Thread: It finally happened - Death of a Tranny

oh the carnage!!!!! the humanity!!!! WHY WHY WHY?!?!?!?!?!

Way to go Scotty!!!!! just coldnt keep that right foot out of it..lol jk jk...

I can send you out some parts....ones you wanted.....

sux your a few states away..I'd be over helpin ya pull/diagnose it...and borrow a few beers from the fridge....(snow pile out back)

just remember you can do it!!!

Originally Posted by TurboKent

If you need some help checking things over just send me a msg. I'm pretty free Sun thru thurs

Thank you Kent, I do appreciate that. I think, for right now, Im going to try and tackle this myself so as to save the help for when I really need it, swapping the tranny out, if it comes to that.

If it gets to the point of pulling the tranny then I'll take a day off or something and try and rally some assistance. At this point, with all the engine upgrades I want to do Im thinking it would be better to pull everything out and go from there. I just have to get all the equipment needed to do that.

Originally Posted by UR LOSN

oh the carnage!!!!! the humanity!!!! WHY WHY WHY?!?!?!?!?!

Way to go Scotty!!!!! just coldnt keep that right foot out of it..lol jk jk...

I can send you out some parts....ones you wanted.....

sux your a few states away..I'd be over helpin ya pull/diagnose it...and borrow a few beers from the fridge....(snow pile out back)

just remember you can do it!!!

Im pretty sure I can, Im even getting more convinced I could swap the tranny in fact thanks to all the wonderful support here. But at this point the focus is just to get the thing running and buy some more time if I can.

While I would love to have your help, you'd be a little disappointed. I dont drink and all the snow here has melted.

Well I got a lot done today but didn't actually accomplish the goal. I wanted to get the differential pulled, but I didn't quite make it. I got the differential housing bracket off (What a pain that thing is) and go the differential housing nearly off. My Oil pressure sending unit was in the way and it was starting to get dark and chilly again so I didn't want to hunt around for something to plug that hole so oil wouldn't drain out since I just changed the oil and filters last weekend.

I can say I was able to get the housing clear enough to see the sun gears, I guess is what they are called, on the differential and they are most definitely chewed up to high heaven. I couldn't tell much past that. I'll know more tomorrow after I get the differential pulled.

I posted pics in another thread of what the pan and filter looked like if you want to see the aftermath.

Scotty,
Sorry to hear about your luck man. Tranny death is my biggest fear. My original plans with my GTP were go fast mods, but after much thought I have gone for show mods instead. I have done only minor performance mods.
I have 110k on the car. I fear if I push it I am rolling the dice and my luck would be a blown tranny. Especially since I sold my truck, T/A and my Olds in the last 18 months. When I have multiple vehicles in the drive all is ok, as soon as I depend on one it dies.

To me, you cant be afraid of modding and its affect. I have always believed that if you do so smartly then you can avoid many of the pitfalls. Even if you never mod at all, stuff can be taken out by design flaws, weak parts, etc.

So I would rather do research, mod smartly and be ready as best I can if anything does go wrong. The transmission has given me about seven months to get ready since it first showed signs of trouble so Im not going to complain about that.

Am I happy about it? Not really. Am I mad about it? No. But it is an opportunity to learn and maybe add to a knowledge base that will allow me to modify even smarter down the road.

I agree, thats why I went mostly show and little go for now. Gives me time to do my homework. I bought my GTP 18 months ago. I have always had V8 RWD muscle cars to Mod so Modding a V6 supercharged FWD car is new territory for me. Heck my T/A had a turbo 400 tranny and I could rebuild that 4 times over for the price of our trannys LOL

One thing I have never done is rebuild a tranny. I wish ours were RWD 'cause they seem a WHOLE lot easier to drop out. Id like to rebuild a manual transmission one day, not because of necessity, just for the experience. Ive been told they are easier to do than automatics.

Yeah Thats the one thing I really hate about our cars. My Z-34 tranny died, and my Cutlass had issues at the end. I know trannys dont like heat and I have the opinion with the engine and tranny all packed so tightly its a matter of time. It seems so hot under the hood on our type of cars. My T/A could be run in Florida, beat on all day and when I popped the hood it seemed cooler. Much more room for air to move around. Thats just my .02 I am far from an expert on the subject.

There was actually a study done (I read it a long time ago so I dont have a link to it or a copy of it) some time ago that linked the reliability of vehicles many years ago to under the hood temps and hinted that part of the reliability problem today is just as you mentioned.

I dont remember exact numbers now, but it seems they said the average under the hood temp for vehicles in the 60's and 70's was something like 160* or there abouts and todays under the hood temps are pushing 200*+

You should also note that oil sump capacities have dropped significantly since that time too. Average sump capacity then was around 8 quarts if not a little more. Now days its barely over 4 quarts. Iam of the belief this is a large factor in the reliability of German and European vehicles, their large sump capacities. It helps keep the engine cooler.

I serviced my friends Chrysler Crossfire and that sucker holds 8.5 quarts of 5W40 synthetic motor oil. And the filter is positioned in such a way that you wont loose any oil if you want to change it more frequently to help keep the oil cleaner.

I run a dual oil filter set up on my GP and as a result of that it takes nearly 7 quarts to fill up my system.

Originally Posted by SyntheticShield

There was actually a study done (I read it a long time ago so I dont have a link to it or a copy of it) some time ago that linked the reliability of vehicles many years ago to under the hood temps and hinted that part of the reliability problem today is just as you mentioned.

I dont remember exact numbers now, but it seems they said the average under the hood temp for vehicles in the 60's and 70's was something like 160* or there abouts and todays under the hood temps are pushing 200*+

You should also note that oil sump capacities have dropped significantly since that time too. Average sump capacity then was around 8 quarts if not a little more. Now days its barely over 4 quarts. Iam of the belief this is a large factor in the reliability of German and European vehicles, their large sump capacities. It helps keep the engine cooler.

I serviced my friends Chrysler Crossfire and that sucker holds 8.5 quarts of 5W40 synthetic motor oil. And the filter is positioned in such a way that you wont loose any oil if you want to change it more frequently to help keep the oil cleaner.

I run a dual oil filter set up on my GP and as a result of that it takes nearly 7 quarts to fill up my system.

Makes a lot of sense when you think of it. I never thought about the sump capacity. On one of my T/As I had a moroso setup to increase my oil capacity. Makes sense more capacity the cooler the temp.

Okay, I have the differential pulled and I have taken some pictures. I'm prepping them for up load and will put them in the other thread that has the Carnage pictures.

I dont envy you, Hope it goes well.