My friend drives a 91 LE with almost 140,000 miles.

well.he was pulling out, or tried to, Hes reverse was almost gone.it was grinding and slipping.so the engine would redline, and then grab. Asked him about it, he said its been doing it for over 2,000 miles now.

How long can he expect to see hes tranny doing this till the 1,2,D,OD crap out?

generally on a automatic reverse is the 1st to go out its just a matter of time i would go out on a limb and guess it will last for 3k tops

He has to rev to go? Add fluid.

That seems like the obvious thing. But I have a friend with a Caddy [can't don't remember the model] but it is a small caddy with a 3800 with the 4T60-E, and his did this in 1st. Everyone that looked at the car was stumped. He was talking about it, and I overheard it and told him flush the fluid [do it yourself if you can, using the tranny cooler lines {with more details of course}] and put on some magnets on the tranny pan [strong ones, again recommended the ones I bought]. Car is running great again. I am believing this to be from dirt blocking the pressure balls. But, of course first thing is first.. make sure you have fluid . When checking it, start the car up, and run it through all the gears a few times [or better yet, after driving the car for a while], then check it. If it has room to play with the level, add more. As long as you don't overfill it, all is well.


-justin

Yea i'd say flush it do the magnet trick and try it. With the 440-T4'* though when they act up ur almost definately gonna need a new one. Also justin, there wasn't ever a caddy with a 3800. Only V8'*, except the cimmaron in the 80'*, and that had the 2.8 not the 3.8.

Today that is true but back in the disco days of 1980-82 Cadillac did use a 4.1 liter (252 cid) derivative of the 3.8 V-6. Thouroughly ded, it was adequate for flat Interstates and was faster than the deisel.

None come to mind with the "E" transmission, Caddy FWD engine then was the 4.1->4.5->4.9 series sidewinder V-8 that came before the Northstar.

Trust me, this caddy has a 3800. I believe when it says "3800" on the engine, it is a 3800. And when it has 3800 badging on it. Not to mention it looks a lot like a L27. I can't think of the model.. but it is a caddy.


-justin

Justin i don't want to say that you're wrong, but i believe u are. I just went through my entire catalog, and there has not been a 3800 ever installed in a cadillac vehicle. Like i said, there was a 2.8 chevrolet V6 installed in the cimmaron in the late 80'*. I looked all the way back to 1985, before they even called them 3800'*. The only engines were V8'*, the 4.1, then 4.5, then 4.9, and of course the N*. Sorry. Maybe if u can find out the model we can tell more info. Also if anyone wants to know where i got the specs, i have a book called "The standard catalog of american cars." There are two editions that i have, one covering i believe 1943-1975 and the other '76-'99. I also have an import edition. It has base prices per year, per model, engine specs (detailed), option lists usually with retail prices, suspension details, and an overview of changes per model/year. Great investment.

a) 3800 pretty much means FWD. 4T60E definately does. Think *all* V-8 FWD caddies used either the 4T65 or the 4T80,
b) pictures please. GMOO did some oddball thangs and Canadian Pontiacs got Chevvy engines so "never say never".
c) if an L-27/4T60E fits inna Fiero then...
d) original Catera had a 3.0 V-6