I have a '92 v-6 automatic. i usually drive w/ it in drive, and if i'm the highway then in overdrive. i like racin people from stoplight to stoplight, and i usually just have it in drive for that. will i get better acceleration if i switch to 1, then 2, then D then OD manually? also, if i'll get better acceleration by "shifting" on my own, should i shift at the redline? and if not, where...thanks

 

Probably should ask this in the Drag racing board....

 

If its a stock trans it will still lag between shifts even if you try to manually shift it. You can not pinpoint a shift with the stock valve body. Just put it into drive and leave it. You know these cars are not worth dragracing don't you- we are not hard to beat in a staight-a-way. Focus more on cornering, this is where our cars shine.

 

i do that once and a while, i dont think its faster. its probably the same or a little slower. when you go WOT on the pedal the computer will hold the rpm longer in each gear so its a waste to do it yourself. just make sure not to downshift your automatic unless you happen to like rebuilding them. however, holding 2nd gear through some backroads with the rpm's up around 3-4k is fun even on a v6. i think i should invest in a tranny cooler...

 

Tek...hell yes you should! A tranny cooler should be required equipment on any 700-R4...an old one if you want to keep it from dying, or a rebuilt one if you wanna keep it for a while!

Manually shifting isn't gonna do crap for you. I did it for a while, thinking it helped..but it doesn't. Not only that, but my personal experience was that even in 1 and 2, I still had no control over the car. It shifted how it wanted, when it wanted, no matter which gear I had it in. I could take off full pedal in 1 and IMMEDIATELY click it into 2 and it wouldn't hit 2nd gear until it sounded like the motor was about to blow up. HOWEVER...in 1 and 2, the tranny hydraulic pressure goes up, causing slightly earlier shifts than in Drive. When I held it in Drive, I swear I heard my car hit the top of the rev limiter several times before shifting. Never did this in the low gears...just sounded like sh*t. Just wish I had a tach so I could know exactly where it was shifting.

 

Nixon1, you still don't have a tach yet?

When I race at the track, I leave the stick in 2 for the reason Nixon1 mentioned. Line pressure inside the trans goes to Double the normal pressure when the stick's in manual 1 or 2. So off the line, when my B&M shifter's in 2, the 1-2 shift completes automatically, with the extra line pressure. After that, when I get near the 2-3 shift, I'll push the stick into 3rd. Sometimes I wind out second a little longer, and when I slap 3rd, then the trans shifts. Other times I'll shift it early into 3rd, and let the trans figure it out on it's own.

At some point, there was some kind of design change in the 700r4 that nobody's helped me pinpoint yet. (Asked this question many times at the trans board, maybe I will again.) On my 700r4, built in 1986, I can hold a gear to any RPM. Other guys report that their transmission will upshift anyway, regardless of what position their shifter's in.

Some guys even said that they've left their stick in 1st, floored it, and the trans "took over" and upshifted into 2nd- while the shifter was in 1st. That's never happened to me. I wonder if it happened in 1987 due to the auxiliary valve body that was added.

Leaves a bit of a dilemma for me when I rebuild my trans. I'm somewhat undecided between a 1986 700r4 or a 1987 700r4 or a post-1987 trans. I can install the 1987 design's fluid pump into my trans- which was the biggest improvement made in 1987 as regards transmission life. But- the newer the trans, the better the design. A '92 trans might be the best to rebuild- if I can frickin' find one around here. (I've never seen a '92 f-body in a junkyard by me!!)

As to "where to shift", AFGT has it right- you can't shift your '92 where you should. Your '92 3.1 has a different "powerband" than the 85-89 2.8's. The powerband is the rpm range that your engine makes it's most power at- determined by the camshaft and the crankshaft. Your 3.1 is a stroker motor, which means it makes more power at lower rpms. We've compared powerbands on here before, simply by "feel", and the consensus is that 85-89 2.8's powerband is 3,000 to 5,000 rpm, and the 90-92 3.1's is 2500-4500. So, any RPM's after 4500 for you are a "waste". You'd need to get that trans to shift at 4500 under WideOpenThrottle to get the best results.

To change your WOT shift points, you can install the B&M Governor Recalibration Kit. The Governor is not a speed governor- that's built into the computer chip. The tranny's governor controls shift points. It has weights and springs on it, and spins with the engine. At a certain speed, the governor springs open, and allows fluid through the valve body to tell the trans to "Shift!" The recalibration kit comes with different weights and springs. Find more info about it by doing a search on the transmission forum, and by visiting http://www.bmracing.com . I think Summit sells it for $45. (Put BMM- in front of the B&M website's part # to do a part number search for it at http://www.summitracing.com 's main page.)

 

Tom...never got around to buying one before I sold the Camaro...I had this suspicion that my...ahh what was it called...the pickup coil...I was thinking my pickup coil might've been shot, which was making my tach spike out. Just didn't have the money or time. Wish I could've known what rpms it was automatically shifting at. Sounded like it was gonna blow itself up in Drive..

As far as I've seen on that car before I got rid of it...it wouldn't shift out unless you had the stick into that gear or higher. In 1, it would stay in 1...regardless of rpms. Car was a '91.

