[Bracewell]

I just had a 355 s.b.c. built putting out about 380 horsepower est., with a rebuilt 350 turbo with a 2200 stall. Had a guy do the tranny that was very respected. The problem is that when I floor the gas and shift @ 4,000, it won't actually shift until about 5,100. It does it going from 1 to 2, and 2 to 3. When it shifts it shifts hard. I was scared to to shift at a higher rpm because i did not wont to hurt my motor because of the delay. Taking it to the guy who built the tranny wed.. Any suggestions? Thanks Lee

[XNTRCI-T]

Unless you went to a full manual valve body, it's still going to shift when the modulator and governor tell it to.

[Bracewell]

I thought that if you are manually shifting, it would shift when ever you shifted.

[XNTRCI-T]

No sir. If you want absolute control over your shifts, you need to have the tranny set up for that. This is referred to as "full manual," and it requires a modified valve body. If you didn't specify that with your tranny guy, then you don't have one.

If this is a street-driven car, you probably don't want a full manual, unless you like stirring your own, like a stick. For instance, if you've shifted to third and you're cruising along and you come to a stoplight and you forget to downshift, you will leave the light in third.

You can adjust the shift points in the TH350 by getting an adjustable modulator and messing with the governor springs and weights. Not something the casual mechanic would want to do.

[XNTRCI-T]

A little more explanation. With a stock TH350 using manual shifting, you can keep it in a lower gear than it wants to be in, but you can't force it to shift to a higher gear. The shifts are controlled by a combination of shifter selection, transmission governor speed, and vacuum signal from the intake manifold sent to the modulator on the tranny.