I have a 80 Chevy stepside and i want to know if i should put a manual in it or leave the turbo 30 in it? I live in oregon and play in the mud alot but do go to browns camp 2 or 3 times a year. What should i do?  

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Tyler__820:
I have a 80 Chevy stepside and i want to know if i should put a manual in it or leave the turbo 30 in it? I live in oregon and play in the mud alot but do go to browns camp 2 or 3 times a year. What should i do?

I have a better suggestion. Scrap the THM350, install some much deeper axle gears and a 700R4. The R4 would give you a much deeper first gear and even with deeper axle gear a lower RPM cruise too.  

well i could but i have a 14 bolt rear and 44 front and 39.5 tsls and with the auto you cant get the pop you need in the deep mud like you can with a manual  

thats because of your gears, the 700 and say 5:38's will do more than the manual could ever dream of and still do 75 0n the hwy, with no burnt clutches  

well true but this is just a wheeler and not a daily driver and i belive the 700r4 is junk, they always blow the front seals. i personally have replaced 4 of them in friends vehicals!  

only the early models blew the seals, all it takes to fix that is drilling a relief hole. the 700 uses the same clutches as your 350, just more of them among other things  

still for bogging the auto has major advatages over a manual. with a 22-2500 rpm stall convertor the 350 will kick the manual.  

if i was to put a manual in should i go with the np 435 i think its called?  

Tyler__820:
well true but this is just a wheeler and not a daily driver and i belive the 700r4 is junk, they always blow the front seals. i personally have replaced 4 of them in friends vehicals!

And I will bet that even you one you replaced was fried (number one reason for failure and leaks) because they had lifts, big tires and stock gears and no aux cooling either. No better way to cook a 700R4 and this (heat) is its number one enemy. The 700R4 has a much deeper first gear than THM350/400 and launches a tall effective final ratio (tire/axle ratio combo) better and gives you a false sense of security and then tranny rides stall in higher gears and slow bakes. (many never even remotely consider impact of big tires and stock gears on trannies) R4's made 87 and later are good trannies. I have a 89 4x4 Burb with one that I bought new and it has over 180K miles on it now and I have not had 2 cents of trouble with it and it has towed and been across the country more than 1 dozen times too. It does have a small aux tranny cooler and factory HD towing package. I have also changed the fluid and filter in it every few years or so since I got it. Still works and shifts like new.

Also Like Mud stated, some 5.38's or so with a 700R4 and big tires would make a great mud combo but for some reason many are adverse to changing axle drive ratios and miss out on what that offers.  

acually they were in a van and stock trucks! and we just had the same problem that the early r4s have with our 89 burb towing an empty trialer. go figure on that.  

it was plugged  

any way! have you guys ever seen some one running boggers in the back and some tsls in the front?  

If they failed stock it was heat that killed them. If a 700R4 has a weakness, it is heat. They tended to put tall ratios behind them in stock vehicles which made tranny run hot at times especailly towing. It is kinda strange because they used to put 3.73 and 4.10 in stock truck and van without OD long ago and then when OD trannies came out rather than use the same of deeper axle ratio combined with a OD for a lower over all cruise RPM than before they installed even taller axle gears which could strain tranny a lot at times and force it to ride stall a lot and slow bake it. With a 700R4 you want to be above 2500 RPM's when pulling hard  because below that with converter unlocked you are riding the edge of stall and slow baking it. (riding stall makes a lot of heat)