Transmission help for old guy

[1320John$$$]

I’ve had great success with the summit brackets for Holley carburetors

 

[Bonnewagon]

I am an old guy too. I go a different route than overdrive. Most people I know that switched to overdrive did so because they had put crazy 3:73 gears out back. That relegated them to the slow lane with their flashers on when they went on the highway. So what I do is use decent highway gears like 3:23's and let the engine loaf on the highway. Since I use manual transmissions using a low first gear will compensate for the rear gears. I mean 3:42's are not so bad, but the most I use is 3:23.

 

[bracketchev1221]

Thanks for the info guys. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t overlooking something with the newer stuff. Being the car doesn’t have a trans I can use, I think it’s a metric 250, there was a question. If it was a v8 car with a t-350 installed it probably wouldn’t even be a question for me.

 

[mamllc]

If you decide to go with a 700r4 and are core shopping avoid the earlier years. 87-92 is what you want, easy to tell by a half moon casting line on the passenger side, goes up around the servo cover. It's longer than a 350 and the mount is farther back. Correct adjustment of the TV cable is critical but not difficult. Converter lockup isn't hard to rig up, but not a big deal if you don't do it. I've used a couple 700r4s and wouldn't go back to a three speed.

 

[TexasT]

One more thing, the 700 is the same length as a 400 and uses the same slip yoke. whereas the 200 will mount in place of a turbo 350 and uses that slip yoke. Back in the day when we used to break the overdrive's we would go the opposite direction with a 3-speed in their place. That was before anybody really knew what to do with the overdrive trans or any of its weaknesses. These days you can make them bulletproof or darn near

Not sure which 700 or th400 you are using but every 400 and 4l80e I've come on has a 32 spline out put and the 700 has a 27 spline like a th350 and 2004r.

As far as the 700r4/4l60e goes that low gear is nice for pulling trailers in a truck but for a car that you want acceleration the jump from first to second leave something to be desired.

If you do decide on the th350 to start off with and get her running and driving you can swap to a 2004r fairly easily by moving the cross member back and adding the tv cable setup to go to od. Even uses the same drive shaft. This gets a lower first gear too without the big jump on the 1-2 of the 700r4. You will need a competent builder to do the 2004r but for 500 hp that wont be too much to accomplish.

 

[Gonzo1970]

The 200-R4's are decent from the factory, but I wouldn't put 300TQ in front of a stock unit.
They can be built nowadays to handle 500HP/500TQ all the way to 1000HP.. it just depends on how deep your pockets are.

400-500HP/TQ will run you anywhere from 1800-2300. 1000HP.. a cool 4 Grand...

(I know, because I have a 305 with a 200-R4 thats going to have a 6.6L Poncho 400 in front of it at some point.. so I priced everything out.)

All your other questions were already answered.


-Gonz