Who has run a manual valve body on their street strip 400 for an extended period of time. Any side effects of early trans wear out? My trans shop keeps advising against one for street strip action. Trans now has a Transgo level 2 kit, but I'm considering a forward pattern manual one. Best luck with which make? Tom
Yes I have been running a reverse patten manual valve body in one of my TH400 BOP trans (B&M Shifter) for 5 years now without any problems. I only used the car for weekend fightnights and short trips. It's out on the floor right now, I will be soon giving it a overhaul...checking friction clutches,steel plates,front band etc. The trans/man years ago also told me not to use it...BUT I DID. I will be happy to drop you a line later if I find something went BAD inside. P.S pulled it out because went to 4-speed. Hope I have been some help to you! Chris
For the Racetrack, maybe. But on the street, your car will be quicker if the trans is simply set up to shift at the RPM you want. One less thing to worry about in a street confrontation. You can't outshift a properly set up transmission. Just my .02
I just installed a Coan manual/reverse valve body in my TH 400 tranny. I asked the tech man when I was considering it and told him I want manual valve body that can take trips like to E-Town(250 miles 1 way)or Salem(about the same).He said he has several people who use it on the street and no problems. Also suggested a BIG tranny oil cooler like I have on my car.With the Coan,you don't need to remove the 1st gear band and it can be installed in the car(like I did)by just doing some mods that are easy to perform.It took about 45 minutes to install and if you have mechanical ability,its pretty easy. It eliminates the vaccuum modulator,the governor tubes as well as the governor as well as the kickdown.The only bad thing he said was with a manual reverse pattern is you have to come to a stop to put it in 1st to go again. Hughes has a very nice valve body that may be to your liking,it has a manual/automatic feature that when you start out in drive and let it in ,it will automatically shift,but when you start out in 1 you have to manually shift it.I agree with Larry though,a good proper set up tranny is tough to beat.I just like to bang gears so thats why I went the direction I dis as well as my wife is going to learn to drive this car at the track and I thought it would be easier to teach her to just pull the Quarter Stick back instead of trying to get her to go forward..
Tom, I went full manual forward pattern TH350 in Sept 05. Not much time yet but love the way the tranny works, and no problems.
Tom, you don't have to buy a new valve body to go full manual, at least forward manual anyway. TransGo had (has?) a shift kit that kept you at full manual until you decided to go back to automatic, I think it was as simple as removing some clips from the governor. My ST400 manual conversion was kind of a bastardization of parts if I remember; I think I started with a TransGo shift kit, then made more mods when I rebuilt it. I distinctly remember welding up the governor weights for the manual conversion...what more is going on in there is fading, memory-wise. It didn't hurt that I had a retired Hydramatic engineer about 20 minutes away. Man, I wish I had been smart enough to take notes during our long conversations! Devon
Good info. I just got my trans back from my trans guy and for now he left the manual -auto transgo in. Tom
