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Th-350 hard shifts for free.

smokeyco75

smokeyco75

Member
Okay, didn't want to hijack someone elses thread so I figured I would start a new one. I contacted my Uncle for an answer for another thread. While I had him I also asked him how to firm up the shifts in a th-350 without spending a fortune. He said you can do it almost for free and proceeded to tell me how. The following is a direct quote from him. He is an ASE certified transmission expert and a retired instructor. In the 70's while working for Volvo he developed a special shift improvement kit that became a Volvo part number on the parts shelf. Needless to say he knows his trade! Here is the quote; pull the cover from the 1-2 accumulater on the passenger side, remove the oil rings and reassemble. For a harsh 2-3 shift remove the valvebody and remove the seal/ring from the 2-3 accumulater and reassemble. After the transmission shifts the first time it will shift firm afterwards. Just be sure to use a heavy duty intermediate sprag otherwise the transmission will not survive.

This is exactly what he did with my transmission in my Camaro and it survived 5 years behind 485 horses and as far as I know is still in use today.
 
He also said that as far as stall converters go, the weight of the vehicle is not a factor. He did say if driven on the street more than the track you can typically be happier with a stall around 500 rpm or so less than the cam specs recomend. For example; if the cam specs recomend a 3000-3500 stall the car will be more street friendly with a 2500 -3000 stall. I put this theory into practice with my camaro when I put that 485 horse small black in it in front of a stock converter it wouldn't idle in gear unless I had the idle up at 1600 rpm. The specs recomended a 3500 stall but the car was very happy and streetable with a 2500 stall. Idled happily at 800 rpm. I learned everything I know from him and Meangreen. Two guys who know there stuff.
As a side note that high horse motor ran on 89 octane with iron heads and made that many ponies. All engine specs were based on my uncles recomendations. Oh and for those who swear by four bolt main blocks this was a two bolt from a 75 camaro. Still alive and healthy after fifteen years. I have built 800 horse two bolts for my father in laws modified with zero failures as well so I sneeze at your four bolts, lol
 
smokeyco75 said:
He also said that as far as stall converters go, the weight of the vehicle is not a factor.
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Sorry, but I am disagreeing with this one. Vehicle weight is a huge factor in converter selection. Even brake system condition can have an effect on how a converter will work. Rotten brakes on a heavy vehicle won't let a torque converter work to its full potential.

A given converter in a light car will not stall as high as the same converter in a heavy car. Weight is the principal variable a torque converter has to overcome, so think of it as adding more weight to a vehicle as adding more resistance to the converter's coupling RPM. The higher the resistance, the higher the stall speed.

If vehicle weight is not a factor in converter selection, then why would lightweight drag vehicles use trans brakes? o_O

485 HP with a cast head and 89 octane fuel? How many freshens in those 15 years, just out of curiosity? Having worked in a race engine shop for 25 years+, I know what it takes to build the kinds of numbers you are talking about, so I am always curious as to how the other guy skins the cat. What head casting were you using, and how much compression were you running?
 
Only bearings and rings in all that time. 9.5 compression and dart sportsman heads. 6 inch rods and je pistons. Cam was an old cam dynamics grind. Intake was a victor and carb was a 750 holley. Rotating assembly was balanced. Those are the basic specs. I admit we were both surprised it made that much hp but it was a good natured motor for street or strip. Only ran the track about 6 or seven times. It was a driver most of the time. He guessed it was because the rotating assembly was balanced and built well that it lasted like it did and figures it made the numbers by breathing real good and in his words, "the horespower gods smiled on us".

I threw your view on converters at him and he said it makes sense. Said he never had to deal with a light car before. To be honest it makes sense to me too.

I have had motors fail catastrophically on race tracks but I learned from my mistakes. Biggest lesson I learned in a stock car motor is rod side clearance. Mess that up and at 7800rpm they will blow themselves up quick. Had a crank break at 7500 and a piece of the counterweight broke the cam and split the valley. Had to laugh at the track crew bringing us engine parts in milk crates lol.
 
I forgot to mention we curbed some of the potential detonation problem by eliminating all sharp edges on the pistons and combustion chamber which reduces hot spots. Had typical high rpm valvetrain like roller rockers on screw in studs, guideplates, heavy valvesprings and heavy duty pushrods.

Saw the car two years ago at a cruise in and still had the motor in it.
 
In the other thread you said your Uncle had passed and was no longer around, then this thread you say you talked to him, HMMMMM.
 
Still curious about your stuff. On that 800 HP stuff, whose heads were you using? SB2 castings, or...? Do you own your own dyno, or are you renting time on someone's dyno? I used to deal with a lot of people down that way, I'm just wondering if we might have any mutual acquaintances.
 
