In your opinion / personal experiences which would you recommend for a mostly street driven car with a th400 and 10'' 3500 stall? What brand would you also recommend,if there is one better than the other; TCI,B&M,Hipster,TurboAction,Hughes? Also how much more stress would a transbrake put on a transmission than just a manual valvebody? From what i've read a transbrake valvebody is like the manual valvebody until you engage the brake, they are both manually shifted without any automatic features. Thanks for any and all suggestions.
Apples and Oranges I would have to say, IMHO, neither is really "better". It really depends on what the intended use of the car is. I'd say for a street car that sees some drag duty, if you had to have one or the other, go with the manual valve body. Drag car that sees some street time, and you have the rest of the driveline to take the abuse, go with the transbrake. The main difference in the two is that a transbrake applies both forward and reverse bands at once, effectively locking the transmission and allowing the converter to stall against the transmission without putting any preload or stress on the driveshaft, springs, tires, front suspension, etc. When the 'brake is released, it shocks the rest of the suspension etc. very like a clutch car. It's harder on the trans because there is so much extra heat generated. The manual valvebody simply eliminates the automatic shift functions. In other words, you put the selector in 1, it's in first gear, regardless of RPM or road speed. Put it in 2, same thing but in second gear. D or 3 is third, etc. You'll have to shift up and down through the gears manually as you are driving on the street, just like with a stick shift car. You won't want to try taking off in 3rd gear too often. Not only slow, but way hard on the trans.
I was under the impression that if you had a transbrake that you had to have a manual valve body.. is there a choice?
Not sure if it's an either/or of if you can have auto shifting with a transbrake. Seems like the only ones I remember seeing with a brake were also manual valvebodys. o No:
