Well, I killed my 700… lost 3rd and 4th on the highway last night.

I need some advice… what would you do considering:
- it’s going behind a single turbo 350, heads, cam… current stack of parts should be good for >700 hp (turbo will top out around 850hp, but I already have a bigger turbo waiting for it in the garage when I get tired of that combination). I’ve got a 9” with 3.50 gears in it and all the right parts…
- this is a street car, that sees regular (weekly if it’s running) drag strip use an I tend to drive it in to work 2-4 days a week, usually when the weather is OK. Those 3.50 gears would be less then pleasant without OD
- money is an object, within reason. I mean, I don’t hope to do this for $500, but I can’t justify >3K either
- I am more then capable of doing the labor (I’ve rebuilt a couple of AOD’s, installed a buch of shift kits… I can pretty much build anything if I can get the right parts and instructions), but have never done it before.

The 700 in the car is an ’87, which from what I’ve gathered is the beginning of the good ones but also a tranision year with the valve bodies. Some builders have told me that they won’t build up an ’87 for serious performance use.

I also have a 200-4r out of a monticarlo SS that has had a recent rebuild and has an unknown shift kit installed. That adds the price of a different DS to the equation, the crossemember/TA issue isn’t really one since I intended to make my own and move the TA mount to the crossmember/make it adjust able anyway.

What makes me nervous about the 700 and 200 is that I’m worried that I’m going to get into the same spot I got with 10bolt and even 9 bolt rears, I’ve blown up 7 ten bolts in 4 years and then got into a regular string of 9 bolt posi rebuilds till I twisted both axles. Stuff gets expensive when you end up having to do it multiple times, and 700/200 rebuilds are more expensive then gears.

I’m not sure that a 4L80 or a 400+GV is even possible for a reasonable price.

Oh, and to throw another variable in, I’d love a transbrake, but nowhere near as much as I’d love something durable with OD that’s still happy on the street.

Thoughts?

 

Damn man sorry to hear it. Thats how my 700R4 in my IROC went too, 3rd and 4th went first, then 2nd, then 1/2 of 1st LOL. I dont know if this is the best choice for you considering what you've already said, but when it happened to me I was able to swap over to a TH350(C) setup w/ 0 miles for under $500. That was my cheap quick and dirty solution to hold me over until I had the funds to do the swap I wanted. Since then I've had time to save up and for my birthday I ordered a T5 from TKO Performance with G-Force internals. Are you willing to consider a manual? The super alloy gearset for the T5's is rated around 450hp and TKO Performance can rebuild them to that spec for under $900. The G-Force stuff is stronger but the price goes up quite a bit. You could also find a deal on a T56 rated 400hp+/- stock if you know the right people, I was able to find one for dirt dirt cheap w/ somewhat low miles for my Z28 (which happens to have lost 3rd and 4th on the stock 700R4 recently). If you dont want to go manual and you want OD then I think the 700R4 is your best bet, but its gonna cost quite a bit, probably just as much as the stronger manual transmissions. Maybe a cheaper non OD swap might be worth it in the meantime while you consider your options and stuff. You could always sell the parts after the fact to re-coup some money. Thats my plans with this TH350 setup in my IROC.

 

Well keeping OD is key if u want to drive the snot out of it.

At the breaking point for both trannies, the 200r4 has been pushed farther and harder and has lived more often to tell the tale. Also doesnt have the horrendous 1-2 shift drop that we have talked about before.

If your talking top notch build, figure on 2k a trans give or take.

For the lever u are talking there will be no such thing as cheap lol

My best recomendation? Hit turbobuick.com and check out the transmission board :-)

CK, PTS Extreme, Janis, Century Trans, Extreme and more I cant list are there. Many have 200r4 packages more than capable of living on a 9 second car with a refesh once a year. I would have to go with it is probably the most extensive overdrive capable board you will find on the net

Edit: Also pay close attention to CK as the have a 200 age manual as well, u can prolly get everythign u need and build it yourself

later
Jeremy

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=326312

 

Well, if i was you, i would get a T-56 with G-force internals, that way you can keep your OD.
However if you want to stay auto, I dont know because I dont have one, people around here seem to like bowtie overdrives, and then theres Pro-Built.

