i had jim weise rebuild my switch pitch turbo 400 to his level two. i have been reading about some of you guys using a later 67 68 valve body in your switch pitch turboe 400's.. i still havent put it in the car and if you guys can explain the advantages i would do it now while its easy to do. should i find a old one or do i use something like a b&m valve body?does this make for sharper shifts or does it stay in low longer or shorter?
Read this article by Mark DeConti. It explains it all. I went through this years ago. You need a 70's big car valve body. You get a 3-2 valve (missing on the SP valve body), which gives you a part throttle kick down. It also lets the trans wind out 2nd gear instead of short shifting. http://www.buickperformance.com/SPTrans.htm
thanks for the info.. which year valve body did you go with? and did you get it new somewhere or a bone yard?
I got a 1971 BC valve body. I am fortunate to be a member of the NE GS/GN club. I had Mark himself swap it out for me one day at one of our club get togethers. I bought a junk transmission to get the valve body and I kept the trans for spare parts.
Any of the newer VBs with the 3-2 valve should work well. The 70s and 80s truck VBs work excellent for performance applications with minimal mods.
You're welcome. You should know I learned all of that the hard way:laugh: I set up my governor to shift at 5500 RPM 1-2, and never checked the 2-3 shift. First time down the track, 1-2 at 5500 RPM, into 2nd for a split second, and immediately went into 3rd. Still ran a 13.6 @ 101 MPH:TU: Mark DeConti is our club ST(THM) 400 trans expert. He wrote the article after I asked the questions.
I copied the article over so that I can print out. I will read more about it this weekend. Does Mark have an email address or what is the best way to ask him questions about 400's? :beer Thanks again
Would a new TCI Streetfighter valve body for '65 and newer TH400's be a direct replacement for the ST400? I'm assuming it would be, just wanted to make sure. Sorry for the hijack...
