Howdy all...

My th350 finally crapped out a week or so ago. I had been running it stock with a shift kit and 2500 street/strip converter behind a solidly built 355 in a 1979 with 3.08 rear end. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong in it, but I believe that the clutches gave out.

Anyway, right now I'm looking at my options. I'm on a budget, but can do most work myself. I was looking at putting an overdrive tranny in the car, but I am not exactly what one would call 'transmission literate,' so I don't know what would need to be done.

My sister's fiance' has a 700r4 that he will give me for what he has in it (haven't got an exact number yet, but he thinks it is around 500 dollars). He says he rebuilt for high HP applications with all Borg Warner high performance parts and a stage 2 shift kit. This tranny originally came out of an '88 Camaro. He has it in an 85 camaro that he was planning on turning into a street car. He built the tranny, but currently is using a stock stall converter and a tired 305 (he was using this setup to run the tranny through its break-in period before dropping in the 385). It has 400 miles on it right now, and he changed his mind as to what he wants to do with the car. He decided to go with a powerglide tranny and make it a drag car, thus why he is willing to sell me the 700r4.

Would that tranny be the way to go? Or is the installation of it going to be a pain in the jimmy? Would I be best off getting a 2004r from some other source (saw one on e-bay for 900, complete with stall converter), going with this 700r4, or just rebuilding my th350? Is there another option I'm missing?

I did a search of the archives, but I could never find anything that actually gives an answer as to what exactly the conversion requires... everything always points to a kit or some such. Is the kit absolutely necessary, or can I do without a kit?

Thanks,
Jack

Edit - Ment to mention that I have side-pipes. Will this affect the difficulty of the tranny swaps? I would expect it would make it easier to work on, but what about crossmember problems? As I understand it, the crossmember has to be altered?

 

If you really want to go cheap, rebuilding the TH350 really isn't that hard. A $90 kit includes all clutches and much more. I understand the desire for an OD though, I can't give you much advice there.

-Chris

 

My understanding is that a 700r4 is direct bolt on but the drive shaft will have to be shortened slightly.

%500 doesn't sound too high to me but Chris is right as well, 350 rebuild kits come pretty cheap. if you take the tranny out, a shop will normally do a rebuild fairly reasonably as well.