I don't mean to interrupt you guys. It seems I have asked a controversial question.
Ok. So back to my question....... What do you think of the AOD?
aod like any tranny will need some help in a daily driven ride that also is used for "wheelin" but its not to bad if you start with an 89 or later.
Agree with this, It is totally diffrent. But 800+ hp to a trans with tires that stick like glue on a trans break is not sissy stuff. Shit breaks fast and top dollar parts are a must. A 300hp Ranger with 37 doesnt require top dollar parts in a C4 to live a long life unless you are a total dumb ass with your stuff. I have been in many of automatics, Everything from A4LD's to front wheel drive ATX's and including Chevy and Chrysler trannys to. I used to be ATRA certifide if you even know what that means. Go ahead google becuse you dont know!!!
" I used to be ATRA certifide"
" if you even know what that means. Go ahead google becuse you dont know!!"
you make the atra cert look a bit less appealing to even respond like that with the details i put forth thus far.
what you need to do is call my wife and ask her what she thinks of "atra certified"
dont get me wrong, i do respect the ase/atra type certifications. and since you have held that title i have a completely new respect for yourself. the atra does not make you look qualified "to a guy like me" as much as its a protection for the general customer to hold that perception of your certified capacity against you if there is an issue. to a guy like me thats putting your balls on the line and i must respect that....so i hope you read this as its from a position of respect knowing exactly how difficult it is to do tranny work as i do build transmissions to this day, and i am sure you get brotherinlawed into this too...(i avoid it but you know how that goes) i am limited in my capacity also as i specialize in just a few units. i work from home or literally in the field...trail...or side of the hiway. on my back.
the wife on the otherhand would probably tell you the atra certification is a license to steal... i have nearly 20000 in atra certified transmissions in this very truck in my siggy since i bought it in 92.
many times two in less then a year sometimes 3.
the reason for this, i drove 50-80 k a year just to get to work, and i like to "wheel".....
so my experience is what i consider a daily driven wheeler.
pretty simple. and is what the op intends to do with his personal info under the avatar and many others do and successfully so with the c5,c4,c6, units as well.
hell the very reason i bought my truck was because it had a full warranty fresh build trans by a certified shop.
and i used the warranty the very day i intended to take the truck on its first 4 wheelin mission to rip the running boards off of it (because running boards are gay, and yet i had a mullet...irony anyone??)..and that was the 5th day i owned it...but when i got home from work to get ready and was backing up to turn around....bang...no reverse. what resulted was nearly two months of shipping the thing back and forth before i got the right trans back..yes they sent me a wrong trans...iirc as in not an a4ld twice..then an a4ld that was not mine, and finally i got my marked case back.
thats right my first two payments, my truck sat at my dads shop..(also certified)...and i never even beat on the fully certified and warrantied trans yet...
so i lifted it and did all the joints and bearings and engine gaskets while i waited...not really worried about the original issue as the truck failed on its way back from a tenn hunting trip on the original owner. when it was brand new it sank to the bottom of houghton lake so i figured that had something to do with it failing at 60xxx-k...so really i wasnt concerned and happy to have it. just bad luck on the reverse i figured..shit happens
anyway. with so much money going out in transmissions even after the v8 swap which was largely justified to the wife because of the trans issues
...i had to do something. especially after destroying a 600 hp rated c4'....the bad thing here you need to remember my truck was still a baby then..and what was considered hard core was merely a two track compared to what i would do later..and even worse i was doing that with 33 inch tires.
the consensus amongst the atra geniuses was the miles i was driving with the converter used to rate 600 hp out of the c4 which was ridiculous to use with the cam i had combined with the wheelin was a bad combination. i also need to note the quickest 1/4 mile time ever with the truck was with that setup and was 14.20. the failures with the c4's were various and ranged from busted cases totally failed to small cracks causing bleed issues internally not just smoked forwards and popped reverse struts etc.....
c6 was the best solution. but i was getting killed on the rpm at 90 mph still. so built aod it was.
after killing those too i then finally grasped some strings of sanity and learned properly how to build transmissions...i had been in the c4 many times to get them going...(no feat there i know) and 727 in my cuda and challenger, and had some experience, but the a4ld was a pia and the aod i guessed to be worse. it was and wasnt at the same time i found once i got into it... identifying the REAL issues was a REAL challenge and simply putting drag race parts in in fact turned out not always the solution...obviously in a 4x4 daily driver, a pure drag manual shift is a pia in itself and defeats the purpose of the auto..
the thing is, the truck and its challenges only grew from there, and i would have to get even more retarded with it at times...and my failure rates dramatically decreased. hey....plain and simple fail is inevitable. i am simply asking tooooo much of a c4, and too much from a stockish aod even with an a servo in my configuration. back in the 2.9 v6 days the top builder of my a4ld was awesome, and when i was drunken tard flogging it i did not make him warranty the unit...i paid for it to be built. once they knew my capacity for certain it was a non issue to bench them. it came to the point i had one on the floor and one in the truck waiting to get sent out...post v6 days we had been close to fist fights over the last c4 and first aod's though...as he wondered why i bothered to take the nitrous off of the truck before he looked at it cause it was impossible for my "little motor" and 33-35 in tires to break it.....i never had nitrous
..first time i tried it i nearly burnt the truck to the ground.....and he knew he was going to the hospital if he actually crossed the line, you will have to trust me there. so eventually he relented...and now knows the limits of the c4 too.
to any making it through this, i am obviously being slightly sarcastic on the 800 hp point...not overly so either, just pointing out a 800 hp capacity c4 isnt the best choice for a application as listed and questioned here.
sure a c4 can be built to handle some abuse, but not nearly as well as an aod because your stuck with shitty gearing to get all around best capacity as well. its all in the intent of use.
3500-4500 pound trail buggy and c4 can get on fine with 350-400 hp 5xx gears and dual cases etc with 40 in tire.....aod or c6 at that power level is likely a waste of money, space, power and adding unnecessary heat.
3-400 hp 4500 pound truck on 37's for daily driving and wheeling is not a place for a c4 unless your willing to compromise or further invest in the gearing. the transmission choice is a big one and depends on many factors.
you dont put 60's in to run 30 inch tires. so asking the question of what trannies have to do with axles is even more ignorant in my eyes then stating 800 hp in the drag race world being sissyshit in the comparative drawn.
but i am wrong
allot.
a daily driver c4 that runs from this range is hard to do.
whats your specs for that??
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