What exactly can a shift kit do? A shop said they could install one for 100 plus cost of shift kit, and sounded interesting. Or do you guys think i should just go with higher gears.

 

I'd do the gears first (3.73s) and then later do a Trans-go shift kit. It cuts the shift time and makes the shifts much firmer, along with a few other upgrades. A vigilantee converter (2800 to 3000 stall) will really help the acceleration too.

 

Yeah i think ill do gears first but im still debating on 3.73 or 3.42s. Currently i have 2.73s and ive herd 3.73 whine alot, and i do about 150 mile freway drive every weekend.

 

my 373s dont whine at all.

 

Gears only whine if they are cheap, not designed to be quiet, or are setup wrong. I have 3.42s in my Caprice with a 27" tire and it is still nice for the freeway, a friend has 3.73s and it still is not bad but I think you guys run a shorter tire which plays into gearing so for you 3.42s would probably end up somewhere in between. I know everyone says 3.73s are the only way to go but really think about how much gear you can launch, either will be a huge improvement from what you have now.
Transgo is always a good idea, it improves tranny life, possibly or at the very least delaying a tranny rebuild and the substanial costs involved, personally I think it should be one of the very early on mods for everyone planning to drive hard.

 

The best answer I can give about your one question is this...A Trans-Go shift kit will certainly do one thing very well...It will definitely cause your 2-4 band and your 3-4 clutches to go out alot quicker. TG kits are a great way to ruin a perfectly good transmission.
I do my own shift modifications that improve shift feel AND make the transmission last longer.

Frank
Cahall Performance Transmissions
http://www.geocities.com/cahallperfo...sions/CPT.html

 

i put in a B&M shift kit and 3 weeks later the trans went granted it was a sweet 3 weeks (2.73 gear) but the rebulit i got on it fricken sweet

 

Franks done some cool stuff with trannys' I would trust him.

 

I have the B&M Trans Pack and I love it. I almost lost it in between a 1-2 shift the other day.

 

Thanks for the advise Frank, I was thinking of a TG kit over the winter, but I think I 'll wait for the tranny to go out before I mod that.

 

The Transgo is good most of the sucessfull 4L60E/700R4 builder use it, I am sure there are other good solutions too but that does not mean Transgo is bad. I believe the problem most often found with it is in the installation, people have a tendancy to set the tranny up to shift hard, hard is not necessarily good, you want quick and positive that does not mean neck snapping(same as parts snapping). The B&M does about nothing but make the shifts hard, it does not address the PWM and other stupidity that GM put there.

 

Ive been on the same trans since July 2001.

For what its worth..I have 3:42s and I absolutely love them. Plenty of top end if I want to pass into the high triple digits and plenty of low end. It may not get me the best 1/4 mile times but who the hell cars?? The 1/4 mile isn't everything.

 

knock on wood, i have had the transgo in my car for well over 2 years now, and the car shifts beautifully. I went with the two shims (street firmness) as opposed to the three shims (track/heavy racing firmness) and it drives amazing. Before the converter with my 2.73's i could get it to chirp into third, i thought that was pretty impressive. I only had one problem with the kit, and that was that the written directions and the video were very difficult to follow and tended to contradict one another.

 

Mine is set to the 2 shims as well... Ive only chirped my 2 to 3 shift one time... and that was pretty damn scary. (At ~80mph I dont want my tires spinning ever!)

 

Dwayne,
How long have you been building automatic transmissions? I've worked in the R&D end of performance 700/4L60Es for over 14 years.

No, you're wrong. Most successful builders DON'T use TG kits. The only "professional" transmission builders I've ever seen that actually install TG kits are glorified "parts swappers" that don't really know how a transmission works.

Frank
CPT