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Craig_Morrison Newbie

Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 13 Location: Canada, NS 559.48 points
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:47 pm Post subject: tranny help |
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ok, heres my situation. this past summer, i had rebuilt sbc put in the cutlass. i dont think i have 15 miles on it yet. other things came up, so i put the cutlass on hold. but now im back on top of the ole girl, and she needs a new transmission. theres a stock th350 lockup in it now, and the dipstick tube broke off inside the tranny. i just put fluid in it and took it up the road a few times. i have a spare th350 lockup but im not sure if its any good. i can pick up a 700r for pretty cheap. either way i would think they need a rebuild and i wanted to do a stage 2 shift kit. i also have a spare parts car with a 307 and an overdrive tranny. i'll assume that it is a 200r. i heard that the 200r's fit both chev & olds's blocks. is this true? what would u guys do? rebuild the th350, 700r, or 200r? i plan on having a street/strip car and it has 3.42 gears. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks _________________ If it ain't flat black, Roll it! |
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af2 Member

Joined: 01 Sep 2003 Posts: 5579 Location: grassvalley, ca 71896.24 points
1933 Willys Coupe
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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From what I know. The 700 is the choice! You have to dump a lot of $$ to make the 200 as strong. |
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10sec.et Member

Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 3483 Location: Houston,Texas 347040.52 points
1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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not a trans specialist but, given those choices, i would go with the 700r also. _________________
af2 wrote: | It seems we can look at our magical Balls and come up with a fix?
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Craig_Morrison Newbie

Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 13 Location: Canada, NS 559.48 points
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:05 am Post subject: |
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thats what i was thinkin too. overdrive is the biggest factor for me, thanks. _________________ If it ain't flat black, Roll it! |
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clay Moderator

Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Posts: 3209 Location: South Carolina 318129.23 points
1972 Chevrolet Nova
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:46 am Post subject: |
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I'm going to buck the trend here and recommend the 200R4. Most of them have the BOP bellhousing (Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac) and will work behind a SBC. It will re-use the 350 driveshaft as it is the same length. The stock 200R4 does have some weak areas that are easily addressed and strengthwise, I believe, is similiar to a 700R4. If you are going to get a 700R4, make sure it is after 1988 I believe, they did some major upgrades around then. I think, (I'll go count to be sure), a quick way to check is the input shaft went from 27 splines to 30 splines. Clay |
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GrandSportC3 Moderator

Joined: 11 Jul 2003 Posts: 1231 Location: Lakeland, FL 32443.62 points
1968 Chevrolet Corvette
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:07 am Post subject: |
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af2 wrote: | From what I know. The 700 is the choice! You have to dump a lot of $$ to make the 200 as strong. |
"Built" 200R4's aren't cheap indeed but the 200R4 is a great transmission. I paid $3000 for my setup (including converter and everything else) and I have 185+ passes on the tranny and I'm running in the low 10's... |
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SMOKEmUP PostMaster

Joined: 30 May 2002 Posts: 3172
65175.84 points
1979 Chevrolet Camaro
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:23 am Post subject: |
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I've never run a 2004R but I've considered swapping the 700R4 in my 79 for one. The can be built to handle a lot of power, just ask the Turbo Buick guys. The other reason is gearing. The 1-2 gear spread is a bit too much on the 700R4 IMO, also the 2004R has a bigger OD, 0.67 vs 0.7 for the 700R4. _________________ Stop running from your pain and embrace your pain. Your pain is going to be a part of your prize.
I challenge you to push yourself. |
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Big Dave Moderator

Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 2663 Location: Tampa Florida 120538.84 points
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:14 pm Post subject: Re: tranny help |
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Craig_Morrison wrote: | ... i heard that the 200r's fit both chev & olds's blocks. is this true? what would u guys do? rebuild the th350, 700r, or 200r? i plan on having a street/strip car and it has 3.42 gears. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks |
I would use the 700R4 provided it is an '86 or newer (you do not want the 700R4 called a 4L60E because even though it is the same 700R4 you have with better parts in it; the "E" requires a computer (TCU) to work). You do not want the first couple of years of the 700R4 (anything made before OCT 1986) because it is weak and full of problems that were all worked out by taking all of the good ideas and designs from the formerly stronger 200R4 tranny (which is universal and will bolt up to any GM block). You will need to verify all of the parts inside are of the latest design and of premium quality because a stock TH350 is still stronger than a stock early version 700R4.
Once built with premium parts the 700R4 is actually stronger than the 200R4 which still has a strong following because of it's earlier rep. They forget that the first versions of the 200 "metric" that the 200R4 is based on were terrible, and it took a lot of broken transmissions in development of the Buick GN trials to get it "right". However there hasn't been any further R&D done on the 200R4 and the 700R4 has all of the same parts the 200R4 had plus continuing development being done by aftermarket racers are making it stronger every day.
Big Dave |
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clay Moderator

Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Posts: 3209 Location: South Carolina 318129.23 points
1972 Chevrolet Nova
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | "Built" 200R4's aren't cheap indeed but the 200R4 is a great transmission. I paid $3000 for my setup (including converter and everything else) and I have 185+ passes on the tranny and I'm running in the low 10's... |
You can get to a point for fairly cheap. After around 450 h.p. or so, it starts escalating rapidly like GrandsportC3 said. I have run one for a while and after a little over the 500 h.p. mark or so, I started driving through the forward clutch and it burned up. Even at the 450 h.p.level it isn't an install and forget transmission like a 400 for example. It will need periodic freshening up on a more routine basis because it just doesn't have the piston / clutch area and capacity that a 350 or 400 have so it's harder on everything. Like Big Dave said, one great point for the 700R4 is the continued improvement and development by the factory whereas the 200R4's only improvement is the aftermarket. Also as Smoke mentioned, the 1 -2 jump is a little better on the 200R4, but the super low first gear in the 700R4 can turn anything into a major tire frier. Clay |
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jeep_406 Member

Joined: 12 Sep 2002 Posts: 1668 Location: Tewksbury, Mass 01876 53369.72 points
1972 Chevrolet Nova
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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Craig,
You might try www.eatmyshift.com
They are a sponsor of SMOKEmUP and offer overdrive transmissions. Their ad appears in green on the upper right hand side of the screen just under HANZ' ENGINE HOUSE.
I have a 700R4 in my 72 Nova and love it. |
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72olds442 Member

Joined: 28 Oct 2006 Posts: 29 Location: dracut.mass 954.10 points
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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there are metric 250s.that look like th350.the insides of the 250s.are real weak.the only th350 iv used didn't have overdrive.the metric250s all have overdrive. |
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