 

I don't know Mark. The TH400/GV seems to be rock solid. It is more spendy but based on your post above it seems like you have learned that lesson. Lots of people claim to make 700's last under big power but after my third one behind a 'play shot' of nitrous it got old. The TKO looked like a bargain compared to the money pit of auto trannies that I left in my wake.

Isn't the GV unit like $1200? Strong TH400 shouldn't be too hard to come by.

Good luck on the search.

-Schultzy

 

You know, I was thinking that the last time I saw a magazine article about them they said something like $1500… well, looking at them it looks like they basically run $2399-$3000, which takes it way out of budget.

Manual tranny… I’m undecided there. I have no real problems with a manual (my WS6 has a T56 that I mostly like, I don’t like the street twin, but I like the tranny), and I even usually run faster with a manual tranny, but I’m really thinking that it’s just not right for this combination (Hey, someone correct me if you really think I’m wrong). Basically, with the turbo engine I think I’ll be giving up too much to the stick. I think that it would be a disadvantage at the dragstrip, a slight advantage the once or twice that it might see a road course, irrelevant at the dragstrip and a toss up on the street (the better OD ratios would be an advantage on the highway, but this thing does see daily DC Metro area rush hour traffic, which can be unpleasant with a stick, especially with a heavier clutch). If I was going to do it I’m pretty sure that I could sneek a TKO600 or a real G-Force 5 speed into the budget, I’d probably go old school with the clutch, traditional throwout assembly… I’ve seen the g-force internals T5’s blow up like they’re noting, and remember, I’m a person that has blown up 6 sets of gears, 3 posis, and 3 axles in the last few years…

Turbobuick: heh funny, I go over there and find that EVERY one of their feature turbo ‘icks is running a TH400… Not exactly what I wanted to see.

I am currently leaning towards the TH200-4r, even though I’m not finding much info and the few places that I called and talked to today didn’t want to deal with them at all (they either said it flat out or started with “you don’t want to do that, there is no way to build them as strong as a 700…”). I get the feeling that you might be able to build it stronger, or at least tie the strongest you can make a 700, the 700 has beefier gears and is a larger tranny but the 200 has stronger parts. Even if you end up with something that is the same strength I’m sure that the car will run faster with it, since it’s lighter, less rotating inertia better gear spreads…. I am somewhat encouraged that a transbrake is available for it.

And of course, there is always the nice deal with the 700 just dropping in, and I’d also be surprised if in the future, eventually better parts don’t exist for them then do now because they are way more common then just about anything else out there.

I’m still worried that the tranny will become a wear item, where I’ll get stuck “refreshing” it yearly, which would just plain suck, but not as badly as breaking hard parts. I’d really rather have something relatively bullt proof like the 400 if it wasn’t the lack of OD.

The fact is that I’m giving loosing OD some good hard thought, but I’m pretty sure if I do I’ll regret it most days since I do like to just hop in the car and go somewhere… OTOH, I have had years where I’ve made >180 passes mostly on T&T Friday nights…

 

you don’t have to say that 2x, but I think I could sell my wife on $2K for a tranny, but not $3K

I saw the thread about him selling it for $65… doesn’t seem like that bad a deal if it’s as good as people are raving about (funny, I have an easier time paying for information and tools then parts).

I did find his site intriguing with it’s GM AOD hybrid transmission (follow this link), especially considering that my brother has probably 60K and TONS of 11 second, slick equipped dragstrip passes in his 4 door LTD with an eaton blown 302 in it (think all low end, full boost wherever you hit the throttle + a 3000 PI converter resulting in some hard use of the tranny), on an AOD that was basically just a simple, no killer hard parts, swap frictions that my brother and I (mostly him, and then he paid some tranny shop to go through it just to make sure that he didn’t mess up) did in the basement