I have a th350 with a 2300 stall, but the rear gear is somthing like a 2.73 or 3.08...pretty high....Cruising around town I want to stay in my power band which starts about 2000 rpms....but is strongest around 3100...thats when it starts to pull real hard...engine likes to rev..its a 327 T-ram.

Does it build excess heat in the tranny to drive with the tranny in 2nd gear?...I have a tranny cooler...I just cant afford to rebuild a tranny right now and dont have enough rear gear to keep my rpms where I want them.

Please
-Shred

While riding in my Cadillac,

Much to my surprise.

A little Nash-Rambler right behind.

'Bout one half my size.



CHORUS:

The guy must have wanted to pass me

up As he kept on blowing his 

horn.

I'll show him that a Cadillac is

not a car to scorn.  

Beep Beep! Beep Beep!  

His horn went Beep Beep Beep!  



I put my foot down to the floor,

To give the guy the shake. 

But the little Nash-Rambler stayed 

right behind,

He still had on his brake. 



CHORUS 



I shifted into passing gear,

And it became a race.  

For a Rambler to beat a Caddy, 

Would be a big disgrace.



CHORUS 





Now we're going a hundred and  

twenty,  

As fast as I can go.

The little Nash Rambler pulled up  

beside just like we're going slow.

The fellow rolls down his  

window,  

And yells for me to hear,  

Hey buddy how can I get this car

Out of second gear!

Yes the high stall converter and running in 2nd gear all contribute to make heat. Do you have enough cooling, you'd have to put a thermocouple and temp gauge to find out, tranny oil of 180-200 is safe.

The hard part on an automatic is down shifting, the elements engaged coming down put a lot of load into the tranny and hasten failures. Starting in low and upshifting manually is not so severe on its guts.

You really should change the rear axle to 3.5 or lower to take advantage of the power profile. A manual gear box is a lot happier behind a high winding engine driven on the street. No matter what you do to an automatic when driven behind a hot engine on the street, it becomes an upkeep problem.

Bogie

As long as you have a good trans cooler (separate from radiator) and in front of radiator to catch as much cool air as posible you should have no problems. You will build heat and may cause a problem if you're pulling a load at an rpm below the converter lock up point. Other than that you can even drive on the freeway in second if you wanted to.

I ran my 454 with a T400 and 3.08 gears around town with a 3000 stall converter for a long time and it never had a problem. I do run a cooling fan on the trans cooler though. 

you kids and your rap music!!!!

Thanks
-Shred

What can I say!  

Sammy Hagar,   I can't drive 55

................When I drive that slow, you know it's hard to steer.
And I can't get my car out of second gear.
What used to take two hours now takes all day.
Huh - It took me 16 hours to get to L.A.!

If you havent seen it yet, the video for I cant drive 55 is fairly hilarious. -James  

One of my favorites back when 55 was the law of the land.

Bogie

From December  1995 to May 1999 Montana's daytime automobile speed limits were "Reasonable and Prudent"according to interpretation by Highway Patrol officers.

Boy wouldn't that have been fun! I never made it up there during those days!

I kind of drive like that now...just haven't been caught yet!

Even if you got a ticket for driving faster than "Reasonable and Prudent" what you got was an Ecology fine of 5 dollars.

Bogie