra type R. The Acura at 70 is spinning at 4K. A 12 year old Elantra and a 7 year old Genesis The right foot is the key to longevity.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sdeeter19555]

It also depends on the miles one puts on said vehicles...the few I was modding for reliability (see previous post) had around 50k miles a year put on them...most of them I traded right around 300k.

My statement that all I did was benefit the next guy is simply that all these mods we do have no benefit to us since nobody keeps a vehicle past its designed life...the only person you benefit is the next owner (and maybe yourself for the "feel good" result). In my instance it was for not as a B5.9 Cummins is well known to go to over a million miles with nothing more than standard maintenance...no fancy oil, no fancy filters, no magic elixers....

Steve
2012 2500hd 6.0l

[Grumpy Bear]

Now we're cooking with gas and it looks as if everyone is on the same page. 

1.) choose something durable enough  

2.) Repair it right when it needs a repair. 

3.) Drive like grandpa ( Easy, I am grandpa)

3 hours ago, KARNUT said:

 The right foot is the key to longevity.

I quoted this statement because it has long interested me. Not what it says as much as what it means. That right foot is in control of three very destructive forces. Pressure, velocity and shock stress. How it's related so heat and fatigue. I first read something similar as a very young man in a Petersons publication, "How to Hot Rod the Small Block Chevy". First half of that book was the history and development of that platform and the section on 'rods' caught my attention. I would learn why when my education caught up to my reading. But the thrust of it was....

 

These rods were designed to give a measured life cycle at a predetermined cylinder loading and piston speed which also equates to a cyclic stress load in both compression and tension. The numbers were fascinating. Something like a ten million cycles at 120% of rated load @ 6K RPM. Then it stated that ten million cycles is considered infinite and GM didn't give up until they nailed it.

 

Then like the uneducated young man I was I asked what does 'rated load' mean? Actually I'm not sure I even knew the physics definition of load yet let alone terms like 'elastic limit' or 'yield modulus'. In a nut shell what they were doing was finding how many times the coat hanger could be bent before it broke; then adjusting the design or the parameters until it exceeded what they believed the customer would subject the part to. 'Rated Load" was then a fluid definition subject to whatever they believed the customers expectations were.

 

In it's purest form they gave the customer exactly what he asked for and what he asked for was communicated to them by our 'habits' and not by any survey.

 

And...what have we told them?

 

1.) That we have no intention of keeping the thing

2.) Creature comfort trumps durability , reliability and serviceability. 

3) We like 'shinny things'. Like crows and raccoons. 

4.) We don't care about our neighbors as we are willing to treat it like dirt and dump it on them. There's a moral compass pointed true. 

5.) That we are as greedy and shallow as they believe us to be. We rarely disappoint them and to their advantage. 

 

So Steve. As a diesel operates under harsher conditions than a gas engine literally running on detonation, what makes them so durable?  

 

[Grumpy Bear]

Most of what kills a possession of any kind is Lingchi. A death of a thousand cuts. Those mindless little acts whose consequences are so small that they either escape our immediate notice or are small but additive. Procrastination, ignorance and insensitivity to cause and effect.

 

A great example almost anyone can see is the cracking of a leather seat on the driver’s side where you slide in and out. It shows up in cloth as well just doesn’t seem as noticeable. Often this can be traced to the trim about the hinge where the material is folded over it as we slide in and out. Had this pointed out to me by an upholster decades ago who, after refitting my seats, made some small 3 X 3 pillows a quarter inch thick to place between the leather and the hinge. Problem solved.

 

Less obvious are shock absorbers. Dad use to tell me that the difference between a dash that squeaks to the point of distraction at 100K and one that does not is in the shock absorber. Millions of little hammer blows to everything in the truck that is held together with a fastener or a tab. Keep at it long enough and even bonded and spot welded seams are not immune. Part of the reason for my suspension makeover. The other part was my back.

 

Sand in your carpet, dry wiping dust off your paint to see it that’s a chip or a bug. Sitting your coffee cup or notebook, lunchbox on the roof or hood while you free your hand to enter. Interiors left without any UV/IR protection. Drain holes at the bottoms of door and rocker panels that plug and are left unattended. Missing body plugs not replaced. Window seals that go un-replaced flooding the door. Putting a half ton truck in a pint sized parking space.

 

Without knowing a person at all I can tell in five minutes of seeing him interact with his truck if he’s in tune with any of this at all. If someone tells me, ‘it’s a truck, don’t be anal’ I don’t need to observe him at all. Especially if you bought your truck as a “tool” for work the little things should matter. IMHO.

[Grumpy Bear]

"Many hands makes the work light", goes the saying.

But this thread is more akin to the story of the "Little Red Hen". 

 

"A mans got to now his limitations" Harry Callahan

"And I do". Grumpy Bear  

 

[Grumpy Bear]

Almost 25% of this threads hits have come after I quit posting to it. Really? 

 

CDT, B&M and PATC have jointed Sonnax as major transmission specialist (who make their livings fixing manufacturing design issues) I've interacted with that have confirmed that the 6L80/90E's life can be greatly extended by limiting bulk oil temperature to something under 180F. No one has set a hard limit on the lower number but a few hint at 150F as a reasonable lower boundary with something around 160F as ideal. I'm not surprised. My tribology classes from API  eons ago suggested the same number. One suggest a cooler rated for 24,000 GVW which sounds a bit high but more interesting was the suggestion to use 'stacked plate' exchangers over tube types. 

 

Anyone but me find it interesting that GM fitting a 190F thermostat to the 1500's and a blank block to the 2500's? Or that the 1500's seem to suffer more durability issues than the 2500's? 

 

 

[j-ten-ner]

150 - 160F (65 - 71 *C) is what the temp of my trans is sitting at in city traffic.
At about 130F (54 *C) on the highway.

And when towing at about 180 - 190F (82 - 88 *C). But I can bring the temp down to 160F when I choose to keep the trans in M5.

Especially when towing in the mountains one has to select the right gear to prevent the trans from shifting back and forward. This is what's heating up the fluid.

 

so long

j-ten-ner

[KARNUT]

One little interesting bit of info we learned in the late eighties. We bought a 88 Ford diesel one ton diesel with the C6 transmission. It was my fathers ride used for pulling a fifth wheel camper. Soon after purchase it got the banks treatment and a overdrive gearbox. Nothing eventful happened till at 100K and 2years the transmission needed rebuilt. We had recently became Amsoil dealers. We took their synthetic transmission fluid to the rebuilder to put in. The transmission lasted 180K without a rebuild and the truck was traded in. I think we can assume that a fluid that can withstand high temperature would let a transmission function at a higher temperature and live.


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[Grumpy Bear]

11 hours ago, j-ten-ner said:

150 - 160F (65 - 71 *C) is what the temp of my trans is sitting at in city traffic.
At about 130F (54 *C) on the highway.

And when towing at about 180 - 190F (82 - 88 *C). But I can bring the temp down to 160F when I choose to keep the trans in M5.

Especially when towing in the mountains one has to select the right gear to prevent the trans from shifting back and forward. This is what's heating up the fluid.

 

so long

j-ten-ner

May I ask what it is that you drive? 

[Grumpy Bear]

8 hours ago, KARNUT said:

 I think we can assume that a fluid that can withstand high temperature would let a transmission function at a higher temperature and live.

Pretty much why we use synthetics. Great story! Thanks. 

[newdude]

2006 Chevy 2500hd Regular Cab (loaded), with a 2002 HD front swap and an L96/6L90 powertrain swap and one off PY0 wheels but in a 17" diameter. 

Edited March 12, 2018 by newdude