Is the 4 speed that came in the 84 4 cylinder any good , i know its a saginaw but was it a good one , i want to hook it up to a mild 350 build

James

 

Short answer - no.

Check with a magnet... if the housing is iron, it will stick, and that trans sucks. If its an aluminum housing, thats the good 4-spd (though very rare in these cars, and only came on a handful of V8 cars) and its fairly strong.

 

I somewhat disagree with the previous poster. While it's true that the aluminum Muncie is a far superior trans, the cast iron Saginaw is decent (assuming it's not a special lightweight one for the 4 banger). It will hold-up to a mild 350 if it's in good shape, with street tires, and you don't abuse it too bad.

 

The one that came with the 4cyl cars was a wimpy version of an already wimpy 4-spd, sorta like how there was a diffent T5 for the V6 and V8 cars.

And the aluminum case 4-spd in these cars was a BW Super T10 - similar to a Muncie, but not the same. They are quite a bit stronger than any of the 5-spds that these cars came with. I have one of those rare BW 4-spds in my '83 and its holding up quite well to the 400+hp 355 thats in the car... its gone through a few rear ends already and alot of abuse at the track, but its holding up very well. I guarantee the iron case 4-spd won't pull that off. Its weaker than the 5-spds were.

 

Still using the saginaw 4 spd...down to 6.40s in the 1/8th, but it's a 2760lb car/driver. No breakage, just maintenance every 2 months.

The T5's made it 'til 6.90s...at that point, 3rd gears only lasted 3 or 4 passes.

 

My 82 T/A came with a Saginaw 4-speed from the factory. It was one of the last ones off the line for 82, so they were out of rear disk brakes (thank God), and apparantly out of B/W's too. It's a steel case 10 spline. It went through coutless side steps and abuse during it's 15 year life. I was up over 300 HP by then too. The only reason it died (in 1997)was i forgot to out Locktite on the reverse linkage bolt, and it backed out. The little steel ball that the reverse counterweight rides on fell into the drive gears and crunch bang boom, it was gone.

So for $100 on the bad side of town, i bought another one that the seller said came out of a late seventies Camaro. It's still going, but noisy. I think the input shaft bearing is going.

I can say they are tougher than they are given credit, and i've been lucky, but lets face it, GM was afraid to put it behind that huge powerhouse 165 HP CFI engine.