OBD-II was introduced in 1993, along with electronic controls and the 4L60E. Simultaneously, the 700-R4 was renamed the 4L60. Although the two transmissions share a name and some parts, they are not the same. When GM upgraded some key internal parts that were failing behind the increasingly powerful Gen III powerplant in 2001, the 4L60E became the 4L65E. The improved transmission used a stronger five-pinion rear planetary as well as a hardened input shaft and sun shell to boost torque capacity to 380 lb-ft. The nice thing about all of this is that the modern parts can be easily swapped into the 4L60E, allowing you to upgrade your existing tranny without purchasing a new one.
video transcription:
Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of GFX Product Reviews.
Now, today we’re gonna talk about the differences in the 4L60 700 shells.
Now, some of you might be saying, why is GFX talking about a product that’s been out in the market for over 20 years? While the answer is really simple, the answer is this.
We get calls, not on a daily basis, but on a weekly basis. From customers, from distributors, even from some employees that have asked me, what is the difference between the shells? Well, just like in the Bible, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; but in this case, General Motors in the beginning created the regular 4L60 shell.
Now, this 4L60 Shell had issues with the splines. The splines would wear out and the shell would be completely gone. So one of the fixes was to make hardened splines on the shell. So GFX came out with the same shell with just hardened splines. This would avoid the splines from tearing off.
Later on, we came up with a heavy-duty shell. Now, this is GFX number 42269. This is GFX number 42269B which is the same version as the original. The 42269 is a heavy-duty shell, which we had labeled the monster. Now, this shell is actually one pound heavier than the original shell.
Aside from that, it does have hardened splines. The neck has a thicker wall, and the whole shell altogether is a thicker wall shell. If you compare the difference between this shell and this shell, you would notice the thickness in the wall. So we have this one, and we also came out with, later on, we came out with the 4L65 shell, which is basically the same as the 42269B, the monster with the exception that this is 4L65 only.
Now, this is good for the 4L60 4L65, just like this one, the 4L60, 4L65. So why did we do a 4L65 only? Well, simple answer to that is a lot of rebuilders wanted to use the 4L65 shell for the 4L65 rebuild. That was it, no difference.
They wanted the same style with no holes on, on the top of the shell. So 42269A 4L65, 42269, which is our monster, 42269B, which is the regular shell, just like the OE version, with the exception of the hardened splines. So I hope that this answers any questions that any of you may have. If you still have any doubts, if you still have any questions, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Thanks and have a great day. Bye-bye.