This is meant to be a basic guide to get you started with the 6l80e trans, adapted to our G8's, other people with different cars would need to adapt it a little, but it's not complicated once you understand the very basics.
So here we go, please bear with me, as i won't have time everyday to update the guide, this trans is a monster, and as such, there are a bunch of parameters to change, some of them i have no idea what they do, and hence the reason i don't touch them, some others are obvious and easy to interpret. The most important thing to keep in mind, i don't care how many times have you read about disabling the TM to make the car faster, leave that to the trans builders or people who wish to build their trans 4 times a year, i'll show you the basics to have a nice and fast feeling in it, while leaving some TM in, TM is your friend, not your enemy, TM is needed to keep the trans together to a point, she doesn't have to have 100% TM though, but some TM would keep it running for a long time without being too intrusive. most people rebuilding their trans today, are those who thought they were smarter than GM, and that running without trans TM was a smart thing to do because the car is faster without it, there are differences between cars that get trailered in to the track, compared to those of you who DD your vehicle and drive to the track back and forth, being smart is tuning for performance while minimizing the risk of breaking your stuff up, be smart, use common sense, i have 80k miles so far with 10%TM, and i haven't changed one single seal in my trans, other than new trans fluid to accommodate my Yank 3200 stall. I'm expecting to enjoy another 80k miles out of the trans without any drama, that being said, i'm not a trans builder, i don't know how yours would behave, or what's going to happen with it next week , use common sense, TM can make the car faster to a point, how much faster?, better ask those who keep breaking them, i'm sure they know better...
Anyways, once you get the basics, feel free to do as you wish and go wild or conservative, your choice really. Again, i'm not responsible on how you use this info, what changes you do or you don't, use at your own risk.
6L80E Basic Trans tuning Guide
I’m going to divide the parameters we’ll be tuning in 4 different sections or modules as they are defined for us to tune using HPtuners. There are over 450+ parameters we can change in the trans, but that doesn’t mean you have to change them all to have a trans that performs to your likes.
We’ll be concentrating in simple changes that would make your A6 trans more enjoyable.
As an introduction from HPT , Source: http://www.hptuners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18378&page=2, Post#23 From Chris@HPT
“The trans mostly uses a inertia torque based "profile" to control the shift, ie. it manages the engine torque to try and achieve the desired torque profile during the shift progression (time) and then manages the shift pressure to achieve the desired shift time. You need to remember that the trans has individual pressure solenoids on each clutch *and* a main pressure solenoid (aka force motor on older 4l60e trans).
Starting with the easy one, the main or "Base" pressure is controlled by the main pressure solenoid. This works quite simple compared to the rest of the trans. There are 3 possible pressure patterns X, Y & Z. Each shift mode or type can be set to a particular base pattern defined in the Pressure Pattern Select section. Note that another change we made in this new release was to remove Cruise and Performance tables and replace them with Pattern A Shift and Pattern B shift (note this is a shift pattern *NOT* a pressure pattern and you can see what A & B relate to under the Shift Pattern Type.
So the base pressure X, Y or Z is selected by the current shift mode and then the actual pressure for the shift is controlled by the base tables themselves for each shift. The main solenoid feeds the line pressure to the whole trans, including the clutch pressure solenoids. So you can think of this like your water mains pressure at your house. Raising or lowering your mains pressure does have an effect on how fast the water comes out your kitchen tap but not as big effect as turning the kitchen tap itself (the clutch pressure solenoids).
Sometime GM uses "Discrete Shift Torque" instead of the actual shift torque, to give a less modulated (more constant) base pressure to the main line so that the clutch solenoids and pressure learning is more stable. What this does is define a low, mid and high range for torque and then set the torque number to a fixed value while torque is in the range, so then the pressure lookup in the base table is also constant.
Okay so that's the base pressure... now onto the torque based stuff...
The inertia torque is "factored" into a number between 1 and 9 which is then used later to modify the base shift time and other things. From what i can tell this is the primary thing calibrators use to control the shift "feel" once the main things are calibrated. You'll notice in the Shift Inertia Factor Profile tables, higher numbers are used at higher torque and RPM. Further on in the Shift Time Inertia Adders you'll notice that these higher numbers equate to smaller additions to the shift times (ie. shorter shift times, which equate to higher pressures and firmer shifts). The basic idea here is that the shift is all about managing the rotating inertia change in a certain time between the shafts and clutches as some speed up and slow down during various shifts.