 

i think it depends on the car, my old camaro wa better off in drive while on the other hand the one i have now has better accleration using 1,2,d...i dunno about your car, only advantage to 1,2,d is it stays in gear alot longer, mine in D shifts at around 3-4k no matter what so manally shifting u cn get hat extra small amount of power

 

Mine shifted LATER in Drive. TOO late. I swear to *** I left it in Drive once, foot to the floor, with zero pedal manipulation, and HEARD my engine hit my FACTORY rev limiter the second before it shifted. In the low gears, it never did that. The added line pressure forced an earlier shift. Not MUCH earlier, maybe a hundred or so rpms..but every bit helps.

 

TomP, I am great friend with Jimmy Galante,The top guy at Darrell Youngs Racing Transmissions (He runs the shop). He will not use anything earlier than an '87 700r4. Says the earlier ones even modified are crap.

Best things you guys can do for cheap is
1) .471/ or .500 boost valve- this will increase the line pressure, also help extend life of trans. (Requires drop the pan)
2) change governor (Corvette one from junk yard is cheap- or TomP's B&M governer kit suggestion is great)
3) Corvette or billet servo (Billet is much better) This will firm up your 1-2 and 2-3 shifts.

And yes- keep that trans cool-every 20* increase in fluid temp will cut your tans life in half.

There are so many more mods to be done to make a 700R4 bulletproof but it costs big buck (or a good friend )

My trans is fully built- first off it will hold in whatever gear I set it in and will never upshift unless I tell it to. Secondly, when I manually bump to the next gear it is quicker than you can snap your fingers. upshift or downshift -Oh what fun. Its instantanious like as if I were clicking co2 paddle shifter.

 

I don't even use 1 and 2. I like to drive in overdrive most of the time, since I drive slowly.

 

I had a bad habit of not using Overdrive.. I didn't like how the rpms were so low because I couldn't hear the engine. :P

 

Ya, me too. I think I have manually shifted into first gear maybe twice the entire time I have had the car, and maybe left it in Drive maybe 10X, if that. I just keep it in OD the entire time, doesn't bother me either as I drive so slow! It seems that every time I look up at the speedo, I am usually going like 10 mph lower than the posted sign, while cars whiz by me.

 

Ahh, people like you!! Plllleeease, I'm begging you...I'm not asking you to speed, because I don't speed..but PLEASE, do the speed limit?? I HATE being stuck behind people doing 5 or 10 under because the way the streets are around here, it's damn hard or illegal to pass.

 

i think it helps sometimes when u manually shift your automatic. i do it all the time. its kinda getting to be a habit. when i come to a stop ill down shift it and one i go from a stop ill shift it up. i think it helps manually shifting it at the track too because u can get more rpm out of each gear. just my .02

 

Hmmm, maybe if I had a 5.0 I could drive the posted speed!! J/k, anyways but yea, it seems like I have to go WOT just to keep up with the other cars from the light, and I hate going WOT in my car. These engines run so freakin rough I keep thinking something will break, so I go easy on her. Don't worry though, I drive in the slow lane, and if cars pile up behind me, I'll go faster

 

my 3.1L is smooth all the way up to 5-5.5k rpm, not that i take it up that high normally, just went there once or twice. but when its turning 5k its real smooth, maybe theres something you should check out if its rough on yours?

 

V6....I did that ALL the time...it became a habit. Now, winding a 2.8 out might gain you a little time..but the 3.1's have a lower power-band being that they're stroker motors, so they lose power in upper rpms.

92....to accelerate at the speed of normal traffic or accelerate FASTER than them in my 5.0, it takes about 1/4 pedal. Literally, I BARELY use the gas normally. 1/2 pedal will beat my 3.1 Camaro, which was doing a 16.48 1/4 mile with minor traction loss on takeoff.

My 3.1 always ran rough too...idle was a tad rough..acceleration was rough...it sounded growly at upper rpms...I'm sure you know what I mean 92CAMRO.....that growling, grumbly, "grrrr" tone over the high pitched engine whine? I had new plugs, cap and rotor, and wires...I just assumed it was dirty fuel injectors + a stock coil that was probably down on volts. Never got around to fixing either of those before I sold her.

 

ok... yes it is faster...
i try to race as much on possible with the shifting...
i raced this 300 zx 3 times...
once regular... he took me i hung in for like a sec or two...
the second race i shifted from 1st i hung in longer
then i got the hang of it...
and on the third race i hung in till like 40something...
i've had many races where i dropped the gear and the accelration just totally increases...
i've won many a races on dropping the gear...

 

My camaro has always run rough, at least as far as I remember. Being as my car is still stock with 129,000 on the clock, I don't expect it to run in tip top shape either though. I think in a couple weeks though, I'm going to get a full tune-up, and flush that radiator as well, which I KNOW has gotta be really dirty. What I really mean though, is that almost gurgling sound of these 2.8's and 3.1's. The "loud but you can tell it's still a V6 sound", if ya know what I mean. I can always tell if a car has a 2.8 or 3.1, just by the way it sounds. That, coupled with the engine really starts to huff and puff on the highway. Gosh I hate taking the freeway!

Yup, I know exactly what you mean!

 

They all sound the damn same.... It's funny...after driving my Camaro for a year, I always thought it ran smooth until I got my 5.0....and the 5.0, with 4 physically damaged fuel injectors, bad sensors everywhere, a shot harmonic balancer giving my crank a slight wobble (302's are externally balanced, on the fly and balancer), an electric fan wired to run 24/7 and a bad coolant temp sensor so engine temperature never rose beyond around 130 degrees....and many other problems....well with all that wrong, it ran way smoother than my 3.1, except at idle...the 5.0 idled like it had a cam cause the injectors were dumping fuel like crazy.