Yesterday I had dropped of the E40D from my 91 f350 at the trans shop. The good news is that even though it is destroyed, he can rebuild it. The bad news is it will cost me alot of money. Between just buying a house and getting married, timing of the old girl couldn't be worse.

I'm leaning torwards replacing it with a c6 that i already have. Two good c6 transmissions from 2wd trucks: era 77 and 78 big block.

Will these mate to my 91, 460 drivetrain? I know I would have to change the tailhousing. But is a c6 2wd the same trans as a 4wd application minus the tailhousing, or is the tailshafts different. Also, would I need to change out the torque converter? If anyone has done this swap, I would be extremelly interested in any pointers, linkage, mounts, etc..


Thanks, Dan

 

How much money are we talking about here? Have you looked around locally for a replacement e40d? Your looking at less mpg if you go the c6 route.

 

yeah the c6 doesn't have overdrive sooo unless your gear ratio is set to keep rpms down at high speeds

 

On the other hand you will have a hell of a lot of torque.

 

Over the years I've found that having someone else rebuild a transmission is by far more expensive than a junkyard transmission. Many yards these days have gotten smart and have an area on the side or near the cashier that contains "good pulls", meaning the assembly, engine or tranny, worked fine before they pulled it out. Instead of rebuilding for $1800 or dealing with the hassle of a conversion when money and time is very tight right now, consider a junkyard tranny. F-series or E-series are the same for a given year so if you hunt a little your effort would be two bolts on the cross member, six bolts on the bell housing, a shifter linkage, and a connector or two.

While C6's are great transmissions, your mileage, whatever it is, is going to go into the toilet very quickly and any money you save by not doing the rebuild will exit your wallet at the pump.

 

Rebuilt E40D yourself cost $190 dollars for rebuilt kit from auto store.

 

i second the junkyard tranny or find a dealer of rebuilt e40ds just search online most of the time you can get a core fee off your old trans

 

24OO$, 2000 if I supply the tc, and it seems to be about the same between shops around here. Jim, the guy i took it to, is a straight shooter; we've drank some beer together many a nights. He said i've got hard parts broken and my torque converter suffered damage as well. The pump and drive are wore out and someone had rebuilt it before I owned it with **** poor quality parts, he also said there are a lot of updates to do to it given the early year it was built.

Do you guys think in a year I might be in the same spot as now if I swap in a junkyard unit? From reading on FTE, I don't know if i've ever heard of an E40D that was quite right. I knowthere are many happy owners unspoken for, but for me reliability trumps extravagance in this situation. I pull a trailer daily and lock it out of OD 60% of the time. Besides, over/underdrive units are readily available for later on down the road.


Thanks, Dan

 

Sure, it's very possible to buy a dead transmission and spend a weekend shoving it in just to find out it doesn't shift at all even when you kick it with your left workboot repeatedly.

The key is the junkyard itself. There are three in the town next door from me, and all three have different approaches to providing used parts.

The cheapest yard is a u-pull-it where whatever is out on the lot is out on the lot, and they know nothing about anything. Lower prices by far, but higher risk as often the vehicle looks intact but you don't know why it was junked in the first place. This yard takes anything whether it runs or not, and puts it out in the yard. Sometimes they're chalked as to what is wrong with it "bad trans, bad engine" etc and sometimes it's quite obvious. Other times the vehicle is locked and unmarked and who knows.

The second yard actually is not really a u-pull-it, but more of a u-find-it and a u-carry-it. What I mean by this is they break down most of the incoming vehicles and good, TESTED parts and assembles are racked and stacked in various very large sheds. So while somewhat unsorted in a logical way (all the trannies are together, but not sorted by brand or anything), it takes a while to find what you're looking for, but then you can put it on a moving dolly and roll it to the cashier and get a tranny that shifted well at least at the time they yanked it. They're all tagged and marked as to what they're from - year, model, brand, VIN and mileage. For a non-project vehicle this is generally where I'll get my assemblies from (rear axles, engines, trans). I'll get my interior and body panels from the first yard, as their prices are much less and I don't have to worry about functionality of body panels - they're either dented or not and I can see that.

The third yard takes this one step higher - fully computerized inventory and four warehouses, and whatever you want whether simple or obscure they'll have/find and bring it to the retail location within a day, strapped to a pallet, and warranty the part for 30 days.

For an E40D these three yards offer three different prices - $350, $500 and $950.

It really depends where the yard acquires their vehicles. Some yards take anything, other yards actually go out of their way to buy unwanted used vehicles from car dealers, tow-ins from "800-cars-4-kids" where people donate late model vehicles as a tax write-off, and a heck of a lot of commercial vehicles that are being junked simply because they've been amortized and written off, tax wise.

 

Your right about the yard types, I've seen them at both ends, I just don't know if I like the E40D enough to put another back in. My old truck I sold it with a 351c6 with 310,000 and i never touched the trans, just put a ginormous cooler in front of the radiator. I've got a C6 sittin next to the truck now, maybe tonight i'll compare trans cases, guess I'll let u guys know how it goes.


Thanks, Dan

 

I could be wrong, but I am thinking the tailshaft is different also..