Do C6's ever die????

[idiabuse]

My first C-6 I built I was 18 and I sold it to a guy with a 460 in a 71 mustang it worked great, he loved it.
That boosted my intrest even more and I have built many other type transmissions.
My favorite is the C-6 in my truck It has every bell and whistle except for Cryofreezing the gears and Lockup converter wich may come soon.

Properly built the unit will last as long as the fluid is lubricant.
It could last 25 years if the lube stays a lube.


javier

 

[typ4]

get one stuck, rock back and forth wot in high range for about 22 minutes, and you will kill a c6. the second one I did this to didnt grab reverse one time until the big cammed 11.1 460 was just passing 6500. the c6 died immediately.

Thats funny, how many pieces was the input drum in?

 

[vegas39]

I only have had on and it was rebuilt 4 times in less than 5k. You can obviously tell the rebuilder was a retard. Since i have had it rebuilt by a competent person it had lated 4 seasons so far behind a 429 in a pulling truck

Must have been the same retard that built mine. Mine is getting ready to go back for the fifth time.

 

[david85]

All I know is mine had a tag on it when I pulled it out so it was likely a rebuild. My Dad had an earlier F250 a long time ago. A 1981 camper special with a 351M rotted body and the C6 was forever sluggish off the line. That was easily the worst POS we ever had in the family but it never did leave him stranded. Eventually he had a back yard mechanic swap the tranny with another used C6 and it did fine ever since.

If the C6 was a 4 speed overdrive with locking torque converter, I would have never tossed mine
Over all, its much harder to wreck one but that doesn't mean you can't if you try.

 

[Black dawg]

Thats funny, how many pieces was the input drum in?

never pulled it apart. pulled the whole combo, 460/c6/203, and replaced it with a 410/435/205 combo. and yes I broke that trans a couple times too.

 

[trackspeeder]

They last forever until you ask this kind of question, Trying to anger the truck gods are you???

This is so true.
I will never ask this kind of question,because the answer will be the tow bill.

 

[IDIDieselJohn]

The C6 in my motorhome is still going strong with 149k miles, and it's had the same 11,000 pound load on it since new!

No aux cooler tho, still going through the radiator. My plans for next year is a trans. cooler, only thing I gotta figure out is where to put the darn thing in a Econoline van!

I wanna put a huge one with it's own electric fan with a switch under the dash.

 

[david85]

John, your rigs are also bone stock.

A rare breed around here for sure!

 

[IDIDieselJohn]

Good point!

 

[sassyrel]

I only have had on and it was rebuilt 4 times in less than 5k. You can obviously tell the rebuilder was a retard. Since i have had it rebuilt by a competent person it had lated 4 seasons so far behind a 429 in a pulling truck

correct--bout the only thing that can kill a c6--is tooo small a cooler when hard pulling

 

[DeepRoots]

on another note, after alot of miles, getting a newer Torque Converter will be eye opening.

much like a fuel system that gets weaker over time, you don't notice the slippage/weakness until you put on a new one.
This is especially true behind a high torque engine like a diesel.

best of luck
Drew

 

[JackSpeed]

In my experience 30,000 miles max between service intervals works well and combined with a good cooler makes these transmissions last longer than almost all other autos. You only get about 1/3 or so of the fluid out of these things with a simple pan removal and filter change. I have worked on vans with over 300,000 miles on 351/C6 combos but 30,000 miles was the max between service intervals.

My first C6 was in an 84 Bronco with a 302, and 3.54 gears. When I got the Bronco it could not go up any hill because the tranny slipped too bad. The fluid was nearly black so I changed the fluid and filter. Ran like new so I threw on 35" mudders and beat it up for years on and off road. My best guess is that 30 times or more I got stuck in mud and was able to get out by bringing the engine to 5000 rpm then dropping it into forward or reverse enough times to get free. No cooler, just pure abuse for over 50,000 more miles and no cooler or service.

I can see how a built big block could hurt a stock C6 but I am sold on the idea of using these trannys, throwing coolers on them, and if necessary building them for serious power.

Hope your luck is as good as mine.

 

[adrianspeeder]

Who knows what higher power came to the Ford engineers in the '60s to give them the C6.

Tough trans, but I've killed two...

Adrianspeeder

 

[rthomas]

Ive killed a few, mostly behind 390's and 460's, but after I started using big coolers I never killed another one. I had one 11x14 cooler on my IDI and temps could still get close to 220 so I added a second 11x14 and made a deep tranny pan, that did the trick- I never saw temps over 160 again

 

[Agnem]

There's a reason why Bigfoot ran a C6 for so long.