Charonblk07's build thread

[charonblk07]

And the 545 is ****** again! Seems to be the solenoid this time but I'm not dealing with it anymore. The decision is 4L80e or A518, I'm still leaning towards the 4L80e with a standalone controller, while it's more expensive I like the idea of keeping it fully electronic for the daily driving aspect and I can get a manual box if I want to manually shift it as well so I do have options.
The US Shift Quick 4 or the PCS TCM-2800 are the controllers I'm looking at currently, the Quick 4 is the simpler of the 2 controllers but the 2800 can control EVERYTHING! but whether I need all that control or not remains to be seen. I'm planing to get a 4L80 from Jake's or Animal performance with the Gen III hemi SFI bellhousing, all I'll need is the flex plate and adapter.

 

[charonblk07]

Well, the 4L80E is ordered from Jake's performance, I picked up their Stage 4 which is setup to take 1000hp so I have room to grow in the future when I do the 6.4L based stroker. Jake's has been very helpful, I don't need any adapters or anything; it's coming with the Reid SFI bellhousing so it'll bolt directly to the gen III hemi; the flexplate is a SFI certified PRW dish-style and is drilled for the 4L80's 3-bolt converter but bolts directly to the hemi's crank hub; torque converter is a 258mm single disk 3200 stall. Now all I need to do is wait, lead time is 5-7 weeks so if I'm lucky I'll be up and running again by mid-summer.

 

[crazykid1994]

Well, the 4L80E is ordered from Jake's performance, I picked up their Stage 4 which is setup to take 1000hp so I have room to grow in the future when I do the 6.4L based stroker. Jake's has been very helpful, I don't need any adapters or anything; it's coming with the Reid SFI bellhousing so it'll bolt directly to the gen III hemi; the flexplate is a SFI certified PRW dish-style and is drilled for the 4L80's 3-bolt converter but bolts directly to the hemi's crank hub; torque converter is a 258mm single disk 3200 stall. Now all I need to do is wait, lead time is 5-7 weeks so if I'm lucky I'll be up and running again by mid-summer.

That's going to be insane. Can't wait to see when this is all done.


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[charonblk07]

Got my front end all finished up! Fenders and bumper cover were painted by a local club member and they turned out great. The front splitter is all done and installed as well. The 4L80 is still on the wait list to be built and all the other parts are at the border just waiting for the trans.





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[usaf2006]

Looks awesome man! I really like the splitter look.

 

[charonblk07]

If anybody's still following this build, I know I've been quiet lately, it's all just been taking time, and of course some creative book keeping to hide the additional expenses from the other half. My greatest fear is when I die my wife will sell the truck for what I told her I paid for it.

I should have everything to do the 4L80e swap in the next few weeks, trans is built and should be shipped this week after it gets onto their trans dyno. I decided to forgo trying to make my own shifter cable and linkage to keep the factory shifter and picked up a TCI Outlaw ratchet shifter. I'll take all the measurements required to make a linkage but the factory shifter doesn't have mechanical detents past the D position, it's all electronic so I can't manually select any gear, that was my deciding factor in that choice.

For the engine I picked up a full set of .120 wall Manley pushrods to see if my high rpm issues were being caused by flexing pushrods and bad harmonics. I also picked up a set of the Stanke Performance rocker arm tower braces to ensure the rocker arm geometry stays exactly where it's supposed to be. I'm also switching from the Denso 3381s to a Brisk 12RR plugs, they're 4 steps colder compared to the 2 steps colder Densos; we'll see if they survive better than the Densos.

I'm working on the audio system in the mean time, finishing a bunch of trim work for the sub box before I start on the door pods today.

 

[Lil_Ram]

If anybody's still following this build, I know I've been quiet lately, it's all just been taking time, and of course some creative book keeping to hide the additional expenses from the other half. My greatest fear is when I die my wife will sell the truck for what I told her I paid for it.

