Extreme Automatics are very good. They have honed building the 200R4 into a art form. But they are not the only ones and they are not the first to build the 200R4 to handle stupid power.
Can a 200-4R survive a worked Pontiac 400?
- Thread starter Bonnewagon
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There is a guy from Alberta who killed two EA stage 2 trans, gave up and went TH400. Yeah $3000 is more like it for big torque numbers. Sledge hammer torque from the BOPC motors really tests these trans. The 4L80E is the best of both worlds but also cost about the same $3000 with a controller.
So, actually it gets back to the factory knew what's up. A Pontiac 400, with a T-400, is virtually bulletproof. Now add decent cruising gears and you are all set. My friend has gone down the path of almost-strip-only car and now wants his cake and eat it too. Worst is, he's one of those guys that won't back up and regroup after spending money. He'll keep throwing more money at the problem, paint himself into a corner, and then wonder why he's so skewered. How do you help a guy like that?
My experience. Had a 87 mcss with the 2004r worked from a good transmission builder in NJ. Attached to a 350 sbc making 400 hp. I killed it quickly, snapped the main shaft. Now fast forward to the present, 87 mcss Aerocoupe, BBC 502 making 650 hp without power adders. B&M th-400 race transmission with reverse manual valve body. With 300 miles on the motor/transmission, lost second gear. I simply rolled a sprague. Should have held and was rated for 800-850 hp, but it failed. Had a major HD sprague installed as a replacement and happy ever since. Wish I had an overdrive but had to choose, power to the ground or stand still in a puddle of ATF. Gear vendors makes a over/under drive unit rated for 1000hp but another $3k for a cost. On the highway, 60mph for me is 3k rpm with a 3.50 gear. I can live with that.
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It all boils down to who has the better track record for building the transmission right. I know CK has a good record. building 200R4s that haul 4000 lb cars to 9 sec times is their proof. EA is too new a company for me to say. The Buick crowd knows them and have glowing reports. Any company can spit out a bad apple once and awhile, nobody is perfect. It's how the company handles it's mistakes that keeps a customer.
At the Carcraft Summer Nationals I saw a pro-touring '67 Firebird convertible with a blown 455 and 2004r (drool worthy)... Definitely a VERY high end build.
I was just thinking, the 2004r came in the Grand Nationals and those things are torque monsters. They make 355lb ft@2000rpm which can't be worse than even the performance 400 motors make stock at the same rpm. I'm guessing there's plenty of modified GNs with over 400lb ft and no transmission mods. But the majority probably aren't drag raced with slicks n' such.
I was just thinking, the 2004r came in the Grand Nationals and those things are torque monsters. They make 355lb ft@2000rpm which can't be worse than even the performance 400 motors make stock at the same rpm. I'm guessing there's plenty of modified GNs with over 400lb ft and no transmission mods. But the majority probably aren't drag raced with slicks n' such.
Well, I condensed all this info and fed it to my buddy who basically puked at the thought of $pending what it takes to make a 200-4R live long. He's too cheap. So I told him to get used to spinning 5000 rpm in the slow lane and live with it. He simply won't detune the 400 or reconfigure his drive train to have highway manners. The really sad thing is that around here if you just do the speed limit in the slow lane you risk getting rear ended by a maniac or stuck behind an old-guy-in-a-hat doing 35 mph. Many thank's to all who responded. I have two 200-4R's I'm saving for my Turbo 301 '68 Firebird project that should be perfect. I'll stick to T-400's and ST-10's for my big motors.
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