Admittedly, I don't know a damn thing about auto trannys. I am finishing up my buggy and plan to have a TH350 built for it. It will go behind a Ram Jet 350 and I have the output shaft to mate it to my 4.3 Atlas. Looking for advice on how to have a bullet-proff tranny built.

Where should I have it built? Somebody suggested a place that specialized in building tranny's for drag racing... Any comments?

How should I have it built? Any particular things to consider?

Manual valve body? Torque converter stall speed?

Anything else to consider?

Any helpful advice is appreciated.

Personally I'd keep the stall convertor stock, had a stall convertor in my tranny (TH350) 2 years ago...when I blew up the tranny I put a stock one back in instead. You want the tranny to engage as low as possible so that you can be graceful if you have to be. I had my tranny done at a local shop (guy was known for building kick ass drag racing trannys and plus you could eat off the floor of the shop). Put a stage 3 shift kit in there, had the governor modified and had the tranny rebuilt with kevlar bands (heavy duty rebuilt kit). Nothing super expensive in terms of parts. But the tranny has been going strong since then, shifts real hard if I want it to. Also depends on what you are willing to spend on the tranny...there are so many options.
The best thing that I could suggest (and one of the most important...so I've been told be friends), Is that you can tell the quality of the work at a tranny shop by how clean the place is.

Thanks for the information. I've got a line on a local tranny shop that builds drag racing tranny's.... I'll check them out.

Here in chevy there was a TOTW thread on building an auto. Mostly what came up was hardened sprags and kevlar bands, blah blah blah, same as a drag racer. After that, manual valve body and a stock lock up converter with the lock up on a switch. engine braking is key.
After it is done, the most important thing: a big ass cooler with tanks and cores, not the straight through pos. Put a dedicated fan on it and watch the temp on it. Great insurance to protect your $$$$ investment.

Preciate it. Yea, I was reading the 4wheeloffroad article on the "autocrawler" 700R4 project and they said pretty much the same things. HD Sprags, full manual valve body, reverse pattern shifting, good cooler, etc...

http://www.4wheeloffroad.com/techarticles/131_0302_TRAN/


I also checked with Art Carr. The make a TH350 especially for rockcrawling, but it's serious bucks.

Forgot to mension the cooler also. Personally I got the biggest cooler that I could find (Perma Cool brand) and hooked a fan from a Geo metro up to it (mounted in the box of my truck). Running a deep tranny pan also (the more fluid the cooler the temp) and finally an autometer tranny temp gauge. Like I stated in my first response I blew up the old tranny pritty good (no 1st, 3rd or rev when it was pulled). I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be pulling out the tranny again.
If you're considering buying complete, I know that B&M were making a TH350 and I believe also a 700r4 tranny built for offroad and good to go right out of the box.

Admittedly, I don't know a damn thing about auto trannys. I am finishing up my buggy and plan to have a TH350 built for it. It will go behind a Ram Jet 350 and I have the output shaft to mate it to my 4.3 Atlas. Looking for advice on how to have a bullet-proff tranny built.

Where should I have it built? Somebody suggested a place that specialized in building tranny's for drag racing... Any comments?

How should I have it built? Any particular things to consider?

Manual valve body? Torque converter stall speed?

Anything else to consider?

Any helpful advice is appreciated.
you should have a hd intermediate drum sprag combo this is the most common thing to break in a 350, use red alto clutches, shift kit or manual valve body, big cooler, temp gauge, B&M trick shift this stuff is great you almost can't burn it, stock stall hd converter or towing converter tighter is better it creates less heat

I also checked with Art Carr. The make a TH350 especially for rockcrawling, but it's serious bucks.


there was a post on coloradok5.com about someone getting burned by art carr on one of his trannys...doesn't sound like you're headed that route anyway, but figured I'd let you know just in case

This links says about the same as above but you might find alittle more info there.

Bulletproof th350 (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89088&page=1&pp=20&highlight=TH350+kevlar)

:usa:

I ordered my latest trans parts from www.coanracing.com They have all kinds of HD stuff for Performance transmissions.....