keyman Posted June 5, 2010 Report Share Posted June 5, 2010 Trying to decide whether to go with Powerglide or standard tranny in a sportmod. PG cost more but less maintenance, standard probably doesnt drag as much? Saw a race at I37 the guy led every lap but the last one when his clutch gave up! Any thoughts on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poorboy Posted June 5, 2010 Report Share Posted June 5, 2010 Price is about the same if you buy the lightweight clutch that alot of the fast guys are using. Probably an equal mix of winners using both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwmbishop Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 We had some good experience with the PG setup. That is after our learning curve. First issue arouse when it kept trying to shift into D when the throttle was lifted at the end of the straight. As there was no D (gear set removed) it would free wheel into the apex - not good at all. After re adjusting the linkages to make sure the shifter was getting all the way down to low (which it wasn't) it worked okay - actually the transition from accel to deccel was much softer than in a standard so the car did not want to snap lose when he lifted more abruptly than usual. The second issue was the bypass - direct input with no torque converter meant a hose ran through the cockpit with a valve to open to bypass the pump pressures. open valve, shift from park to low and feather valve shut to go. No one told the driver to make this as short an operation as possible and he sat there for the full 5 minute driver intros with the valve open and the engine running 1200 - 1600 rpm. When he finally closed the valve the starvation damage was just too much - the trans blew up six laps in. We finally went back to a standard after three years - the last issue we had was losing an oil pump drive belt. The light came on, the driver hit the kill - but even after opening the bypass and pushing into nuetral (which is no easy task in itself) the trans still kept the engine turning and drug it around all the way thru the corner and on down the straight. Engine damage was definately increased in that scenario and we just saw no real benefits that outweighed using a standard. Also at that time we went to 6.50 all in the rear and the m22 in high gave us a better ratio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keyman Posted June 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 Thanks for the info, thats good stuff to know. the problem seems to be with the direct drive and since smods have to run a torque converter I wouldn't have those issues? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwmbishop Posted June 7, 2010 Report Share Posted June 7, 2010 The problems would be somewhat reduced. Even with a torque converter you will still see the trans drag the engine over. Also with a TC expect at least a 250-300 rpm increase for stall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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