The other day I down shifted from OD to 3rd at about 55mph. It seems like it pulls harderwhen I down shift it manually, is it just my imagination or does it help to down shift manually? I don't want to end up hurting my car so any ifo will be apreciated. also I have a stock converter.

 

If you are going to race on the highway, put er in 3rd, the RPMs will be higher and you will be one with the power curve... OD keeps the RPMS low which helps fuel economy.

 

can I suggest a transgo full race shift-kit that allows you to hold and drop gears at any rpm or mph

 

It won't hurt. I pull it down to third every day in roush hour type traffic to keep down on use/wear.

For street racing reason i'll pull down into 2nd for a 60punch. Beats having to let the trans slip into gear during a wot 3-2 or 4-2 downshift.

 

ya i was wondering this as well...say im on the highway going like 70mph (in OD 4rth prolly w the convertor locked up) and someone pulls next to me and wants a go. can i just pop it down to third? ive been told two different stories that it is ok and bad. of course it is bad to manually WOT shift an auto and i would never do that..but is it alright to merely pop down a gear while cruising at higher speeds (say 45 to 75) from OD to D (4rth to 3rd)

 

my buddy blew is trany manual shifting. just my .02

 

Manually shifting back into 3rd is ok, just give it gas at the same time you are doing this. Manually upshifting at WOT is alright. Manually downshifting can be done, by giving it throttle (called double clutching in a manual transmission) at the same time you make the manual downshift, and then you can let off the throttle after the shift is complete. If you downshift without giving it throttle, will tear the unit up in time.

 

Exactly. Also when I pull down into 2nd for a race i'm not "manually shifting", soon as I got wot i kick it back into 3 or OD and let the pcm do the shifting.

 

Downshifting into 2nd manually? Why does that just sound so wrong?

 

 

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but can you explain how giving it throttle while downshifting is actually better for the transmission?

 

Matching the engine RPM to the impending transmission and driveline RPM will eliminate the torsion forces that would happen if you let the engine get hit all at once with the higher RPM. This is true for automatic and standard transmissions. It is similar to double-clutching to shift a transmission with no synchro's.

 

i downshift mine all the time to first or second so it hits about 5000rpms, the car won't do that itself.