Building another th350
I want this one to be a lo drag trans for a bracket car...foot brake only

What clutches do you rec.? I currently have a set of raybestos Got everything local they said its the best stuff they have

What direct clutch drum bushing do you rec.? and where to find it

Aftermarket sprag and drum...I'm not will to put out 900 bucks for an aluminum on, so where do you rec. getting the best steel one

How do you feel about using a lower bypass spring on the pump , to run 85-110psi line press.? to reduce parasidic loss

whitch clutch plates etc. can be eliminated to reduce rotating weight?

I will be running a SCS cheetah manual forward valve body, I also allready have my converter 9" 4500

Plan on replacing all the bushings as well
__________________

 

Raybestos "Blue Plate" clutches in the Intermediate and direct. Cut the direct piston to get 5 in it. Kolene coated steels in the intermediate and direct.
Borg Warner "tan" clutches and regular steels in everything else.

Stock direct drum with stock roller clutch, with hardened outer race.

Don't try to eliminete any clutches. "holding power" is worth more than roatating weight.

don't lower line pressure.

The Cheetah valve body is a great piece. I've used many of them, and highly recommend them.

Frank
CPT

 

use the wide direct bushing, and double up the bushings in the sunshell gear, stack the 2 bushings next to each other on the one end then drill out the lube hole,, on the other end drive the first bushing in just past the lube hole and then put the factory location bushing in
use the wide stator shaft bushing also

use good clutches, blue, green, or the red, and the koleen steels

tighten your clutch pack clearances some, and sent your front end play to .020-.025"

if your pump has the roller bearing, convert it to the washer style instead

5 low reverse, 5 direct, 5 forward, 3 intermed. clutches, the pistons are easy to cut down, i use our old brake lathe

 

I built this trans 3-4 years ago and never used it
I took it apart and it only has 4 clutches in it and thats all that will fit in there
What do I cut on the lathe?

also it had the red clutches in it

and am I missing something b/c there were not check ***** in it either and I lost the instruction to the valve body

but i'm at a stopping point now, I lost my snap ring pliers too so I have to go find some, will be back later to see what else I find

 

o.k. I found these specs for machining direct piston .730"
low/reverse-clutch piston 2.16

these specs are to run 5 frictions and steels in the direct stack and low/reverse stack

I wanted to post that b/c it took me a long time to find any good advice

Thanks, so far

 

i was corrected by frank of CPT about doubling up the sun gear bushings, and i did check it out and you only gain about .170" more bushing area on the rear one and nothing on the front bushing,

very strange, this is 1 mod you read about in all the high perf th350 rebuild books, and several large online trans parts/rebuild shops still sell this in there online description of there high perf transmissions

 

You'd be very surprised at how much false information there is out there about automatic transmissions. The problem is, even some "big name" builders get drawn into false theories. That's why we choose not to follow what others do without a great amount of research. There's a tremendous amount of misinformation about the 4L60E.

Frank
CPT

 

Use the late pump that came with the roller bearing. It offers a better direct drum bushing contact area, and the white plastic ring that sits next to the roller bearing keeps the direct drum centered to help prevent the 2nd gear roller clutch from breaking. Use the wide bushing here.
The Blue Plate Specials are good but expensive, Alto Reds are fine for direct, depending on the direct piston you have, machine the piston to except 5 clutches, and use the Kolene turbulator direct steels, as they have less drag in 1st & 2nd gear, and set the clutch clearance at .060"-.075".
As for the intermediate band, use the welded Red lined band from Alto. For the intermediate clutches, the Borg Warner's are fine, and the Alto Reds are ok too. If you plan on manually shifting the transmission at all, take a used low/reverse clutch and remove all of the lining by scraping, take a hacksaw and cut it open, file down any high spots, and install this under the intermediate apply piston. This will eliminate the 1-2 manual shift delay at WOT. Do not remove the waved steel in the intermediate clutch pack as it will help prevent the intermediate sprag race from breaking. Intermediate clutch clearance .030" - .040".
For the low/reverse steels, use the turbulator steels, again less drag. BW clutches are fine here. Use the low/reverse support from a 700R4, just match the pressure plate area for thickness. If this is going to be a drag racing only vehicle, you can remove three of the five low/reverse clutches here, and replace them with the L/R steels. Low/reverse clutch clearance .030" - .060". Back up easily though, no hard throttle.
In the forward pack, use the waved steel (late TH350's) that has the 3 tangs on it against the forward piston. Forward clutch clearance .020" - .040".
The output shaft has a bushing in it sometimes, remove and use the plastic insert (late TH350's) to get lube to the rear section of the unit. Get a Vega or equivilant sunshell that is hollowed out. It is very light in weight, and is excellent for drag racing, especially the 60ft times. Use the bronze case bushing, & teflon extension housing bushing, with the three lip Vamac seal. Make sure that the driveshaft yoke is in perfect condition and smooth as possible (polished), where the bushing & seal rides.
Use the plastic washers instead of the bronze washers where possible. End clearance .015" - .020". Add a pan magnet or two. For filter, use the Sealed Power Dacron from the TH350C, this is an excellent filter. As for the valve body modifications, use the TransGo Performance Shift kit, they offer it in automatic & full manual.
Replace any plastic accumulator pistons with aluminum, use cast iron sealing rings on the accumulator pistons, and teflon scarf cut sealing ring rings on the stator shaft. These modifications were what we started doing many years ago in 10 & 9 second vehicles, and were worth some in terms of a drop in ET, and they held up very well. Use a Dexron III type fluid only, no B&M Trick Shift or Ford type "F" fluid.

 

o.k. good info, i printed it all out

lst question, why the dexron fluid? I've always used type F