I should have everything to do the 4L80e swap in the next few weeks, trans is built and should be shipped this week after it gets onto their trans dyno. I decided to forgo trying to make my own shifter cable and linkage to keep the factory shifter and picked up a TCI Outlaw ratchet shifter. I'll take all the measurements required to make a linkage but the factory shifter doesn't have mechanical detents past the D position, it's all electronic so I can't manually select any gear, that was my deciding factor in that choice.

For the engine I picked up a full set of .120 wall Manley pushrods to see if my high rpm issues were being caused by flexing pushrods and bad harmonics. I also picked up a set of the Stanke Performance rocker arm tower braces to ensure the rocker arm geometry stays exactly where it's supposed to be. I'm also switching from the Denso 3381s to a Brisk 12RR plugs, they're 4 steps colder compared to the 2 steps colder Densos; we'll see if they survive better than the Densos.

I'm working on the audio system in the mean time, finishing a bunch of trim work for the sub box before I start on the door pods today.

People are your just being quiet is all.


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[charonblk07]

Alright, well, **** Photobucket. I will get all my pics moved over to imgur and will have to reload everything back onto this thread. So ******* stupid after using their service for over 10 years.

 

[BiGMERF]

Pages full of ads and still want to charge. The greed is real

 

[charonblk07]

While I am STILL waiting or the trans to arrive I decided to make a trip to the border to pick up all the parts I had waiting there. I didn't waste any time getting stuff going once I had it in hand because if I do this right I should have everything in place and waiting for when the trans arrives.

I got started with the new Manley .120 wall pushrods and Stanke tie-rods. Installation was very straightforward for both. It should be noted that with the tie-bars getting the intake push rods to stay in the rocker arm cup is a major pain in the ass. I could fit my pinkie finger between the tie-bar, plug tower, and webbing but that's about the only thing that would fit in there. It also turns out that at some point in the last dozen times I've pulled my rocker arms I over torqued the bolts because I found 3 that were necked/stretched and I never would have seen them if I hadn't removed them from the rocker arm assembly. New bolts are ordered and I'll have them finished and buttoned back up by Friday.

I also got a new set of Brisk 12RR spark plugs. 4 steps colder, hopefully this should help with the detonation issues I was having in the upper RPM along with the new stable valvetrain geometry.

 

[chrisp2493]

Man I hate working on the valvetrain/heads when they are in the truck! This time I rebuilt the engine I did all the head work on the engine stand. Sooooo much nicer

 

[charonblk07]

I got started on the shifter installation. I opted for the TCI Outlaw blackout ratchet shifter and I'm quite happy with how it's turned out. At this point it just needs paint on the new trim piece but it blends very nicely into the interior I think. I had to build a base for the shifter, cut the factory shifter trim plate out of the center console bezel, make an insert for the bezel, shim the bezel, then some fiberglass work to smooth it out.

 

[charonblk07]

Here's the shifter bezel all finished up

Man I hate working on the valvetrain/heads when they are in the truck! This time I rebuilt the engine I did all the head work on the engine stand. Sooooo much nicer

Agreed, but with all the mods I've done my engine bay is at least very open, the only annoying cylinder is #7 because of the engine harness going to the PCM.

 

[Wild one]

We need a pic of the console all painted and finished now Kurtis.I've seen it,but a lot of these other guys haven't,lol. BTW you did an exceptional job on making it look almost like a factory install,it didn't move when I tried heaving it sideways to,
Probably see you when you're back home,curiousity will drag me in again i'm sure,lol

 

[charonblk07]

Hit up the border today to pick up the new 4L80e and almost everything else. I still don't have my flexplate or yoke but they're shipping it direct to my house at their expense, whenever they come in. I'm not overly impressed with the customer service I've received and I'm a very laid back guy so for this to bug me it's gotta be pretty shoddy. If everything fits together properly then some things can be forgiven, time will tell.

The trans controller and shifter are installed now. The Quick4 is pre-programmed for 3 driving mods that I can select on the fly plus I can still manually shift it with the ratchet shifter.




