BSeery

I currently have a 700R4 in my 1980, but it's never really worked right. Shift points wrong, not enough pressure to prevent slipping, kicking in and out of lockup, all sorts of problems.
I want to buy a 700R4 built by someone who knows what they are doing. Sure, lots of local shops say they know whats going on, but I don't trust them any farther than I can throw a transmission.
I looked at Hughes, TCI, and a few others and their prices are sky high.
I looked at Bow Tie Overdrives and was really impressed with the information on their web site. I even bought at TV-Made-Ez kit from them to hopefully correct the problem I have with the current transmission.

I wanted to hear from those that have bought transmissions from them and get your opinion on the product and their service. I am doing the swap myself, and can't see where it will be that hard to do since I already have a 700R4 in there now. I am looking at their level 2 trans and a 2400 RPM stall lockup converter.

Let me know what you think.

Double Aught

Good product, zero after-sale help. You have to do everything their intructions say. If you deviate one iota, they will not warrenty the trans. My shop got an earful of attitude when the crossmember they sent with the unit didn't fit. Needless to say, I would look elsewhere for an OD trans. Just my two cents.

MEGALADON

:mad My crossmember did not fit either, when i called then they
pretty much said the problem was on my side. Well lets see, the car is
a one owner 81 with 49220 miles, licence only 4 times since new, and never
wrecked. :thumbs: So I don't see how the car was the problem :confused:
after a few hours of working on it, I made it fit. I made the original T-V
cable work with mod's to the cable mount. :cool:

BSeery

So, don't buy the crossmember-- no problem. I have one already, but may get a better (lighter) one built locally.

How are the transmissions ??

page62

Mine is excellent. It had a problem with leakage when I got it, but a reseal job fixed that. Still cheaper than anyone else at the end of the day!

MEGALADON

their crossmembers are kick butt, and very light. :thumbs:
Maybe not all are misshaped, or bad bolt hole pattens,
the bolt hole pattern was my problem :eek: . If I had to buy another
one I would. never heard of any problems with thier tran's :thumbs:
the crossmember allows you to run duals the correct way.
And is alot more easy to put a X-PIPE in it's place,

Double Aught

I had no prob with the trans. It worked perfectly. Again, make sure you install it per their specific directions or no warranty.

BSeery

Anything in their install really out of the ordinary? I know you have to do a line pressure check and tv cable check with them on the phone. Besides that, is there any other big hoops to jump through to get warranty ?

Double Aught

None that I can remember, but they are **** when it comes to the install. They make it very clear in the intructions they send with the unit, that unless you do everything the way they specified, warranty will be voided. It has been three years since I had the work done and the car is no longer with me. If I can remember, you need to double or triple check line pressure and set up the torque converter switch a certain way and a few other things. When my shop called them on the non-fit crossmember, first they insisted the shop installed it wrong and after many, many phone calls and waiting on hold, my shop convinced them the crossmember didn't work. Part of the reason BTO acknowledge the defective part was because they had a 76 come into their shop and it had the same fitment probs. Only after that, did they ship out another part. Anyhoo, after all was said and done, I won't be using them anymore in the future. Lots of folks here have bought thier trannies from BTO and are happy. It just wasn't as pleasant an experience for me.


[Modified by Double Aught, 8:30 PM 4/29/2004]

neverendingproject

i have no personal experience with them. since i have had the C4 much longer than the C3 i have naturally spent more time on the C4 board. i can only tell you what i have seen over there.with that said,i haven't seen a bowtie overdrive make it in anything better than a low 12 sec. car. the strongest 700r4's i have seen were built by pro torque. there a couple guys over there with high 10 low 11 sec. cars that have a couple seasons on them with no failures. i think they are 60'ing 1.6-1.7. when i need a trans, im definately going with them.

442olds

Love the transmission but getting it to the point its at now was a long journy.

They forgot to put in the reluctor wheel for the electornic speedo. Had to remoeve the tailshaft and beat that on. The TV made easy kit doesn't allow for any standard holley throttle cable, had to bend up one from Jegs to work around the tv plate. The setup instructions could have been edited down to about 5 pages after you delete all the paragraphs in a row which state the same thing over and over and over again. They could have put more useful info on setting up the trans in the instructions. Like the idle pressure connected should only be 5 psi higher than the disconnected tv pressure. Why I had to wait till phone call number two for this I don't know. The last problem I had was that the govenor was a pos. For some reason the govenor they stuck in my trans looked really old and well used. They sent me a new one free of charge and it shifts like a dream now. My tech guy was very nice, and helpful, but didn't like the fact that I had run an extrenal transmission cooler rather than through the radiator. But hey my aluminum budget radiator didn't come with that option.

But I still got the warantee to activate almost a year after purchase. Granted I didn't install it till about 8 months after purchase. They had a christmas deal going on so I bought it a little earlier than planned.

BSeery

I too had problems with the TV made EZ and the Holley throttle linkage. I called to bitch and they said they were re-developing the system then to add a throttle linkage. Their website shows one now. I just welded an adjustable cable holder right to the top of the TV cable bracket. Only problem is that I have to run a spacer between the carb and air cleaner or the bottom of the cleaner hits the cable bracket. I will look at their new one to see if it's better, or if I just want to re-engineer my bracket again.

