picking up my second third gen tomorrow owner said tranny is GONE but org 305 motor is good the current tranny is a 700r4 my friend bought a th350 for his olds engine thats in his 81 caddy but it didnt fit im sure i can get that off of him for a good price and the owner's son haves a 700r4 that hell sell to me for 50 bucks says it good he pulled it with the engine outta a body he bought my question is whats the better tranny which 1 do i go with

i plan to put a 350 in this camaro sooner or later
im not going to the track will be a daily summer driver possible show car

 

go with the 700r4 with the lock up converter. its first three gears have the same ratios as the th-350 and it has overdrive so you can save some fuel while cruising on those summer days

 

Deffinately go for the overdrive. More fuel efficient.

 

Depends what you're planning to do. The 700R4's deep first gear works well with highway gears in the diff. For a street tranny, it gives you the best of both worlds. Good starting line acceleration and low rpms on the highway. However the gear spread between first and second is too far apart for a proper WOT shift. The rpms drop down too much when shifted to second gear.

The TH350 on the other hand has a much better gear ratio but it lacks the OD that everyone feels they need. GM's ran for many decades without an OD and survived very well. For street/strip action plus the occasional long highway trip, there's nothing wrong with a TH350 as long as you keep the diff gears no deeper than 3.73 to keep the engine rpms lower. 4.10's could be used but you won't like it on a long drive. Without the OD, there's less rotating mass inside the transmission. Stop and go driving or dragstrip action doesn't need an OD. It will really depend on how the engine is built also. Gearing the car to stay below 3000 rpm and having an engine that starts to make power above 3000 rpm isn't a good combination. That's where the gearing is used to keep the engine in it's powerband. The downside is that fuel economy will suffer.

You say a friend bought a TH350 for his Olds. Why didn't it fit? Is the bellhousing in the Chev pattern so it wouldn't fit on the Olds block or is the bellhousing an Olds pattern and the tranny itself wouldn't physically fit the car? Olds/Buick/Pontiac and Caddy all share the same bellhousing bolt pattern. SBC and BBC have their own pattern. Some transmissions have a dual pattern to be used on all the engines but not all of them.

The third gen uses a torque arm suspension. The third gen 700R4 has a special tailshaft housing to mount the torque arm. Swapping to some other tranny means you'll usually need some sort of adapter or an aftermarket torque arm that moves the mount off the tranny and onto the tranny crossmember where it belongs.

 

essentially if you are going to use the car for touring and a little bit of red light action the 700r4 is better because it places you in a great mid-range place. you will be able to push it and have some fun and have nice highway cruising it sounds good for your situation

 

they DONT have the firs three gears but id go with the OD anyways the only gear they have in common is 3rd, which is 1:1

 

The 200-4R has similar gears to the TH350 plus has an OD. If I had a choice, For a daily driver, I'd go with a 200-4R before I'd go with the 700R4.

 

i completely forgot about the 200s they were only in the 89-92 i think but they are a nice trans

 

im 99% sure they didnt have 200r-4s in any f bodys from factory...

 

No third gens came with 200-4R's. The 82-83 did come with a 200c which was a wimpy 3 speed.

The 200-4R did come in vehicles such as the Buick GN.

 

And the '89 TTA.

RBob.