You will also notice that the shift times have two primary type "Normal" and "Special". This is selected by the Pressure Pattern Mode options ie. each of pattern X, Y & Z can be set to shift times Normal or Special.
So you end up with a base shift time + some adders based on inertia torque and other stuff. This shift time is then used to setup the desired torque profile.
The Shift Time Transition Initial controls when during the shift completion (% of shift time) the torque based model starts, then the Shift Time Transition Final controls when it ends - kind of the ramp in time and ramp out time as far as i can tell. Probably used as a way to wait for things to stabilize enough for the torque based model to be accurate, then ramp out once the shift is basically complete. Again, at higher torque and RPM the numbers get smaller.
The desired output torque factors and multipliers control the torque profile itself and experimentation will be required to see exactly what these do, from what i make of it they control the shape of the torque profile as the shift complete's. ie. more torque in the initial shift and less later or the other way around depending on probably a million other things that maybe one person in GM fully understands!
If you have understood anything so far you will realize at this point there are two ways to change the shift feel. Either go in an change the shift times themselves *or* mod the inertia factor profile so that the smaller adders are selected at lower torque/RPM. If you aren't getting good shifts at full throttle then you probably want to change the shift times themselves to be shorter, since you are already at Profile Factor = 9 in most cases. If you just want firmer part throttle shifts and are happy with everything else then maybe just increase the Profile factor from say 3 to 4 or 5 in the mid range torque/RPM areas.
Hopefully by now you've worked out that if shift time controls all this then the pressures must learn to achieve the shift times required, and yes they do. Individual pressure solenoids are controlled by the torque profile and shift time learning, they are adaptive. This trans is *very* good at learning in most cases and this is why you don't hear of many 6L80e trans breaking due to low-mid boost FI applications, unlike back in the 4L60e days which only in some cals had adaptive learning enabled (which was very primitive).
So, you've got the various pattern selects, pressure mode, the base pressure patterns (main solenoid), base desired shift time + modifiers (mostly controlled by calibrated inertia factor 1-9), torque controlled pressure solenoids and adaptive learning to achieve the shift times. Easy huh?!?!?
Please take small steps. You can see now why we were reluctant to add this stuff to the editor as it really does require a detailed knowledge of the theory behind it all and also the operation of the trans itself to fully comprehend what is happening. Even then i doubt there is anyone at GM who knows everything about how this sucker works! (btw, if that person does exist and reads this maybe they can post ”
So here we go, please bear with me, as i won't have time everyday to update the guide, this trans is a monster, and as such, there are a bunch of parameters to change, some of them i have no idea what they do, and hence the reason i don't touch them, some others are obvious and easy to interpret. The most important thing to keep in mind, i don't care how many times have you read about disabling the TM to make the car faster, leave that to the trans builders or people who wish to build their trans 4 times a year, i'll show you the basics to have a nice and fast feeling in it, while leaving some TM in, TM is your friend, not your enemy, TM is needed to keep the trans together to a point, she doesn't have to have 100% TM though, but some TM would keep it running for a long time without being too intrusive. most people rebuilding their trans today, are those who thought they were smarter than GM, and that running without trans TM was a smart thing to do because the car is faster without it, there are differences between cars that get trailered in to the track, compared to those of you who DD your vehicle and drive to the track back and forth, being smart is tuning for performance while minimizing the risk of breaking your stuff up, be smart, use common sense, i have 80k miles so far with 10%TM, and i haven't changed one single seal in my trans, other than new trans fluid to accommodate my Yank 3200 stall. I'm expecting to enjoy another 80k miles out of the trans without any drama, that being said, i'm not a trans builder, i don't know how yours would behave, or what's going to happen with it next week , use common sense, TM can make the car faster to a point, how much faster?, better ask those who keep breaking them, i'm sure they know better...
Anyways, once you get the basics, feel free to do as you wish and go wild or conservative, your choice really. Again, i'm not responsible on how you use this info, what changes you do or you don't, use at your own risk.
6L80E Basic Trans tuning Guide
I’m going to divide the parameters we’ll be tuning in 4 different sections or modules as they are defined for us to tune using HPtuners. There are over 450+ parameters we can change in the trans, but that doesn’t mean you have to change them all to have a trans that performs to your likes.
We’ll be concentrating in simple changes that would make your A6 trans more enjoyable.
As an introduction from HPT , Source: http://www.hptuners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18378&page=2, Post#23 From Chris@HPT
“The trans mostly uses a inertia torque based "profile" to control the shift, ie. it manages the engine torque to try and achieve the desired torque profile during the shift progression (time) and then manages the shift pressure to achieve the desired shift time. You need to remember that the trans has individual pressure solenoids on each clutch *and* a main pressure solenoid (aka force motor on older 4l60e trans).
