I currently have a 355 TPI motor in my car (about 300 HP), and behind it a 700R4 that came with my 84 Sport Coupe Camaro. I installed a TransGo shift kit and a TCI torque converter, as well as an external trans cooler. So far everything is great, it shifts great and I have had no problems (knock on wood). Soon, however, I will be installing a larger cam, a set of AFR 195cc heads, and a Stealth Ram intake, which means I will have a lot more power. Will my trans be able to handle this?? Any suggestions?? Thanks in advance.

 

if your engine goes over 350 ft-lbs of torque, youll be out of the designed operating range of the trans. Youll be liable to smoke the 3-4 clutch pack and do a whole lot of other bad stuff.

 

I think you will be on the edge of the 700r4's abilities but still OK. You have put in some good pieces and the cooler especially will help deal with the extra heat. Plus the shift kit will keep the clutches from spinning against each other while changing gears.

I just got my 3.42s put in today and it is a VERY nice change from the 2.73s

 

save your $$$ and take that trans to get a rebuild up the a$$ and I mean real heavy duty parts.

 

On my 700-R4 i get a slight knock from the tranny if i mash the accelerator when I start off. The problem was gone when i got diferent exhaust pipe put on after i put headers on, but it still does the knocking if im punching it in first gear and i let off the gas completely. I have the auto tranny, any suggestions, other than dont do that anymore?

 

Have you checked the trans mount? Simple and cheap repair if that is it.

 

Should I take it to a personal mechanic or to a shop. I don't like the shops where I live, they're all rip offs. Dummys couldnt even fix a factionally improper speedometer

 

where do you recommend getting the tranny mount, and if possible can i do it myself without doing anything major like jacking the tranny or something like that?

 

tranny mount is like 10 min job. jack up the car and support it. remove the transmission crossmember(5 bolts). put your jack unda the tranny put a peice of wood between the tranny and jack so you dont cripple your tranny pan. and jack up jus until it is snug unda the pan. remove the mount(2 bolts) and then your ready to put the new mount in. i broke about 4 stock mounts in a month and half. finally went to an energy suspension mount and its been fine since. the mount i got was about 40 dollars. same as i spent on all the stock replacements not to mention the time to change it 4 times. if you do this make sure you support the tranny or it will come down on you and im sure it will screw up some other things too.

 

I'm doing this tommorow. I have an energy suspension tranny mount ready to go in. I was going to do it today but I didn't have anything solid enough to place between the tranny pan and the jack.

I think the 10 minute estimate is a little off for newbies like me though. I usually just double or triple the time it would take an experienced car nut to do it. I ran out of daylight too, I hate running out of daylight.

 

Another thing to think about is the year of the transmission. If I'm not mistaken, GM offered an improved version of the 700-R4 after 1987; previous years were more prone to problems and could withstand less abuse.

I'm not an expert on the subject, but you might want to do a search to be sure--I'm almost positive that pre-1987 transmissions are less desirable.

 

You contradict yourself Sancho. Do you mean that trannies up to 1986 are weaker, or that trannies up to 1987 are weaker?

19??-1986 = weaker
1987- present = stronger

Is that what you meant to say? It sounds like GM beefed the tranny up to deal with the introduction of the L98 to the F-body platform. Which would make sense because the L98 is such a torque monster.

 

Actually, it was mid year '87 that the 700R4 got improvements.

Your best bet is to PM transfixleo or probuiltautomatics on this topic

 

Is there any way to tell if a 87 700r4 was built before or after the improvments? I assume that something like that would be found in the identification numbers on the tranny if at all.

 

let me rephrase then. 10 mins once you get underneath the car.

 

I asked myself the same question when looking for a new transmission.

I found out if you have 800 bucks, thats a good rebuild fund. However if you have like 2k to drain, get the raptor 700r4. I've only heard good about them and their torque handling raiting is amazing. Do a google search on "raptor 700r4" if your interested.