Lately Ive been buying and selling police car parts. I can usually buy the cars for a grand or sometimes a little less. I usually sell the engine and trans right off the bat for as much as I pay for the whole car. Has anyone ever put a 455/TH400 combo in a newer B body? It cant be that hard to do. Those cars ride smoother and corner flatter than any older car Ive ever driven, and I'd have a chassis anyway, so why not? ________ Live sex
Jake- I know some folks have shoe-horned the GMPP big block crate motor into a late model B-Body and many are using a TH400 with a small block application. That tells me it can be done. In fact, one of the first prototype Impala SS had a 510 ci motor in it! By and large, most Caprice/Impala owners take advantage of LT4 parts and blowers/nitrous to make things really happen. That community is on the verge of getting a basically street trim B-Body into the 9's! Go to: http://www.impalassforum.com and search for big block applications. I'm sure you can get some good ideas there! Oh yeah, I also have a '96 Impala SS... Mild performance mods, running 14.3x in the quarter...
Just sell the engine out of one and use the stock tranny. That seems like it would be a smart idea. Then you get OD, and you just have to fab up a mounting plate to bolt it to the BUick block.
At last years' Nationals there was a '93 RoadMonster Estate Wagon with a 455" in it. It wasn't refined and i dont even think they made a pass down the strip, but sitting there idling it was really:bglasses:
You might want to be careful with that tranny. First of all, it's electronically controlled (4L60E), so you would need a provision to control it. Secondly, the 4L60E is the electronically controlled version of its older sibling the 700R4. Neither of these trannies is particularly known for strength. I've personally toasted two in fairly low performance vehicles. A number of Impala guys are going to the TH400 in higher output applications as it seems no one can build the stock unit to handle a whole lot of power. The stock Impala SS has 330 ft/lbs of torque. Many stock Impala's have gone through a few of these transmissions. A brutish Buick 455 would eat that tranny for lunch after a few passes. That's in my opinion, of course. This is just my experience. Maybe someone knows a place that can work wonders and get more out of these transmissions. If so, I would certainly like a line on that supplier as I'm sure my Impala tranny will die sooner or later. The bummer part is you do give up the OD, as mentioned.
Another possibility is the 4L80E found in trucks. That would probably have a chance to hold up to the torque. You would have to take a hammer to your tranny tunnel to make it fit, though. A final option is to keep the LT1 in there, do some minor breathing mods and drive it! Use the cop car as a fun beater and save Buick power for the weekends! :beer
I dunno. People running GN's and big Oldsmobiles build 200 4R's that hold up to huge amounts of power and from what I understand, the 700's are stronger. You could always just get a 200 and upgrade it.
Matt- I'll admit I know zero about 2004R's. I have some experience with the 700R4/4L60E. I suppose you could build one to survive a while with big block torque. I was just thinking that if Jake was looking for a cheap swap, he may want to stick with the TH400. You are absolutely correct that he loses the advantage of OD. I just figured it might be cheaper in the end to drop in the stronger tranny than spend bucks bolstering up the one that's in there. I guess in the end it's whatever he wants to do. If he's getting these cars cheap enough, he can always do a little endurance testing on the existing tranny! :Brow: That could be fun! Take care...
Actually, the 200-4r is now regarded as the stronger tranny...If you build it right...There are a couple of good things about the 200-4r...4th gear is .67:1, compared to .7:1(700r4), and there is less parasitic power loss through the 200-4r, meaning more power gets to the rear wheels...And the ability to bolt them straight up to the BOP motors without an adapter plate... There are several excellent 200-4r tranny builders out there...One is Bruce Toelle of Performance Transmissions in CA and the other one that I can think of off of the top of my head is Jimmy's Transmissions in Mundelein, IL(just N of Chicago), and Mike Kurtz in TX...Not cheap to build but they have held up to 9 sec passes in the GN/TR's...Buddy of mine had a Mike Kurtz 200-4r in his GN that had over 400 passes(low 11s and eventually high 10s)...Was getting worried and sent it back to Mike to freshen it up and Mike didn't find anything wrong with it...Had it for about 4 yrs...
2004R is the only way to go!!! As stated above, properly built these things run in 9 second GN's all the time. Get one out of a GN, SS Monte Carlo or 442. Look on the GN board and you can find the codes for the "good" ones. There is a difference! I believe CZF is the code to look for on a 2004R transmission from a Monte Carlo. The early 200's and the ones in most 80's GM cars have smaller guts and are more expensive to build. Beauty of a 2004R is that it will "bolt in" where a Powerglide or turbo 350 used to live. Same driveshaft and trans mount. Neat huh! Not hard to adapt to a turbo 400 car. Just go get the transmission mounts/crossmember and drive shaft from a turbo 350 equiped car that is like your car. No cutting or modification. There is some discussion concerning lock up converters and whether they are desireable. These transmissions are not cheaper to build than a 700 R4, but they ARE BETTER TRANSMISSIONS! I have these in a couple of cars and boy are they great!!!!
Jake- If you come across a decent lt-1 car cheap that you want to resell let me know. We have a 9C1 car now but its a 4.3. Kinda weird especially for a 95. Strong runner though Thanks! Tim
Hey, put that 455 in there, mod the stock trans and beat the snot out of it. If it dumps on you, go to the 4L80E with an adapter plate. Drawbacks: Huge, BIG, heavy, less efficient than pretty much any other GM trans, requires electronic contol (lot's of kits out there for around $100), TV cable adjustment is critical to long life but I'd be willing to bet that if it is properly set up with drums, clutches, programming the controller and you get the TV cable down right, you would never break one. Even with a lockup converter. Advantages:Brutally strong as built, nearly unbreakable modified, over drive for highway manners even with low rear gears, and oh baby that low first gear! As the Snowman told his dog Fred, "Hold on to yer A$% Fred"!
That would be nice! Could you list a few of them? I haven't been able to find anything for less than $600-$700 or so. I sold my 4L80e to a guy over on the ImpalaSSForum that makes twin turbo kits for the LT1's!!!:eek2: He's shooting for a 9 Sec street car!!:TU: Even his kit on a completely stock SS, with only mild boost, was giving him easy 12's! Biggest drawback is the price - about $6900.
How about a B&M Controller from Summit? Here is the listing: BMM-70244 GM: TH-700/4L60, 200C, 200-4R, 350C with mechanical speedometer cable, lock-up control kit ... $159.95 BMM-70248 GM: TH-700R4/4L60, 200C, 200-4R, 350C with electrical speedometer, 40 ppm, converter lockup control kit ... $159.95 Ok, so it's $160 or so. Still not too bad when you consider what it does for you.
