The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Which 4 speed transmission would you recommend?

I found my motor for my 54. Which 4 speed overdrive transmission would be the best fit for a 350 SBC with a Comp 274 cam. Looking for tried and true dependability and easy to get parts and easy to work on and easy to find. This motor is rated for about 380 HP, so something that can handle that range. Would consider giving up the overdrive if you guys feel strongly about it, and can recommend something to cruise at 70 mph in high gear without winding up the motor and doing something crazy with the rear end. Not looking to set any records with originality, just solid performance history.

Automatic or manual?

Duh...pretty critical pce of info Bill....contrary to what's popular these days, want a manual on the floor.

Don't know of a 4sp overdrive but there may be some. Three speed and five speed over drives are common. 380hp pretty much rules out the old Borgwarner 3sp OD's and most T5's. Maybe a World Class T5 would last for a while. In the early 90's Chevy pickups could have a trans they called a 3sp with OD where 4th gear was overdrive but they were definitely not user friendly to 380hp. For big bucks you could go to the Gear Venders driveline OD which can handle big horses or rather torque which is the real factor.

The MY6 4 speed is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. That one is the same as the A833 found in Chrysler products. Should be of note, some variations of that transmission did find use behind such beasts as the Six Pack 440s and 426 Hemis. In those cases, the internals were far stronger than other applications, though.

Reconsider to a 700R4 Aluminum case 4 sp with a Lokar Nostalgia shifter, you will be happy. No clutch, pressure plate, fork, spring to mess with and plenty fast and overdrive. Shifting gets old, as you get old.

I had the old granny tranny 4 spd in my '64 C20, Came with the tranny mount emergency brake. I installed a 700R4 with Lokar Nostalgia 23" shifter and 16" tranny mount ebrake handle. Kept the original look, but much nicer. Everyone likes it. The added length of the new shifter looks great. Just had to relocate the holes in the tranny cover (no mods to the shape of it). Powered by a 400 hp 350 V8, and 3.73 14 bolt rear end, 4 wheel discs with rear ebrake.

Thanks Fellas...lot's of good ideas. Didn't expect it to be so difficult. The OD puts a kink in things. Found a good writeup on the MY6 on the web, but also mentioned hard to find. Bart and Warrior, I will keep debating on the auto option. Had a buddy in highschool that had a 3 speed manual on the floor on an old 64 chevy with a big motor, we drove the hell out of that car with never a problem. Just a little high rpm's in 3rd.

do a search car-parts.com for an 82-86 Chevrolet manual trans side loader. Find one with a shifter, it sits a little high, but over the split between tail shaft and gear box.

Larry

Not sure how much you're looking to spend, but a Ranger OD in front of an SM 420 would handle anything you could throw at it and give you a lot of gear options.

http://www.advanceadapters.com/prod...overdrive-27-with-a-5125-retainer-index/

I was going to suggest the Ranger, too. Seems they run about 1/2 what the Gear Vendors unit does. Plus, you don't have to alter the transmission itself, other than perhaps the shifter. There is also the ability to use different combinations, as they do have versions of it with different transmission bolt patterns on each end.

Not a 4 speed, but the nv4500 5 speed with granny low and overdrive might fit that bill. That's what I got behind my 400 hp 500 lb torque Pontiac motor in my 59 gmc.

Can you take off in 2nd and bypass the granny at the stop light?

I can take off in 4rth and bypass 1-3 at a stop light! Realistically the NV4500 is driven as a 4 speed. All NV4500 transmission except the early chevy transmissions have syncroes between every gear. You can shift from 2 to 1 while it is moving.

I don't want to hijack this post on 4 speeds, so if you want more specifics on NV4500 swaps, do a search, start a new thread or PM me.

Richmond Super T-10, but it's 1 to 1 in 4th, no overdrive, they can take alot of abuse. I think they're Richmond now, used to be Borg Warner I think. I think they're around $1500 new?

Appreciate the options guys, I'm evaluating every one of 'em.

Looks like the A833 aluminum case that comes with overdrive is going to carry the day. Only one I can find that is still plentiful enough that real tranny guys are still rebuilding them and therefore don't cost an arm and 2 legs. The online speed shops carry the tremec's w/OD and a high gear less than 1:1, but they are almost as much as the engine. Interesting that MOPAR built it for Chevy's. In addition to wide variety of Chrysler vehicles, apparently it was the manual option GM offered instead of the 700R4 in mid/late 80's 1/2 ton trucks. I'm feeling a little bit like Deve here, swimming upstream against the masses that are going with the 700R4's but that's what we're going to do. Thanks Bill and all for the great input.

Was talking with an old hotrodder yesterday and he mentioned he had a friend that put several manual transmissions from old corvettes into these old trucks behind sbc's but could not recall which tranny. Any guesses as to what he was using?

If it was out of an old vette, it was a muncie or a borg warner super t10. By old I am refering to 60s/70s. vettes.

Later ones had a few different trans, some were 5sp some were 6sp. They were overdrives, thinking richmond or b/w.

I think I would buy a new T-10.

My brother put a Tremec 6 spd out of a Camaro in his 1966 C10 with a SBC 350 in it. It has 2 OD's. First is like .83 and the 2nd is .6X something. He has hauled some heavy loads with it no problem and plenty of times dumped the clutch on high RPM's. Solid trans. I think he got it from JEGS.