Starting with the easy one, the main or "Base" pressure is controlled by the main pressure solenoid. This works quite simple compared to the rest of the trans. There are 3 possible pressure patterns X, Y & Z. Each shift mode or type can be set to a particular base pattern defined in the Pressure Pattern Select section. Note that another change we made in this new release was to remove Cruise and Performance tables and replace them with Pattern A Shift and Pattern B shift (note this is a shift pattern *NOT* a pressure pattern and you can see what A & B relate to under the Shift Pattern Type.
So the base pressure X, Y or Z is selected by the current shift mode and then the actual pressure for the shift is controlled by the base tables themselves for each shift. The main solenoid feeds the line pressure to the whole trans, including the clutch pressure solenoids. So you can think of this like your water mains pressure at your house. Raising or lowering your mains pressure does have an effect on how fast the water comes out your kitchen tap but not as big effect as turning the kitchen tap itself (the clutch pressure solenoids).
Sometime GM uses "Discrete Shift Torque" instead of the actual shift torque, to give a less modulated (more constant) base pressure to the main line so that the clutch solenoids and pressure learning is more stable. What this does is define a low, mid and high range for torque and then set the torque number to a fixed value while torque is in the range, so then the pressure lookup in the base table is also constant.
Okay so that's the base pressure... now onto the torque based stuff...
The inertia torque is "factored" into a number between 1 and 9 which is then used later to modify the base shift time and other things. From what i can tell this is the primary thing calibrators use to control the shift "feel" once the main things are calibrated. You'll notice in the Shift Inertia Factor Profile tables, higher numbers are used at higher torque and RPM. Further on in the Shift Time Inertia Adders you'll notice that these higher numbers equate to smaller additions to the shift times (ie. shorter shift times, which equate to higher pressures and firmer shifts). The basic idea here is that the shift is all about managing the rotating inertia change in a certain time between the shafts and clutches as some speed up and slow down during various shifts.
You will also notice that the shift times have two primary type "Normal" and "Special". This is selected by the Pressure Pattern Mode options ie. each of pattern X, Y & Z can be set to shift times Normal or Special.
So you end up with a base shift time + some adders based on inertia torque and other stuff. This shift time is then used to setup the desired torque profile.
The Shift Time Transition Initial controls when during the shift completion (% of shift time) the torque based model starts, then the Shift Time Transition Final controls when it ends - kind of the ramp in time and ramp out time as far as i can tell. Probably used as a way to wait for things to stabilize enough for the torque based model to be accurate, then ramp out once the shift is basically complete. Again, at higher torque and RPM the numbers get smaller.
The desired output torque factors and multipliers control the torque profile itself and experimentation will be required to see exactly what these do, from what i make of it they control the shape of the torque profile as the shift complete's. ie. more torque in the initial shift and less later or the other way around depending on probably a million other things that maybe one person in GM fully understands!
If you have understood anything so far you will realize at this point there are two ways to change the shift feel. Either go in an change the shift times themselves *or* mod the inertia factor profile so that the smaller adders are selected at lower torque/RPM. If you aren't getting good shifts at full throttle then you probably want to change the shift times themselves to be shorter, since you are already at Profile Factor = 9 in most cases. If you just want firmer part throttle shifts and are happy with everything else then maybe just increase the Profile factor from say 3 to 4 or 5 in the mid range torque/RPM areas.
Hopefully by now you've worked out that if shift time controls all this then the pressures must learn to achieve the shift times required, and yes they do. Individual pressure solenoids are controlled by the torque profile and shift time learning, they are adaptive. This trans is *very* good at learning in most cases and this is why you don't hear of many 6L80e trans breaking due to low-mid boost FI applications, unlike back in the 4L60e days which only in some cals had adaptive learning enabled (which was very primitive).
So, you've got the various pattern selects, pressure mode, the base pressure patterns (main solenoid), base desired shift time + modifiers (mostly controlled by calibrated inertia factor 1-9), torque controlled pressure solenoids and adaptive learning to achieve the shift times. Easy huh?!?!?
Please take small steps. You can see now why we were reluctant to add this stuff to the editor as it really does require a detailed knowledge of the theory behind it all and also the operation of the trans itself to fully comprehend what is happening. Even then i doubt there is anyone at GM who knows everything about how this sucker works! (btw, if that person does exist and reads this maybe they can post ”