[Cliff R]

"My biggest concern is "IF" I decide to run it on drag radials. Will it take the launch? If not, I'll stay off the track and move on to building a car for racing like I really should anyway."

It will be fine, right up to the moment it goes BOOM! We've been around these units for a long time, they are tough little transmissions, but just that, "little". Sooner or later they give up, just too many "sore" spots for long term reliability behind high torque engines.

We've built them here, with all the "goodies", and most live a pretty decent life. Strong running GN's still kill them. Most last a season or two, but they still give up someplace. The converters are as weak as the transmissions, I'd up for the multiple disk units if you plan on locking it up on a hard run.

Someone mentioned pumps, 6 or 10 vane. The pump rings were "soft" with early units, same as the sun shells and stator shafts. Early direct drums are hopeless, and there were a lot of poor welds as well. No advantage moving up to a 10 vane pump, they don't pump any more fluid, just "smooths" out the pulsations some, hardened pump rings are manditory for any build level.

If you are just going to use one of these units in a street car, that see's occassional dragstrip use, they are fine. For SERIOUS applications that go to the track frequently, you are looking at the wrong transmissions. I could build 3 or 4 TH400's for the cost of a decent torque converter for a 200-4R, FWIW.....Cliff

[pastry_chef]

Originally Posted by Cliff R

I could build 3 or 4 TH400's for the cost of a decent torque converter for a 200-4R, FWIW.....Cliff

Is that what continental charges for a 2004R converter?

PTC wll make a nitrous ready one for $ 450 U.S.
The only thing they don't recommend is racing it with the lockup engaged, it wouldn't be worth the tenth or two for the average guy anyway.

www.ptcrace.com

Here are two of the premier 2004R specialists in the world, and manufacturers of billet components for the 2004R.

http://www.ckperformance.com/
http://www.ptsxtreme.com/

[Sammy B]

Ok, I'm a big believer in the 'you get what you pay for' philosophy. With that in mind, why is a built Bowtie tranny so much cheaper than what everyone else is selling. When making comparisons, they all seem to have similar build specs, so what gives? It also seems that there are a lot more people running BTO trannies than any other re-builder. Is this because they're cheaper, or better or both?

[Goat-Racer]

The 200 in my Goat has been in service for the past 15 years. It now has all of the billet internals from Bruce at PTS, but the car went 11.50s for years with all of the basic upgrades and stock hard parts.
Things like the hardened stator support, proper pump clearances and internals, wide Alto band, and billet servo are all a must. The biggest thing I did to improve the trans was the deep pan and the botom feed 700-r4 filter.
I could launch the car on the STREET hard enough to slosh the fluid away from the stock filter and the line pressure would drop in HALF! It would happen midway through low gear and during 1-2 shift. I had gone through several intermediate bands because they were taking such a beating. The line pressure gauge was the savior on this deal.
The deep Art Carr pan and filter combo totally eliminated the pressure drop, and I have not hurt another band since.

I really love my 200.

[Steve C.]

Sammy B- Quite some time ago I looked into overdrive transmissions with ernest and like Critter looked into Bowtie, PTS, Art Carr, etc. But at that time I dropped the OD trans project and made the decision to keep my TH400 and change to 3.08 geas in the future. However within the last month I changed my mind and decided to go ahead and gamble with a 2004R transmission and keep my 3.73 gears.
John at the shop has a friend that races with him in the Texas True 10.5 heads-up series and he builds race transmissions. As mentioned he does them for GN cars and reportably 1000hp vipers, and he said he could build me one. We told him what I drove, gave him a copy of the dyno sheet, and told him to go. I didn't shop around, I'm in a time constrant.... a week later John picked it up. Not cheap... billet this, billet that... over $4000 for the package, including trans, 4000 stall lock-up converter, TV cable, and some other parts, plus sales tax (core charge not included).

Mike at Century Automotive & Transmission in Richmond, Texas / 281-633-8155

[roadrage david]

here is mine from bto.