I am looking into replacing my 700R4 with a glide before it grenades and takes my legs out It has already seen 147MPH in the 1/4 with a 150HP shot and I am planning on hitting it with a 250HP shot that will most likely put it over 150MPH...

The car should be down to 3000lbs without me... motor is a 427 ETP LS7... makes about 650HP at the crank... and I'll be spraying a 250HP hit through a TNT ring for now... plan to step up to a direct port later... I am getting custom converter that will be setup to run 90% of the time on the spray...

In bad air my car went 10.5@129 1.50 NA and 9.7@142 1.40 with 150HP hit... in great air it went 10.4@136 1.48 NA and 9.6@147 1.45 with 150HP hit... the converter I had with the 700R4 was way to tight running NA... it was even a little tight with the 150HP hit... My new converter should be better optimized to setup of my car... The car itself weighed 3150lbs with the A4... like I mentioned earlier, it will be ~3000lbs with the glide and some other weight reduction...

The car spends 99% of it's time at the track 1% on the street... I reallize it won't be a good daily driver

Rear end gear is 4.10, tire is a true 28x10.5 MT stiff sidewall slick...

I would love to hear some feedback from anyone who has been there and done that...

One last thing... will I need a longer or shorter driveshaft?

THANKS!!!

PS. Tranny is for sale

 

I am also interested in installing a glide, cheap, durable and light.

 

I have run a TH-400's and Glide's in my Camaros.

The Glide is easily the best choice for me in my 3000 lb Camaro with heads/cam/nitrous.
I ran it on the street 50% of the time, putting about 200 miles a week on the car.
I drove it from north Dallas to fort Worth a couple times a month, and 40 miles to the
track then back home, etc.

Converter choice becomes very critical with the Glide. The converter is what will get
you out of the hole, since the Glide doesn't have high numerical gearing in the trans.
Then the converter has to carry you out to the 1320 translating as much of the engine
power through it.
The lighter the car, the better(with a glide).

Yes, Glides are cheap, cheaper than most every other tranny holding the same power.
Yes, they are durable, even in relatively stock form.
Yes, they are light. Smaller over-all form and less rotating mass.
And they are the closest that you can get to a "direct drive" in an automatic. They
don't carry extra planets. They rob the least amount of power compared to other
trannies.

Again, converter choice is critical and adding 20-30rwhp or changing you car weight 50
lbs will make a difference to how the setup works both at launch and at the big end.
Get a quality converter, and spen the time to get it dialed in for the setup. you can get
the converter choice close the first time, but dialing in the right specs may take 2-3
tries. Have an experienced tranny/converter person studying the results. I was lucky
since I had a transmission sponsor. The car did well, running 9.80's back in 2001.

Since the RPM's come up slower with a Glide, you can accurately hit you shift point
every time.
Since the shift point comes further out, you have way more time after launch to
control the car and actually prep for your shift.
You get back to driving your car more. you get to keep your hands on the steering
wheel much more, especially in the 60ft.
A slightly softer hit at the launch, easier on the tires but I still clocked 1.32 60ft times
and fairly consistant even with varying track conditions.
Glides seems to be more consistant over the entire run.
It's a very deceptive transmission, it pulls nearly the same from start to finish. It makes
the car "look" slow, but if you watch it all the way down the track, the car will simply
disappear into the traps. Glides will start to lose it's pull at about 1200ft and your
MPH will be down compared to other trannys, but your ET's will generally be better.

You will need a longer drive shaft as the short-tail glide is approx 6 1/2 inches shorter than
a 4L60e. A different crossmember and an off-tranny tq arm mount will be needed.
F
The standard Glide gears are 1.76 and 1.00 . It's like a 4L60e with 2nd and 3rd, and
no overdrive. Plus you will need a stall that's around 4000rpm or more.

For my setup, I opted for a tight 4000rpm stall, 9.5 inch converter.

The Glide works very well in 1 mode, and 1 mode only. Wide-Open-throttle. For part
throttle, the tranny gearing and a high stall will make the trans feel mushy, but if you
have a light and agile car, it's not so bad. I didn't mind streeting it around at all.
When I went from T-56 to TH-400, I thought it was the best mod I had ever done.
When I went from the TH-400 to the Glide, I KNEW that was the best mod I had ever
done.

