Valve body replacement

[santon]

Hello guys,
I am thinking about replacing of the valve body. I have seen refurbished valve bodies on eBay and Amazon so I am thinking about buying one and trying to install it by myself. As I understood, the process is quite straightforward. What should I need besides the valve body itself, a new filter and a pan gasket? Do I need to replace the separator plate gaskets?

 

[Dr.Fiero]

Why would you want/need to replace the whole thing? It's (pretty much) just the same amount of work to take out what you have, take the valves etc out (one...at...a...time!!) clean it all up and replace. Bit of time, and could be no parts!

You do want to look over the sep' plate to see if the balls are trying to escape through it anywhere.
In which case just get a new one - or you can get hardened seats if you're feeling ambitious.
SOME plates have a bonded gasket on each side (blech). If you tear that, you're getting a new plate.

Either way, you need a new filter and gasket (get the one with the steel inserts where the bolts go through if at all possible).

 

[santon]

Why would you want/need to replace the whole thing? It's (pretty much) just the same amount of work to take out what you have, take the valves etc out (one...at...a...time!!) clean it all up and replace. Bit of time, and could be no parts!

I want to replace the valve body because I found some chunks of metal in the pan. They look like pieces of cast aluminum.

 

[Dr.Fiero]

Well, you definitely want to figure out exactly where they came from.

If it turns out they're not from the valve body itself, it would really suck to go to the trouble and expense of replacing it - just to find it was part of the actual casing or something and that there's more bits breaking off from something else.

 

[JayArr]

There aren't enough forces in the valve body to shear off chunks of aluminum like that. It's a hydraulic distribution manifold.

More info please.

Does the transmission work? missing any gears? making any sounds?

To answer your question: yes, you should replace the plate gaskets, if the new valve body doesn't come with new solenoids I'd replace the 2/3 3/4 ones, they're cheap.

I'd buy the valve body from Sonnax, that way you know it's been rebuilt properly and doesn't leak. An eBay, rebuilt, valve body sounds sketchy.

For the price of the valve body you could by the reamer and sleeve kit from Sonnax and fix the valve body that's there.

 

[santon]

There aren't enough forces in the valve body to shear off chunks of aluminum like that. It's a hydraulic distribution manifold.

More info please.

Does the transmission work? missing any gears? making any sounds?

To answer your question: yes, you should replace the plate gaskets, if the new valve body doesn't come with new solenoids I'd replace the 2/3 3/4 ones, they're cheap.

I'd buy the valve body from Sonnax, that way you know it's been rebuilt properly and doesn't leak. An eBay, rebuilt, valve body sounds sketchy.

For the price of the valve body you could by the reamer and sleeve kit from Sonnax and fix the valve body that's there.

This is a used transmission that I bought and installed several months ago since mine lost the 3d gear. There was only one problem with this "new" transmission - the vibration at torque converter engagement and/or disengagement and this issue was solved with the HP tuners - my friend disabled the PWM modulation of the TCC valve and now the transmission works OK. I would even say it works fine. It already did more than 5000 km on my truck. However, when changing the fluid/filter, I found these pieces of metal inside the pan. I thought they belong to the valve body, that's the reason why I wanted to replace the valve body. I know there is an issue with the TCC valve but this thing does not bother me since we "fixed" it in software. The transmission works and my problem is probably psychological - I have seen the pieces of metal so something is literally broken inside the transmission. I already know that these 4L60E could never be considered in a good working order and any of these transmissions will eventually fail one day. So, I could probably leave this issue as is. In a worse case I will buy another used transmission. I have bad experience with the local transmission shops and don't believe in their repairs- they are all charlatans, in my opinion. I even though to buy a refurbished transmission from the well known US transmission shop on eBay; even with the cost of the shipping and taxes, the price of such a transmission will be similar to the cost of having the transmission rebuild locally.

 

[JayArr]

I think these transmissions are great, they are simple, inexpensive and they tend to run for 20 years or 250K from the factory, that's a pretty good track record. There are a bunch of flaws that the engineers didn't see coming but every thing man has ever built has flaws. Hell - we put O-rings on the shuttle!

If the transmission is working I wouldn't spend a bunch of money replacing the valve body. I'd bet a days pay those aluminum chunks aren't from it.

 

[Mooseman]

Agreed. Very doubtful it's from anything on/in the valve body. Maybe they broke off somewhere after a fluid/filter change or are case casting flash? If it's working fine, don't worry and be happy.

I have bad experience with the local transmission shops and don't believe in their repairs- they are all charlatans, in my opinion.

It may be possible that outside of North America, shops aren't equipped properly or experienced enough with these to properly work on them. They should be more honest in saying when they aren't proficient enough to work on them.

 

[santon]

It may be possible that outside of North America, shops aren't equipped properly or experienced enough with these to properly work on them. They should be more honest in saying when they aren't proficient enough to work on them.

Well, when I bough this truck, the previous owner told me that the transmission was recently rebuilt by some reputable shop. They say that they specialize in GM transmissions for more than 50 years. Their rebuild lasted 2 months after I purchased the vehicle.

 

[santon]

Agreed. Very doubtful it's from anything on/in the valve body. Maybe they broke off somewhere after a fluid/filter change or are case casting flash?

I don't know. I bought a new pan and replaced the old one (there was a slight dent on the pan). Later, when I already finished with the oil/filter change and tightened the pan's bolts, I found these pieces on the bottom of the old pan...