The 4L80e is a light transmission, I couldn't believe it. I was able to pick it up and move it off the tailgate and then lift it from the floor to the workbench to begin assembling everything. I can barely move the 545 around the shop floor let alone pick the damned thing up by myself. So far the Reid bellhousing bolts up fine, the Powermaster starter also bolts up but we'll see what fitment is like under the truck. Luckily, I can remove the bellhousing and just use that underneath to see what clearance is like rather than move the whole trans. I'm going to crawl under it tomorrow and start looking at everything, I'm very curious to see if the torque converter mates into the crankshaft pocket or not.

 

[TylerB]

Damn it's lighter too?!

Everything is looking badass man, looking towards your first impressions because I can't wait to swap mine

 

[charonblk07]

The Reid bellhousing has a starter boss for each side since it can be used with car engines as well and that boss interfered with the passenger's side headers so I took a chunk out of it with the grinder and the bellhousing goes ring into place. Sadly the Powermaster Ultra Torque starter was just a tad too long with the long tube headers. I'm going to see if the local performance store can get me the XS version which is 1 1/4" shorter. I did completely trim back the old front trans mount that comes off the engine mount on the 4wd. With that out of the way there's lots of room to get at the starter area.

I did a brief test fit of the torque converter with the crankshaft to see if the converter snout will fit into the crankshaft output hub and it goes in with a little play in it, which I'm not sure is a good thing but I'll have to see what the adapter flexplate is like when it arrives; which I did call today and was given a tacking number. They 'apparently' shipped it yesterday with UPS but they claim it was returned to them by UPS because they couldn't ship it across the border which seems like a fishy story to me.

 

[charonblk07]

I also finished up the Stanke tie-bar installation. I had to swap out all the rocker arm bolts since some were necked and I just swapped them all for new just in case. Once that bolt swap was complete I had to modify the valve covers to clear the tie bars which is fairly straightforward: there are two 45 degree gussets on each end that get cut out. Everything's all bolted back up now, I just have one spark plug pulled from each cylinder to make turning the engine over easier when I do the trans install.

 

[charonblk07]

More progress today. The first starter wouldn't fit, that was the Powermaster 9413; I shipped it back to Amazon with no issues. I found the Powermaster XS 9513 locally which is a smaller version of the 9413. Turns out that I still have issues with the headers in the way even with the shorter starter, the problem was the solenoid on the starter was a lot bigger on the 9513 and I couldn't clock it with the way it came. I tried cutting down the factory starter head to see if it would clear but that was a wash. I ended up trying something completely different, I modified the baseplate for the 9513 to allow me to clock it to where I needed to move it. One drilled/tapped hole later and I had a starter that fit properly and clears the headers with room to spare now. It's not as secure to the baseplate as I'd like since it's only 1 bolt holding it now but I'll get a friend to tack weld the baseplate to the starter body and that'll hold it good.

I had to grind off the two bolt holes on the driver's side block that held the old converter cover to make the starter fit.

 

[charonblk07]

With the starter sorted out I moved onto the trans itself. With the bellhousing now permanently mounted to the trans I tossed it under the truck to see how everything lined up. I've R&R'd my 545 4 times now and it was always a PITA because of the transfer case and the weight of the unit. The 4L80e slid in with absolutely zero fuss which was awesome to see. There is so much room around the trans compared to the 545 it's quite impressive. With the trans in place I could measure out the trans brace requirements. The oem trans cross member for the 4wd is 5" forward of the trans mount. I have an idea of using an old step notch kit I've had laying around for ever to make a crossmember extension. As it's sitting right now the trans is at +6 degrees and the diff is at +2 degrees so I only need to shim the trans just a bit once I make the cross member. I have to pick up a trans support tomorrow, I'll probably just end up using a urethane one but I might also go for an OEM rubber unit since I hear a lot of complaints about the urethane ones, I'll decide tomorrow.