Silverghost- REread my post, it said "i was (and still am) a very talented M6 shifter....missed a handful of shifts in my 4 years of drag racing the M6. But the 60's and the consistancy REALLY MAKE ME HAPPY". 4+ years of drag racing and 4,5,6 aborted passes from missed shift seems like an acceptable ratio.

I did forget to add something to my comment "no stick car is gonna hang with my 28" Quick time pro big converter setup (trust me i know)" what i forgot to add is "on the street" the track is a diffrent deal, i know that a well engineered stick car is gonna work AMAZING, 60' well go down the track great and MPH awesome, its the PERFECT setup WHEN its right, but on the street my car pulls the wheels, yours might i dont know, nor do i care. dont call me out. Come to the cordova track rental and you can find out.

with my comments be inflamatory or inaccurate, If someone on here is gonna take what i say as the gospel or for fact, then they have more money than they do good sense.

For me the switch came down to the fact that i was either gonna break my T-56 combo at SOMEPOINT this year or i could sell it while it was all still worth something and pay for my TH400 combo, and cause i work at a shop(discount) I sold my M6 setup for 2500$..and more than paid for my TH400 setup.

oh and for the record..i dont claim to be the fastest at anything, my car is fun and ive done everything myself with some help from a few friends, its a very simple setup , had the car since i was 16years old(22 now) and i have shoeboxes full of timeslips from the car and its diffrent mutations......oh yeah and last time i checked my 28" Hoosiers Quick Time Pro's are "dot legal", and for the record my car runs best (on the motor) on 26" tires too


LAST BUT NOT LEAST if you really feel the need for a clutch, get a transbrake, finally got around to wiring mine up, its FUN first time ive spun the tires for more than 5-6 feet on the street.


Andy
LOVING MY TH400 w/transbrake

 

Allrighty then.

I would love to reply to that but I just got laid and my brain is completely ******* scrambled.

We'll call it even, we all love racing that is what matters, g' nite.

 

and for what its worth..excellent that you built the car, much respect for that. My car has never seen a shop, 100 percent done in my garage

 

I'm in the same boat. I have a 4L60E that has been beefed up but I know its only a matter of time before I brake it again. I've been thinking of a TH350 but a 4000+ stall, no lockup and a 4.10 rear gear on the highway kind of bothers me....

 

Thats how i see it, you like your M6 setup, I love my A3 setup, and thats that,(silverghost) seems like your car is working pretty well to me and thats the key that you are happy.

My Z is garage built also, never seen a shop, cept or a 2mph collision from a idiot in a parking lot. But in the same sence it needs to go to a shop for a repaint.


Andy
A3 w/T-brake and i still shift

 

Well the damn decision is still rattling around in my head, so some further thoughts and maybe some additional input from the board--
I was sure I was going to get the a built T56, but now I'm leaning back towards the TH400:
The car sucks as it is on the street with the T56 and my ram clutch, I dont see how this could make it much worse. Instead of peeling out at every stop light and going nuts in stop and go trafic, and going insane from the 4.11 gear whine now that I stipped out all the sound proofing, I just go a little slower on the highway...whats the big deal?

Ill sacrifice a bit of fun on the street if the car rips it up consistantly at the track. I dont drive the car much anyhow, all I need to do is be able to get to the track and occassionally drive on the street. Why wouldnt a TH400 with 3.23 rear gears, 2.75 first gear, transbrake, say a 3600 stall, work for these goals?

 

or after reading some of the posts again, should I go even lower than a 3.23, say a 3.05, for stock size tires on the street?

PS where can I find a way to do calculations tire size, gearing, vs. rpm vs. mph?

 

Go T-56 or your gonna hate the car....
Your gonna make good power,u could row the car easy and still run 10's.

 

I dont get why I would like it any less than now, I should like it better, considering I hate my damn clutch and shifter now.

JRcamaro gave me this link:
http://www.f-body.org/gears/
according to that, with the 3.23 rear gears, 70mph will be under 3k rpm in 3rd, 65 mph at about 2650rpm, and the car can still reach 160mph. I will be around 6k rpm crossing the traps, which will be pretty close to peak power. With the bigger tires at the track, I will be able to hit 60mph in first gear. I can just point the car, mash the gas and pretty much go (with the occasional gear change).

Edit: about 5400 rpm is 125mph, so thats a little lower than Id like, but you cant have everything.

 

My older cars only had T350's and T400's and they were fine. If you were to get an automatic valve body you could manually shift too.

I have manual valve T400. I like it. Could I commute in it? Sure. Maybe you can drive someone else's car to get a feel for it. Makes the car feel like a race car.

 

Id like to be able to shift it myself, I thought they all came that way -- the valve body thing has me confused, Ill have to research that a bit more.

I thought I read you could get a built TH400 for $1000-1300. I havent found any pricing that looks like that, anyone suggestions for where to get a good TH400 that isnt going to break the bank? Also recommendations for a converter? I was thinking around 3600.

 

If you really want overdrive, there's another solution: Gear vendors. Bolt it to the back of a TH400 and you have low/high for all 3 gears. Can cut your final drive down a little and they are bullet-proof. got a guy running one in a high 9 second olds cutlass weighing 3500 lbs with a N/A 455 olds motor and he drives it on the street, and has over 4 seasons of racing on it. It also keeps the engine in the powerband better by not dropping the rpm down as much between shifts. Only thing is, come with a few problems:
1-heavy! and chews up some power
2-custom crossmember and driveshaft would be needed.

Derek

 

i dont know why so many people worry about cruzing on the freeway at 4K rpm with a TH400. i do it everyday and it does not bother me one bit. back in the days you could get 4.10s as an option before overdrives where avalible. people used to drive like this all the time. also keep in mind that back in the day people used to think that you needed 5.13s to go fast. those dude drove on the street also. anybody remember Two Lane Blacktop.

 

a 4L80 or a gear venders behind a TH400 is going to lose you lots of HP. not to mention a crap load of unnessasary weight.

 

Eirk,G-Force make an upgraged T-56 that'll support 900HP and u can get gear choices for 1st,2nd.Then u could run 3.55's but in 1st and 2nd it'll act like a 4.56.

 

Ez, how do you think the transmissions work in the days before OD auto transmissions? 60's and 70's, and 80's cars all had automatic valvebodies. I'm not a trans guy but the auto valve body uses pressure to shift. But you can shift an auto valve body setup manually if you want. I think Terry Burger did this. You can set the auto shifting for a low rpm.

Like Taq said older cars crawled and used gear to compensate.

Honestly in an LS1 converter is more important than gear.

I'd go 4000 at least if you want to run 10's n/a.

 

EZ..Speed Inc www.ls1speed.com has a TH400 trans in the price range you are talking about..that is the one I ran for a season and I had zero problems with it.

I agree with John, 4000+ stall is the way to go..

The other disadvantage of gear vendors not mentioned is how damned expensive it is..that unit is like 2300 bucks!

 

yep, only reason I mentioned it is it was another avenue! I still drive my Nova with no od on the highway and it doesn't bother me one bit, but to some, have od is a necessity!

Derek

 

I'd go with the 3.23, 3.0 upgraded first gear and look for an upgraded second gear (if you can get it) and the BEST converter you can buy in the 3800 stall range.

There are lockup converters for TH350s and TH400s as well.

Run a 27 inch ET street and tens would be EASY and the highway wouldnt be too bad