My former setup: 5.7L LS1, 2980 lbs, 3.73 rear gears, 28 inch tire, Glide, nitrous.
ET 9.81 @ 136mph 1.32 60ft Feb 15, 2001


Jay Johnson

 

Thanks for the excellent feedback, Jay!

Your comments are exactly what I was told by the guy who is helping me setup my car and he was the 1st person to run mid 8's with a stock suspension LS1...

I have spent alot of time choosing the right converter and the company I chose to deal with is prepared to keep tweaking it until we get it just right...

I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes... I spoke with my tranny guy and he will most likely not have my glide ready by next weekend, but the good news was the my A4 is still in good shape... just a couple loose bolts caused it to make noise... so it looks like I will have more outing with the A4 and will try the 250HP jets for the 1st time

 

I just went from 700 to a glide and dd about 150 miles of street and traffic this weekend. Fuddle built my 9.5" converter. Supposed to be a 4000 but I'm seeing 5000 on the brake and also in high gear at 5mph, foot on the floor. I wanted 5000 on a 200 shot of nitrous so we'll see how that plays out. Need some carb/ignition tuning but it's a blast so far. 1-2 shift is around 80mph Combo is a 396SBC, 550-600hp, roughly 3500lbs camaro, 1.76 glide, 3.73, 28X11.5X15 ET street. Chassis dyno time/tuning to come asap.

I went from a 700r4/10bolt to a glide/Moser 12bolt and driveshaft needed to be longer. CCI cut me a 47" steel piece and it's perfect. Roughly 2-4" longer than stock f-body size.

 

Thanks for the info. Is it possible to have my transmission guy put a long tail on the glide, so it will be closer to the stock length. And I am guessing that the 1:76 ratio is the optimum gear to look for when getting a trans. I already have the floor mouted Tq arm, does BMR make a crossmember to use for the mount, and which flywheel to go with.
Thanks again

 

Jay thanks for the info. Three Questions:

1) How big of a shot were you running?

2) How big of a dog did the car become when you ran it N/A?
In other words how much ET & MPH did you lose besides the loss/benefit of the N2O, due to the Glide?

3) From your experience what stall would you have chosen if your car had been 3500 lbs?

Great numbers by the way.

 

If Jay is not around?

Does anyone have some insight into question #2 above?

 

I started with a 175shot wet, and that put down the record on an unusually cold/dry
day. After that I had to add N2O to run the same times as the weather rolled into
Texas summer. I ended up running 250shot wet to hold the same ET's in 100degree
Texas temps. The car didn't pick up as good when I jetted up the N2O. I wondered if
it was the home ported heads I was running, just maxed out? It was an early set that
I had ported. Things have gotten much better since that set of heads

The car would turn 10.90's NA, with 1.45 60ft. But if you run it NA, you'll find that the
converter is not right for the setup. IF the converter was setup for nitrous. Remember
the converter becomes critical with a Glide. It will be too tight to launch crisp. It's
also hard to get the converter right in a Glide if you don't have much power, because
you'll be wanting to turn 1.35 60ft times and still have good tightness carrying you out
to the traps. It's hard to get the tightness right if you don't run high horsepower.
The bigger your horsepower(or less weight) the easier it will be to get the tighness
right. See my info in the next paragraph concerning weight and horsepower.

With a 3500lb car and under 700rwhp, I wouldn't run a Glide with. You end up losing
almost all of the Glides advantages. I like a 3-speed in a heavy weight car. I think a
properly stalled 3-speed will beat a properly stalled Glide in a 3500lb car, my opinion.
The only reason I would consider a glide at heavy weights, would be if the car was
running power levels approaching 1000rwhp and better. FI will be nice with this kind of
setup.

With a Glide you lose some broadness of your application, in exchange for improved
performance in a more narrow range of application. A Glide gives it's advantages in
exchange for versatility. If you can't utilize all of the Glides benefits, you will
most likely be better served with a 3-speed. I ran a 3-speed first and once I had
my car plans straight in my mind, it was time for a Glide. It was the best mod I ever
did(for my car).


Jay Johnson

 

Jay,

Excellent advice. I think you are SPOT on.

Thank you!

 

AWESOME write up for glides! damn!

i always though you needed a lot of rear gear to make up for the low multiplication in the powerglide. i know the light car helps.