Thread: Building a 700r4

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too hold up behind a big block! any good write ups on this?

bump! anyone?

You will definately need the Torque Drive Kit and the upgraded hard parts, check out Transmission Head, Mad Dog or Bowtie Overdrive Transmissions. Their sites have a bunches of information. I rebuilt my 700 before all the upgraded parts came out. If I had it to do agian I would just buy one. It was a great learning experience, but now I will have to spend more money to step up to the next level i.e. TOrque Drive, billet servos, better frictions, kolene steels, also the Beast sun shell. When I built mine I spent $750 with a new 2200 stall converter. If I was to buy it outright it would of cost about $1000at that time. The trans I need now is only about $1500. The Torque Drive Kit brings the torque carrying ability up to at least 600lbft. Pretty impressive.

Keith...

Check out Monster Motorsports in Florida. Their prices seem to be fair around $1400 for a beefed up 700R4 WITH conversion to hydraulic lockup in OD which eliminates the need for any electric switch for lockup.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

.....not trying to be overly negitive and cause a problem but I blew up a 700R4 years ago that was behind a small block w/ 499 Ft. Lbs Tq. & 438 HP {same motor that's going in my '32 but with a little bit bigger cam}. I'm now going w/ a turbo 400.... Anyway the 700R4 was in a 2800 Lb Camaro w/ a 2400 stall. The trans was professionally built & was supposedly able to handle this much HP but it just didn't.... Again, not trying to bum anyone out but I did have problems with mine & it wasn't behind a big block either. I for one would not use a 700 R4 unless it was in a low HP application... Bill

Aren't all TH400 and TH350 valve bodies steel and all 700R4 valve bodies aluminum?

I agree with billsbird. This is exactly why I use a Turbo 350 in my SBC. I only wanted to build one transmission. Not blow 2 up before I got a good one then have that one be on edge as it is.
I asked everyone I could about the 700r4 and almost everyone said they had wrecked at least one before it they got it more or less right.

If it is under 400 hp and light car 3500 or so it will work ok if you get it from one of the above suppliers.

This comes up all the time. You can build/buy a 700/R4 that will take 600HP. I have NO qualms about using them. The problem comes when you don't set the TV correctly, have adequate cooling AND have a good lockup system.

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

This comes up all the time. You can build/buy a 700/R4 that will take 600HP. I have NO qualms about using them. The problem comes when you don't set the TV correctly, have adequate cooling AND have a good lockup system.

....yep, this could have been the case with mine. Even though it was professionally installed buy someone who SHOULD have known how to do it, the TV could have been set wrong.... The cooling was adequate as it was a good sized cooler. I don't remember exactly as far as the lockup system cause it was a long time ago but it cost over $2 G's (including converter}. Art Carr built it back in the early 90's, before he sold the business to someone else. He had a good reputation, referred to me by Kenny Duttwieller.... anyway, so yes may be my 700R4 was built to handle my HP but it was just installed wrong.....

thanks guys,,, i thought these could be built up like the 200r4.. too take like 1200hp.

http://www.transmissionhead.com/
Check these guys out!

Gearhead. Check out the classifieds, I have a valve body you might want.

Jud