I have a 85 firebird that has a worn v-6 drivetrain and to make a long story short I am wanting to convert to a carb'd v-8 setup. I would like to be able to drive around town and about 50 miles at a time without problems and some strip use. What pros and cons are there with these two transmissions as far as cost, reliability, swap ability, gears ect...?

 

Turbo 350's are easy and cheap to build and take abuse, plus converters are cheaper. 700R4's can get expensive to build up and take abuse, plus they're harder to dial in the shift points. Higher stall torque converters are costly for the 700. Seems from what I've been hearing, anyone can build a 350 but some fail when it comes to the 700.

 

Advantages of each:
th350--simple, old design, reliable, common, resonable priced to buy and rebuild.
th700r4--overdrive

To some people the overdrive is necessary--like me. I like to drive my 82 on the highway and/or interstate. At 60 mph I was turning 3000rpm with the th350. 2150rpm at 60mph with the 700r4 overdrive.


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82 camaro--original steering wheel, brake/gas pedals, seats--everything else modified
82camaro

 

Yep, overdrive can make even 5.13 gears livable in a daily driver!!! Will feel like 3.55's with a TH350!!!

 

With your 3.42's you will miss O/D. While 350's are simpler, I don't know about where you guys are but here they haven't built 350's (350c actually) since '81. They are getting pretty worn out and parts have been used and reused so they aren't as easy to come by anymore.