I actually heard it on the Speed Channel. It was an episode of American Muscle Car. No crap. Whether it's true or not....I'll never know with my car. ray
i will agree with max.. the vehicle weight is a majror part of that jamie.. scooper... i paid 140 for the valve body.. with labor.. not sure which one i got ,..but i love it.. i also have an external tranny cooler in front of the radiator... and i have a deep tranny pan.. like 2 quarts mroe fluid... and i yhave a 2500 stall.. when i got the tranny rebuilt.. the guy said he would put in a 4 disk clutch pack in it... stock is 3 .. says it will shift harder and hold a heavier load.. and more HP.. i paid 650 for everything.. and it took them 4 days.. since they ordered the worng part at first.. and then i have taken it back 2 times,... the adjusting nut kepy backing out.. and then it wouldnt shift right.. this last time i dont know what they did.. but no problems since... this is with a 2.79 gear.... i can only imagine what my car wil lbe like with 3.80 gears... WOAH... i cant wait... i bet i have a grin from ear to ear.. and my kids will love it..
ST, don't forget, you will get better traction with that SPOOL!!! Do you have to take the tranny out to install a shift kit, or can you do it upside down under the car? If I have to take the trans out, I may as well do a complete rebuild and add more stall. That will hold the entire project start date off a bit, as I save $$$.
can be done in the car. when you take old one out watch for small pieces which may fall out. you may need to put them back in with new shift kit. you can use grease or blue trans assembly lube to hold parts in place when reassembling. great time to put a drain plug in the pan if you dont already have one.
God Bless the man who puts in a shift kit in an upsidedown position.....I did it with the tranny out...it was still a pain, and a very delicate job. I recommend pulling the tranny to do it. Good Luck. ray
Put the car up on stands as high as you can to make it easier. Pull the pan, take out 8 or 9 bolts to remove the valve body/filter, take it out then clean up the valve body real good. The shift kit is installed on the bench which makes it pretty easy. Do it in a pan so you don't loose any small pieces. Putting it back in is tricky because you have to line up the valve body plunger just right with the shifter bar thingy. You'll see. If the shifter seems to shift into all the gears correctly on the column or floor shifter (before starting the car) you probably have it right. Put the pan back on and make sure you follow the rest of the directions and it'll work great. If I could do it, anyone can . Let us know how it goes. Good luck.
The C4 is a mighty stout little fellow, Im not going to say how long it will take 500 H.P. in a 3200-3400 pound car, But i ran one ten years with enough power to blow the caps off a 8 inch. When the tranny was finally tore down for a stronger rebuild there was no sign of stress on any parts. I have seen these trans in 5 second drag cars with nothing more than parts store rebuild kits in them, and the clearnces not even in the ball park.
Well, i've seen them in some fast cars.....and they lasted a season of hard passes......but they had ALOT of good parts in them. It's just like anything, cheap parts DON'T hold up long under real power......
if you take the time to build it right.. .and you monitor the fluid and keep it cool...they should last a long time...
I hear ya, after one season of low 7 second passes (1/8th mile) my tranny started to flare horribly when shifting into third. I did not build that c4, it was a PA super comp. I then started rebuilding it myself and I found out that at around 500+- horsepower, even with 5 Alto racing clutches in the high/reverse drum, after a season it would start to flare going in to third. Tightening up or loosening up the clearances didn't help. I went with a 7 clutch high/reverse drum. No flare problems since then. I've seen guys run in the 5's with a c4, hell I've gone a 6.08 with one. Most people going that fast have a t-brake on them and that doubles the maintenance level.
Yeah, its a really crappy feeling shift. It feels/sounds like shifting a manual car without taking your foot off the gas. At least in my case it did... It was really noticable during part throttle normal driving shifts. Less noticable during WOT high rpm shifts.
CometGT1974 Do the mods in that Burly4X4 site really work? If it is that easy, I will do the extra work and grind the holes and stuff myself. If I want the stage 4 response, do I have to go through stages 1, 2 and 3 first, or just do the stage 4 mods and the changes on the first page? Sounds like an easy afternoon job. If I screw anything up here, will a shift-kit replace all the messed up parts? By reading through the pages, it seems that I can jump straight to the stage 4 mod and skip the rest to get the firm shift I am looking for. Is this right?