Well, sounds like the customer service is a pain in the rear, but the transmission is a good product. I got my tax money back and will be calling them soon to order.

UKPaul

Bryan,
I fitted one of their 200's in my '81. Love it. No after sales service? They insisted on calling me (transatlantic) to discuss line pressures & answer some questions. I don't know of any other company that calls it's customers at it's own expense to answer dumb questions (some companies don't even reply to emails enquiring about buying their products).
The instructions are lengthy, but they have to be as Bowtie don't know if a trans expert or an idiot is fitting it. Not knowing about the pressure difference was slightly annoying for me as well, but look at it from their point of view: If the readings somebody gets are correct without them knowing what they should be, then the installation has been done correctly and the warrantee can be safely given.
The x-member (which WILL be needed for anybody fitting a 200 into an '81 (or '80??) did have some "issues". The paint was crap, but a visit to my friendly powdercoater sorted that. The holes for the bolts needed to be elongated slightly before they'd line up (no problem, a simple job with a file), but there was another hassle that I hope they've sorted by now. The tabs/ears that line up with the small tabs on the chassis (where a bolt passes through horizontally) need some sort of spacer between them to prevent them collapsing as the nut & bolt are tightened. No problem for me as I've got a lathe so could make up 2 spacers, but if I didn't then it would have been a PITA (or would have used about 200 washers :lol: ). The x-member is well made, decent thickness tubular construction & allows true duals to be ftted easily. It's also lighter than the stock one, but does that matter after fitting a heavier tranny?! After measuring everything (thanks to Dallanex for his help) the x-member positions the tranny so that the driveshaft is in eactly the same position as it was with the stock Th350.
The transmission itself has performed faultlessly, it doesn't leak (needed to tighten up the drain plug fitting in the pan slightly) & fitting it was simple, even though I've never worked on an auto or those strange converter things before (I've always had stick shifts). The only ****le is that you need to stick it in "3" when driving around town as it will run in OD if given 1/2 a chance.
For fitting I highly recommend getting their pressure guage as they need to know pressures for the warrantee. It'll also be useful later if you ever alter the TV cable adjustment for whatever reason. A fluid temp guage is also worth getting (it's quite telling) & will lead on to buying a SMALL external cooler (it's easy to overcool the fluid).
Even though the instructions are verbose (like this post is getting :) ), they are missing one important thing. I've said this b4, but if it saves somebody the hours & hours of frustration, the flayed forearm skin, the black & blue knuckles & the dried blood all over the top of that nice clean tranny case, then it's worth saying again! If you fit the tranny without the dipstick/filler tube in place then fit the tube to the tranny beforehand & bend the mounting tab so that the hole lines up with the hole for its mounting bolt. Not doing this simple job can lead to high alcohol consumption, near insanity & bouts of extreme violence against inanimate objects.
:cheers:

6318

Ok gurus...I gotta question for ya (sorry...not tryin ta hijack the thread, promise!)...
I recently installed my 200R4 and it seems to be working well (now that I've figured out about driving in 3!)...but when I drive in 3 and accel from stop at WOT or close to it I get a bog at about 3K that I can't get rid of despite throttle cable adjustment...it works fine if I shift 1-->2-->3 on my own...any ideas (the instructions don't have much 'tweaking' advice)?

BSeery

Paul, I will have to put a LARGE external cooler as our summer time temps are regularly over 40 (celsius) and sometimes even approach 50!

Then again, I don't drive the darn thing in summer anyway.

UKPaul

Bryan,
After my initial run (part of the Bowtie tests) I saw the temps were climbing way above what they should have been when in any gear other than OD. It climbed so high at one point that I pulled over & shut it down to cool off! The local shop sells 2 small B&M coolers so I got the larger of the 2 (which is still fairly small compared to some I've seen) & the cooling effect is dramatic. It's now difficult to get it up to the ideal temp of 150 (almost impossible when in OD with the converter locked) & I drive the 1st few miles in "3" to get it to warm up.
In the summer we had a day of record breaking temps (100F (38C?) was recorded at Heathrow which isn't far from me) so I took the Vette out for heat "testing" ;) After valiant attempts at getting the fluid up to 150 degrees it didn't seem much warmer than with normal running (at 70 - 75deg ambient). The only differences were that the coolant was nearly 200 (something I noticed after fitting the tranny cooler is that the coolant temps now stay around the stat rating of 180 deg - I guess the hot fluid was heating up the coolant in the rad), the Dynomax ceramic coated headers didn't bake the engine bay (or me) so the ceramic coating really does help, and the fuel tank level had dropped a lot! :D
As rate of cooling is partly a function of temp difference, I guess that running my Vette in your ambients might result in the fluid reaching the ideal temp regularly (another 20F warmer and it'd be perfect when in OD). So a large cooler might give you the same problem I've got. It's got to the point where I've got some thin stainless sheet that I'm going to use to make a shield to place in front of the cooler. With a bit of experimenting I should be able to get the ideal size to keep temps about right.
I'd suggest, from experience, that you definately run a temp guage (easy to wire up, not so easy to find somewhere to mount it) & err on being conservative when choosing a cooler. If you don't run the fluid through the rad then a larger cooler may well be needed, but I like the idea of the coolant heating up the trans fluid from cold. I also like having coolant temps that stay around 180F & not climbing to 240 after cruising at 4000rpms :)
:cheers: