TRNW-2: 6l80 questio about sonnax pr valve

[Randolph Wilson]

The stock GM uses a very short land on the balance end and feed the balance oil in just in front of it through that cup plug. There is no feed hole in the valve. All aftermarket valves have a much longer land that rides in the unworn area deeper in the bore and provides greater stability. This longer land blocks the original cup plug feed. Our Transgo valve then feeds the balance oil through a drilling in the valve itself. You do not have to do any modifications to the pump. The Sonnax valve is solid and requires you to drill a long hole at an angle with a tiny drill bit to provide the balance feed.

To answer the original question, as said by others, without drilling (ball or no ball) you will have no balance oil and thereby no pressure regulation.  The emergency blow-off becomes your primary regulator.


[cid:image001.png at 01DB5E11.DBAE9BB0]<http://www.transgo.com/>
Randy Wilson
Technical Support Specialist
2621 Merced Avenue El Monte, CA 91733 USA
Office: 626.443-7451
Calibration | Innovation |Performance
[cid:image002.png at 01DB5E11.DBAE9BB0]<https://www.facebook.com/TransGo-600961476956220> [1475592640337_I] <https://www.instagram.com/transgoshiftkit>  [1475592655171_t] <https://twitter.com/transgoshiftkit>  [1475592664972_Y] <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg6v9MzFmq7g3fy7-r9PGIg>  [1475592672363_L] <https://www.linkedin.com/company/transgo1/>


From: trnw2-bounces at trnw.net <trnw2-bounces at trnw.net> On Behalf Of Dan Hogan via trnw2
Sent: Friday, January 3, 2025 5:21 PM
To: Wayne <wagarrick at yahoo.com>
Cc: Technical Discussion Forum <trnw2 at trnw.net>
Subject: Re: TRNW-2: 6l80 questio about sonnax pr valve

If you don’t drill but still the install the ball, you get no PR balance oil and high line pressure and reduced converter feed.

Sonnax re-routes balance oil directly through the stator support casting by drilling to the pr balance spool cavity.

Their PR is solid with no oil passage inside the stem like the stock design.

The stock GM PR valve and other aftermarket valves feed balance oil via the existing orifice cup plug through the PR valve stem into balance cavity. Very GM like (700-4L60E style).

If you drilled and left out the ball, I guess you may get too much balance oil as now balance oil can feed via the cup plug orifice AND the cross drilled passage. I suppose how much  depends on whether the balance spool could get pass the cup plug passage.

I suspect it would still be an unbalanced condition and pressure regulation would be borked. I think Dan Tucker posted what happens when you don’t do either awhile back as they encountered it.

—-
Dan Hogan
Buster’s Transmission Service
Matthews, NC 28105
704-847-5321
https://busterstransmissionservice.com


On Jan 3, 2025, at 7:52 PM, Wayne <wagarrick at yahoo.com<mailto:wagarrick at yahoo.com>> wrote:
 Dan, wouldn’t that be the case if he DID install the ball, but not drill the hole, or is this imperative with Sonnax pr valve?
Sent from my iPhone


On Jan 3, 2025, at 7:33 PM, Dan Hogan via trnw2 <trnw2 at trnw.net<mailto:trnw2 at trnw.net>> wrote:
 You will have no balance oil available which means the PR valve will be located in the high pressure position in the bore.

Converter charge will be reduced significantly so you may have poor or no engagements along with overheating and high line pressure (harsh shifts).   Bad news all around.


Great article by Sonnax’s Greg Nader on how this all works. Worth the read to understand the role of balance oil and regulating.

