Got mine from bow tie overdrives six years ago. I have had no issues with it behind three motors 350, 350, and 375. shifts firm and with 390 gears in the rear tachs at 2700 at 70 mph. 3000 stall from BTO.
Yea Lonnie built two 200-4Rs for me. One behind the 10-1 509ci long stroke Caddy that made about 570 foot pounds of torque and brought it in low and hard. The other for my GN. Both cars 60 foot 1.8 without ever getting to suspension tuning. Just air bag, lower control arms, posi, and fat drag radials. Both trans have worked flawlessly. That price includes his core so he can just ship it to your door. The trans comes with his special machine built valve body that was designed to duplicate the desirable & expensive Buick Grand National BR valve body. Since you keep your 442 specific transmission you still have your KZ code tag or whatever the other 442 specific tag code was to match your car. IE for the future potential Japanese buyer who wants to give you stupid money for your car if its all numbers matching. lol. Both mine shifted crisp but not harsh at part throttle and with a good snap and tire peel at wot. I think the balance of those two things may be at least in part due to the valve body.
I believe you can select your shift point to match your cam & motor so as to maximize your combo. My KZ code 442's WOT shift point was only 4,800 and my GN's is 5,200 and I believe the MCSS's CZ is 5,600 rpm which would probably match your cam & motor pretty well. Per my request Lonnie also had my stock "D5" converter built up with anti balloning, furnace brazed, bla bla to a 3,000 stall and retained the working lock up feature for $300. I don't know if he could provide a converter core for this you would have to ask him. Both my converters would leave the line like a normal car at part throttle but would bang come out of the hole quick or at down shift under hard throttle. It was the only time you knew you had a high stall. The lock up feature still locks the convert at cruise even below 3,000 for cool transmission/cooling system temps, longer transmission life, lowered rpm cruising and maximum efficiency or mileage. I believe a 2,800 or 3,000 stall would take maximum advantage of your cam & gear.
See why I say for a hot fast and road driven street car that a three speed with non lock up is like is like using wood spoke wheels or at best drag car parts. Three speeds trans are for race cars, concors restoration cars or palatable compromise commuters where bargain basement price or whats at hand and easiest is paramount. You can do a lot better than a four speed overdrive as well but then the cost to benefit isn't there for the average do it yourself hot rodder.
Thanks for the great response! Lonnie is definitely going to be my first choice for the trans. They way yours were set up sounds exactly like what I want. I might not go with a lockup because I don't cruise for long distances at high speed, almost all of my driving is around town. I'll see though because I do have a stock converter sitting on the shelf. I originally dumped the lockup because it was acting all weird with the aftermarket controller. Were both transmissions you had stage 1 units? $1495 sounds like a great deal for everything that he does to the trans.
I don't think he called it that when I bought my first one which was way before he had a website. The first one for behind the 509 was basically a stage 1 with a billet forward drum to handle the big block torque. He is a hot rodder like us at heart and was great to deal with live but isn't always the quickest at getting to phone calls. He now splits a building shop with a regular transmission shop so I don't know if he will benefit from their front desk answering service etc or not but if so that should help. Sometimes he takes on a little too much work and sometimes he has what you need ready and on the shelf. He sometimes goes to races and shows in the summer and may take a day to get back to you when he does. I think he also has one of them guys help him depending on work load. That said if I need another one I don't need to shop around he is getting it. I also heard from another guy once that he stood behind his work beyond his warranty which I don't doubt at all.
Set up properly I don't know of a downside for a lock up convert for a street car. I have a little switch that will manually lock it up in 3rd and its proven to be good for a tenth and a mph on my GN. Although some pretty much drag cars claim they can pick up a tenth and mph by not having it. I have read posts by builders that stand on either side of that fence.
I got ya, so a stage one should be just fine behind my 350. I don't plan on absolutely abusing the car but I don't want any fears of having it break if I feel the need to really get on it.
I replaced the mushy stock rubber transmission mount with a better built poly unit by H&R Parts both times when I put fresh transmissions back in my cars. Get that torque to the ground instead of losing it in bind. Get your TV cable adjusted good and the stage 1 should take everything your 350s going to throw at it. If down the road it needs refreshed he states on his website he will do it for $350. Thats probably going to be adjusted for inflation but good to know regardless. There are other good ideas like a 700-R4 pan or a good headered transmission cooler if your radiator doesn't have one built in or even an inexpensive transmission temp guage to let you if your are getting it hot. I put a cooler and temp guage in my 442 because of the torque & drag radials and because I thought I might pull my GN behind it on a dolly. But none of those things would be required.
Dog, I hear ya on replacing the mount, and I like the option to have the trans refreshed down the road. As for the cooler and temp gauge, I have them installed on this trans currently. Have a B&M cooler in line with the stock cooler in the radiator. Is there a better place to install the gauge sender rather than in the pan where the previous shop put it?
I put mine in the pan also but I never really thought that was the best place for it. I don't know where the ideal place would be. Always meant to ask Lonnie that but could never remember at the right time.
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