Got it running.
Saturday didn't go totally to plan. My Dad and Step-Mom broke down the previous Sunday morning about 250 miles away from home. They were driving home from visiting my step-sister in Midland. They were in my Step-Mom's 2005 Saturn L300. It has right at 100k miles on the clock. It was my Grandma's last car. I talked to Dad on the phone for about an hour trying to help him figure out what was going on. He didn't have any tools and nothing was open that early on Sunday (was about 7 when he called) so they ended up putting it on a wrecker and my step-brother met them about half way with a truck and trailer. I did some reading up online and it started to look to me like it was a bad crankshaft position sensor. It appears to be a common problem on those cars. The sensor wasn't available locally so Dad ordered one online when they got home Sunday. He worked all week and never got around to putting it in. Then Friday, he suffered a fall and sprained his right wrist pretty bad. I went over to his house Saturday morning to install that sensor. I read the codes first and low and behold it did have a crankshaft position sensor code. I left Dad's a little after 11 a.m., picked up some lunch and went back to my house to eat. I got over to the storage at noon.
I ended up draining the transmission, pulling the mid section of the exhaust, the transmission heat shield, and the shift cable to be able to get the pan down. Replacing the harness was pretty easy, especially with the tool to get the case connector pushed through the case. Then I put it all back together. Nothing difficult, but getting the exhaust all situated just right and snugged up is a bit of a chore. There are a dozen fasteners to tighten. I got it all back together, cranked it up and started working on getting it filled up. I had a tough time reading the dipstick. For some reason the fluid doesn't sit in the windows when you pull it like it does when you dip it in a quart of transmission fluid. At 15 quarts I took it for the first spin around the storage property. I was able to confirm three forward gears. Everything seemed o.k. but I was concerned it wasn't full. I kept adding fluid, a 1/2 quart at a time, trying to sneak up on the level. I think my biggest issue was that there was so much fluid on the walls of the fill tube and that was screwing with the reading. I may just be a dumbass. Anyway, I ended up with it overfull. It was about 9 PM by then so I shut it down and locked up the storage. Sunday morning I went back over and drained some of the fluid out of it and got the level where it needs to be. Then I took it out on the road. Everything seemed fine so I took it to the carwash. I got it all cleaned up and then went to the gas station and filled it up. By then I had about 10 miles on it. I parked it in the driveway to cool down so I could get under it and check everything out. Everything seemed fine and I took it to the grocery store and back. Then the Astros game came on and that was as much work as I was going to do with my day. Didn't leave the house yesterday. I drove it in to work today. Everything seems fine. No strange noises, no warning lights, no leaks.
Unfortunately, I think the stall speed is way too high for my liking. I'm going to drive it at least a few more days before I decide. I went with 3600-3700 thinking it would help with the really high first gear ratio. I think I should have probably gone with 3000-3200, which is what I had in it with the 4L65E. It just slips way too much below 3000 with the way it is. My gut says I'll pull it back apart to swap the converter. We'll see.
I don't like the gearing of the 4L80E compared to the gearing of the 4L65E, but I knew to expect that. 1st gear is too tall and overdrive isn't as tall as the 4L65E so I'm turning more RPM at highway speed. I think I'll get used to that just fine. I just don't think the converter I have in it right now is suitable for daily driving it on the street. Oh well, sometimes you have to learn the hard way.
The tuner did a great job. The tune flashed right to the TCM and between what I did to the wiring (following the sloppy mechanics write up I linked to earlier in the thread) and what he did with the tune, it's as if the truck came with a 4L80E. I'm going to go ahead and send him a data log to look at but I don't think there is anything for him to work on. The transmission shifts when it should and the speedometer is correct.
So far I like what the builder did with the transmission. It shifts fast and crisp but not harsh. He said I'd be able to feel it bite with those redline frictions and Kolene steels and I can.
So, mixed feelings. I'm really happy to have the truck back on the road but I think I screwed the pooch on converter selection. I'll drive it a few more days and then decide. It has about 50 miles on it now.
That's it for now guys. I'll update with a decision or if there is news to report.
Until then,
Best,
Jared