Stupid, I know, but would doing a few 2 or 3 gear burnouts really hurt my tranny? Its freshly rebuilt with brand new GM internals and stuff, and a trans-go shift kit (supposedly), would doing burnouts into 2nd or 3rd gear really hurt it? I've got a B&M Tranny cooler as well

 

Unless you have a full manual valve body, you have to start in first ever time anyway. The key to a proper burnout is tire speed. Don't do burnouts on dry pavement. It tears up the tires. The tires should be damp (driving into the water box) to help them start spinning easier. Start in first gear then quickly shift to second. about 5 seconds later shift to third as you come out of the water box so the shock of hitting dry pavement doesn't damage the tranny.

The worst thing for TH350, TH400 and 700R4 trannys is hitting that dry pavement when spinning the tires in second gear. It will destroy the stock intermediate sprag.

I don't have a speedo in my car but I estimate my burnouts at around 100 mph tire speed. I'm in high gear at around 5000 rpm when I come out of the water box.

Street tires should not be spun up in the water box. The rubber compound is designed not to heat up so all you're doing is wearing the rubber off and making the tires slippery. The tread also picks up water. Slicks are made from a different compound and get very sticky when hot but then they're also not designed to last 50,000 - 80,000 miles.

 

Thanks for the info!

I guess my question was a little unclear....Although I do plan on eventually using slicks and stuff at the track (Street tires until then), my question was more regarding burnouts at burnout contests or whatever.....where you go with the purpose of creating a lot of smoke and blowing off the tires :-P
On crappy street tires, would the tranny be OK shifting into 2nd without the pavement being really wet?
Thanks!

 

Doing dry burnouot s will be harder on the tranney internals than if the ground were wet...such is the case with sponsored burnout contests.

Getting into high gear does a couple things, first and foremost it distributes the shock load throughout the entire trans since as you go up in gears they start coupling, so when in a 3 speed your in high gear, you have all the drums/clutches, sprag, etc...working together as one so if/when the initial shock of "deadhooking" does occur the entire transmission takes the force instead of just one particular item/set in the trans.

and 2, getting into high gear faster also lets you keep up wheel speed but lower motor rpms....so you'll produce bigger/better smoke earlier and with much less stress on the engine since your not matting it at 6K to accomplish the same thing that 3K would do in high gear....but how your convertor acts will also play into that as well, but that's a whole nother can of worms.

faster you can get into the higher gears the better off you'll be.

 

I'd recommend you convert your torque converter lockup to a manual switch so you can prevent it from going on. When the speedo reaches 35 or 40mph it locks up and the premature wear begins. Also try to prevent from shifting the tranny manually, more premature wear as the clutches slip. Its a good idea to install at least a shift kit, even better the manual valve body. Raising the line pressure is a must. But I did no mods to mine. I fried the 700R4 that originally came in my IROC-Z after two months of crazy random burnouts and drifting (including two track lapping drifting events). It couldnt handle the crazyness of the L98 and that type of behavior in stock form. Not sure exactly what broke in the 700R4 but eventually I only had 1st gear up to 4,000 RPM (and I kept drifting LOL). Not all 700R4's would break that fast but mine did. Nowdays I have a bone stock rebuilt to OEM TH350 still strong after 1 year 5 months and I still abuse that car the same ammount. Its the C model so it has a lockup, I setup a manual switch and I leave it off unless I'm on the freeway. This tranny can take some major burnout abuse. It loves it.

Watch this video! hehe