I recently purchased a 93 Lincoln Mark VIII parts car with a DOHC 32V V-8 and AOD tranny. I plan on using the engine and tranny in my pro-street mav. The engine will likely be turbocharged and I am aiming for 800-900HP. The car will see mostly street duty with a calling for the strip about 3-4 times a year. My question is - Will the tranny (with the proper mods of course) handle this kind of power? I really like the idea of the overdrive even if I have to switch it on, or am I better off going with a C-4 or 6. Gotta be an automatic. Thanks.
You a have quite a job ahead with all your project. The trans should be an AODE not an AOD. These are electronic shifted by the EEC. Here is what I think your in for. 1. The engine is very wide for the engine bay with out going to a different front suspension. 2. All the EFI hookup. 3. The trans has to be well modded to take that much Turbo power. 4. You need a 9" rear and different rear suspension to handle large tires needed for that power level. 5. Fabbing the turbo setup. In short you will be building everything from the ground up. A lot of money and work. Hope you do it and good luck. It will be the wildest Mav on the planet.
Bluegrass; I am planning on a tube chassis for my project to get that monstrous modular 4V and those BIG tires under it with a fourlink susp. I am also looking into a stand alone fuel system. I have a friend who builds turbo systems so I can call on him when I can afford to shell out the dough for the turbos and intercooler. You're right about the fabrication, it will be a lot of work but I have more time than money right now so I will try to do everything by myself if possible including body and paint. I don't care how long it takes me as long as it is what I want when its done. 2,3,4 years who cares, I just want to build the car I've always wanted...One Bad Mav.
Fair enough. You gave no indication of that overall intention in your first post. The trans may have a corresponding shorter life at those power levels but one never knows. Good luck.
Thoughts of a Powerglide had gone through my mind but a GM product just doesn't go over all that well with me, but I know a glide can handle it. It may be a performance advantage with 2 speeds but I will have to weigh my options both monetarily and practically.
yea, the only reason I even mentioned the powerglide is because that's a heck of alot of horsepower and my guess is that the powerglide would probably be the cheapest to build to handle the power. of course any tranny that is required to hold down those horsepower numbers will be expensive!!
my question is if you call performance Automatic and order a custom powerglide, how can you still call it a chevy part? lol... anyway keep us updated i wanted to put a 32v mod motor in a mav but in basically a stock form only with a MII front end..
I think I read where either Fun Ford or NMRA (or maybe both) was allowing Power glides in there head-up classes! Kinda sucks, but you can sure throw ALOT of ponies at them.
i know for a fact that Super Street Outlaw in NMRA is allowing the use of a powerglide cause i have a friend that has ran one in his car for about 2 or 3 yrs,,, his is one of the ones from Performance Automatic thats supposedly set up like a Promod tranny, it was like 3 or 4 grand no problems though lol.. but the motor in the car is the old one out of ASSC's old car "Big Red II" and on the computer it showed like 1600 horses at the wheels going down the track in route to a 6.9x in their Mustang, so id say if your gonna shoot for 900 ponies id very strongly consider a *cough* glide,,,
I think it's an unspoken agreement that the Power-Glides are okay to be used on non bow-ties and the Ford 9" are okay to use on non Blue Ovals. All I know is, unless you TRULY have the horsepower and torque, the Glide will slow you down - this i learned from guys who thought they had enough power for them only to go back to a 3 spd auto. - I'm not suggesting anything about the power of your engine - just stating what I've seen. 'G luck anyway.
For street duty, you're going to need at least 3 speeds...but the problem is, most 3 and 4 speed autos wont take the power you plan on throwing at 'em (reliably) especially with sticky tires if you plan on any drag racing. That being said, a 'properly' built 'glide will take more than the amount of power you're going to have, in fact, with turbocharged power, it might be a better choice, even in a heavy car. The turbocharged torque produced will quickly exceed the limits of most setups, but the 'glide's high 1st gear ratios will help alleviate that problem. Funny thing is, you'd think with a higher first gear, you'd lose some ET in the 60'. I picked up .1 sec. Weird. Can't explain it, other than a GREAT converter that was well-matched to the combo. I will say this, powerglides SUCK on the street! You have to run a loose converter for them to work with a high-winding motor (which a 32v motor definetly is!) and loose converters make for not-so-enjoyable street cruising. I run one in my mav, and wouldn't go back to a 3-speed unless someone paid me GOOD money to do so. Even though I 'might' pick up some ET with one, I'd be hard pressed to give up the consistency, longevity, parts availability, aftermarket following/knowledge, and ease of service. It's also a small safety issue...in a fast car, you don't have time to think about 2 shifts....with a 2-speed, just run it up to your desired shift point (10,000....etc lol) and slap it in high. Easy!