<Series-bw__1_.png>
Anatomy of a Transmission: Oil Flow in the Pump-PR-Converter-Cooler Lube Circuits<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.sonnax.com_tech-5Fresources_131-2Danatomy-2Dof-2Da-2Dtransmission-2Doil-2Dflow-2Din-2Dthe-2Dpump-2Dpr-2Dconverter-2Dcooler-2Dlube-2Dcircuits&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=smOzNWPZu5-MBJg-0tkHhHoVW9xEBKdKWsMxBeFAJDZVJI6X79ZhQVJ_erT6I9aF&m=dvvDCt70VzBIQ4976TcvsZMYy_d-7q2fwcBu6Az1U0NZ72us__KFtXJmjY-rrUR9&s=vpd1yMgx5ZLlNhdK_tHBueD1rxFieUyvWOFgEaetD30&e=>
sonnax.com<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.sonnax.com_tech-5Fresources_131-2Danatomy-2Dof-2Da-2Dtransmission-2Doil-2Dflow-2Din-2Dthe-2Dpump-2Dpr-2Dconverter-2Dcooler-2Dlube-2Dcircuits&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=smOzNWPZu5-MBJg-0tkHhHoVW9xEBKdKWsMxBeFAJDZVJI6X79ZhQVJ_erT6I9aF&m=dvvDCt70VzBIQ4976TcvsZMYy_d-7q2fwcBu6Az1U0NZ72us__KFtXJmjY-rrUR9&s=vpd1yMgx5ZLlNhdK_tHBueD1rxFieUyvWOFgEaetD30&e=>

—-
Dan Hogan
Buster’s Transmission Service
Matthews, NC 28105
704-847-5321
https://busterstransmissionservice.com


On Jan 3, 2025, at 6:47 PM, Ryan D via trnw2 <trnw2 at trnw.net<mailto:trnw2 at trnw.net>> wrote:
I have a 6l80 here and the builder who built it before left out the little ball and didn't drill the hole for the sonnax pr valve. I remember reading that happened on here.
I was wondering what symptoms that would cause.
Thanks




--
Ryan
This message was sent from the TRNW Technical Discussion Forum (trnw2). You were sent this message because you have subscribed to our mailing list. If you don't want to receive these emails from TRNW in the future, please unsubscribe here:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.trnw.net_unsubscribe.php-3Fforum-3D2&d=DwICAg&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=smOzNWPZu5-MBJg-0tkHhHoVW9xEBKdKWsMxBeFAJDZVJI6X79ZhQVJ_erT6I9aF&m=BJx0f_ei5fGBEWxULUgw3GTCghmQR8NEo4JOv_Cn-5a-Nw6-lgJwAxRg1S9Uxe0G&s=8a3FFjaINoqh7aZM-bq29WbDU97RJYWL_YjflpA4Lmk&e=
TRNW Inc., 2825 Walnut Terrace, Modesto, CA 95355
This message was sent from the TRNW Technical Discussion Forum (trnw2). You were sent this message because you have subscribed to our mailing list. If you don't want to receive these emails from TRNW in the future, please unsubscribe here:
https://www.trnw.net/unsubscribe.php?forum=2
TRNW Inc., 2825 Walnut Terrace, Modesto, CA 95355
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.trnw.net/pipermail/trnw2/attachments/20250104/12bf574c/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 12854 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://lists.trnw.net/pipermail/trnw2/attachments/20250104/12bf574c/attachment-0006.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 431 bytes
Desc: image002.png
URL: <http://lists.trnw.net/pipermail/trnw2/attachments/20250104/12bf574c/attachment-0007.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.png
Type: image/png
Size: 1135 bytes
Desc: image003.png
URL: <http://lists.trnw.net/pipermail/trnw2/attachments/20250104/12bf574c/attachment-0008.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 463 bytes
Desc: image004.png
URL: <http://lists.trnw.net/pipermail/trnw2/attachments/20250104/12bf574c/attachment-0009.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.png
Type: image/png
Size: 394 bytes
Desc: image005.png
URL: <http://lists.trnw.net/pipermail/trnw2/attachments/20250104/12bf574c/attachment-0010.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image006.png
Type: image/png
Size: 414 bytes
Desc: image006.png
URL: <http://lists.trnw.net/pipermail/trnw2/attachments/20250104/12bf574c/attachment-0011.png>