Built those motors for my father in laws modified. Got a lot of parts through a friend of his who used to race in ARCA. I know one pair of headds were from a pontiac team which also ran chevy motors. Had Jesel rockers and all that good stuff. Didnt build any dry sump motors though.
 
Well, well, well....spent all day in the dyno cell....my head is hurting. I just read all this, interesting, with my eyebrow raised. 485 horses from a SBC is pretty easy....350 cubes. If you have the carb, the intake, the valves and compression to handle it. Its getting marginal with the crap street fuel now, unless you build a 'methonal motor', but will run like crap on normal stuff.
Theres alot of builds that can be duplicated and happily hit the number, maybe a little higher.

800 horses on a 2-bolt block? Why? Without a stud girdle? 8oo horses, and the block is gonna float around like a jellyroll. And thats with a 3% underbalance and everything within .02 oz.'s....the stock crank starts getting marginal @ 725 horses, and thats with a good steel chevy performance crank.

Like the a friend of mine built a motor, he wanted me to run it in on the dyno and tune it. A chevy 540....At 7800rpm (thats what the tach recall said), I was bumping it on up there easing it to 8200, when the crank broke, lost the side of the block took out a steel crank and a roller cam.
I pulled what was left to the pan and it was a 2 bolt block. That was a few years ago, I don't run anything unless I pull the pan to look at things....
It took me a day to get all the oil off the walls, I charged him 2 buckets of paint....
 
[It took me a day to get all the oil off the walls, I charged him 2 buckets of paint....]

What a rip off! Should have been close to 5 gallons. HP is like $$, everyone has a dream of more, but in the end it all explodes on ya. Every thing has it's limits, and I know for a fact HP cost BIG $$$ and you just can't convince me a cast iron stock 350 block, steel crank, no matter what the rest parts is going to hold up above 5800 rpm for very long. Laws of physics takes over. Everything has a breaking point.
I am now working on my 6th million dollars for my life time. I gave up on the first 5.
 
Before anyone makes tranny mods in a T-bucket, you might want to think about the effect. The TH350 I just pulled out of mine was a hard shifter. It was really annoying, constantly having my neck snapped back just cruising around town. These aren't like heavier cars where the tires maybe chirp and the vehicle's inertia absorbs much of the remaining force. That's one reason I changed to a TH400. I can leave the shifts a little soft and not have to worry about it breaking behind my SB.

Jack
 
Whoa!! Hold the phone.. Heck I thought you were Boone Pickett, The oil Tycoon from Oklahoma. So now I have to tell all my friends, both of them, I really don't know where B. Pickett hangs at. Dangnapit!! I thought the N.C. thing was just to throw the little people off. LOL
 
bigblk1177 said:
Whoa!! Hold the phone.. Heck I thought you were Boone Pickett, The oil Tycoon from Oklahoma. So now I have to tell all my friends, both of them, I really don't know where B. Pickett hangs at. Dangnapit!! I thought the N.C. thing was just to throw the little people off. LOL
Click to expand...
Hahahaha....you mean the guy that lives on top of that mountain, lives in a 2 story Log Home, has like a 6 car car collection and 2 really big shops behind his house....He's as crazy as ever!
 
Top of mountain- yes. Two stories- no, hard to climb steps. Two shops- no. Space would be nice, but not necessary. Just a few toys and tools to work with in one small shop.

If I had Boone's money, I'd hire all you gear heads to build what I wanted!! LOL
 
bpickett said:
Top of mountain- yes. Two stories- no, hard to climb steps. Two shops- no. Space would be nice, but not necessary. Just a few toys and tools to work with in one small shop.

If I had Boone's money, I'd hire all you gear heads to build what I wanted!! LOL
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If you had Boones Money I would let you hire me!!! LOL I would relocate to Oklahoma I mean NC. Of course we both could always go to work for Mr. Money Bags aka Screamin Metal. LOl My dream job is Jay Leno's Big Dog Shop!! Any ways just picking at you guys alittle. You two and Yours have a Very merry Christmas & a Happy & prosperous New Year.
 
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If you had Boones Money I would let you hire me!!! LOL I would relocate to Oklahoma I mean NC. Of course we both could always go to work for Mr. Money Bags aka Screamin Metal. LOl My dream job is Jay Leno's Big Dog Shop!! Any ways just picking at you guys alittle. You two and Yours have a Very merry Christmas & a Happy & prosperous New Year.
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Hahaha....hope you have a Merry One bigblk....don't loose any money on the Bama Games....
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! And a Happy New Year! May Ya'll get alot of premium Bucket Parts!
 
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