Help with the Camaro

[Anonymous]

hey all,
When I rebuilt my camaro about 3 years ago I replaced the rear end gears with 3:73 gear ratio. (very quick off the line but...) It is only a 3 speed automatic transmission....so on the highway, about 60 miles per hour will make the engine turn over 4000 RPM. While in a motorcycle this may be acceptable, in my poor car...it is not.
Does anyone know the amount of modification involved in swapping for a tranny with overdrive? Would my console shifter need to be modified (to account for the extra gear)?
how much work involved in changing it to a manual tranny?

[shaftzuki]

The swap to an overdrive (700r4) tranny is not that difficult if you have all of the parts required ... you'll need a new shifter, a new crossmember, and a new driveshaft along with the auto tranny. There are many camaro and trans am forums out there that have detailed swap information on their boards. But the best source for info is someone local to you that has performed the swap.

A standard tranny can also be swapped but it involves a few more parts. :?

You might also think about swapping rear ends or just rear end gears - you could upgrade to an axle that has disc brakes and change the gears to anything you'd like!! 8)

[Anonymous]

know of any camaro forums in particular?

[shaftzuki]

Here's just one example:

http://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/forumdisplay.php?s=051d296de91b1d8c38b28f83aacff718&forumid=19

Even though they deal with mostly 3rd gen cars, most of the information will translate to yours - they haven't changed that much in years.

I'll see if I can find a few more ... 8)

[Hoomgar]

If you can find one of the older Doug Nash 5 speed manual's that were built for the GM small block during the early 70's. Most tranny shops will still rebuild them if it is needed and you wont go wrong with it. They were designed with people in your predicament in mind. Keep the read gears where they are and pop in a high performance 4 speed with an over drive 5th gear. They rock! We all had them when I was a youngin

[Anonymous]

If you want to drop a bunch of money on the project you could buy an overdrive box to mount on the output shaft of your transmission. This gives you 6 gears if you want to shift your overdrive while using gear selector for 1, 2, and 3. You even get to spec the gear ratios when ordering so you can get a low-low gear and a high-high gear.

Steve

[Anonymous]

700R4

I would go with the 700R4 like stated above. You need to try to find an early one that just needs the vacuum hook-ups and none of the electrical like the later versions have. I am definately a bigger fan of a manual in muscle cars but its just such a pain to get the peddle assembly in there and for that matter find one for your car. (A hydrolic setup wouldn't be too hard to install)

Trevor

[cbxchris]

Probably the cheapest thing to go is go with 3.55 rear... it will be a good compromise. I love the 3.73 but with your current tranny I understand your problem very well.

[Anonymous]

I would go with the th200-4r as it is the exact same external demensions as the th350 that most camaros came with. they can be found in the 85 and up monte carlos and pontiac grand prix. ART CARR builds one that handles over 400 HP.

[Anonymous]

I used the 200r4 in my ElCamino behind a strong 350. Everything is the same as the turbo 350. If you use your current shifter you lose being able to shift all the way to low.

[Anonymous]

well...for now it seems like I should go with the 3:55 gear or swap in a 200r4 and suffer not being able to shift to low gear. When out of college and making some money, I would like to install a standard shift though. Thanks for all of your help!

[Anonymous]

A temp cheap way is to use taller tires in the rear for highway use. That's what I did when I had the T/A. It cut the revs down a couple hundred.

[jimcor]

Or you could just quit fightin' it and getcha a Mustang! 8O :twisted:

[Anonymous]

Or you could just quit fightin' it and getcha a Mustang! 8O :twisted:

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....................................no.

[Anonymous]

I am going to 342 gears in my 77firebird. 272 now. I will be putting a newer trans with lock-up converter to help on the highway. It isnt quite overdrive but it will help.

If you go with a 200r4 or 700r4 make sure that the planetary gears are not aluminum. Many of them were and they wont take very much abuse.