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Overdrive For Classic Cars and Muscle Cars Pro and Con Episode 180 Autorestomod



Should you Add Overdrive to your Classsic Car or Muscle Car Vinnie and Jeff discuss the pros and cons of Overdrive for classic and muscle cars. Home page: …
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32 Replies to “Overdrive For Classic Cars and Muscle Cars Pro and Con Episode 180 Autorestomod”

  2. God it's like listening to a couple of schoolgirls! It's not about dollars per mile, otherwise you wouldn't have built a big block hot rod in the face place. It's just the cool factor of having modern technology in an old steel. And now that the rodders are getting older and driving long distances with the wife, It's about comfort too.

  3. Great content, I like to hear a rational debate of the options. I have a 71 Mach1 with a 351C, c6 and a Gear venders that I am very happy with, great acceleration and good on the highway. I have a 71 F100 with a 351W, c6 and it also great for hauling. Both have 9 inch rears . It is easy to go overboard on mods but sometimes a little change will be just fine. You guys talked about stuff being bulletproof, the 9 inch doesn't get much love lately but it is known for being very durable and I have a couple in reserve just in case, new tech is not always better in a restomod.

  4. Overdrive can be really handy in early cars that need another gear. I'm putting a ruckstell underdrive rear end on my 26 model T coupe for hill climbing. However, I'd love to put a warford overdrive transmission behind the T transmission too. Imo, having extra gears never hurts.

  5. If the car never sees a highway then an overdrive trans might not make sense. But anyone who drives their car on the regular then an od trans makes a lot of sense. Some issues are that with the 700r4 it’s a very wide ratio trans as is a ford aod, now a 200r4 is essentially a close ratio 700r4. With ford I don’t know if they have an auto equivalent of the 200r4. As far as manual transmissions go the T5’s are everywhere but they break easily the T56 is a great trans but even 26 year old units still go for $1000. And of course their are the aftermarket transmissions. Overdrive transmissions are great you just have to be prepared to pay.

  7. Fuel injection has very little to do with highway mileage. Any carburetor can be jetted correctly to get exactly the same mileage on the highway. The advantage that fuel injection has over carburetors is in part-throttle performance and efficiency.

  8. OK guys, sorry I missed the first name of the mustache man, but any mechanic and mechanical engineer will tell you that rpm's kill engines. Now if you have a 454 ci motor, in any shape or format sitting in front of a 4.11 , or even a 3.73 ratio, you're not out to win mpg wars, your out for the E.T. wars or top sustainable speeds wars. No hotrodder, puts a M.O.D., OR AOD Trans in their hot rod for fuel economy or track time and speed improvement. They only put OD Trannys to help keep the engine from having to stay in the power band range of the engine and sort if destress, the engine a bit while traveling for an extended period of time. Just cause you have a Daytona engine, doesn't mean that it has to run at 6000rpm all the time. If you don't require 100% horsepower output 100% of the time, why not back off a bit and let the engine relax a little…

  13. my 70 maverick turns 2800rpm at 70mph. i went with 275/60 tires on rear. now i turn 2200rpms at 75mph. sometimes its cheaper to go taller tire when trying to lower the rpm. i did it for looks anyway so i got lucky.

  14. Friend has a '60 Chevy Apache with the 235 Cu In inline 6. Granny gear 4-speed, with a 3.55 rear. He wants to take it from California to Tennessee, but at lower revs. Looked at all the transmission options…$$$. Decided to go with a 3.08 rear. The torquey Stovebolt can pull that gear in this light truck.

  16. I really depends on how the car is going to be used and how much highway driving you plan to do. I'm running a th400 with 3.36 rear gears and at 3,000 rpms I'm @ 70mph but my car is 95% city car. I rarely go on the highway and if I do its usually not that long. So it would be a waste of $$$ for me to convert to a overdrive transmission.

  18. 65 Mustang fastback fast EFI 4speed I don't remember what the rear gears are somewhere in the 300 ish I easily get 25 miles to gallon and I drive it every day

  19. Great discussion but… For comparison,I just drove my 05 Silverado crewcab 4×4 from Quitman GA to Joplin Missouri to pickup a 66 Caprice(tank). On the way running about 72, I was turning 2000 rpm. On the way back, pulling the car on a Uhaul trailer,2000 rpm. OD locked out I was running 55-60. Also used 2x the gas coming back. All this to show about a 28% reduction in mileage! For a driver, the math makes sense! Trailer queen? Not so much. My 2 cents.

  21. Really how much do the OEM spend on reducing NVH millions. Jeff you went to the trouble to put in crossover to reduce cabin noise. At lest as much because it was driving you crazy as to make it a better camera chase care.

  23. So have you ever driven non stop for 1300 miles in a car that has too steep a gear at 55-75 mph and a cherry bomb muffler
    The migraine was awful
    I have a 2000 SS w/t56 it drops 1500 rpm from 4th and 6th stock 3.42 gears
    Ps
    I lost 4 mpg when the Libertarded leaders in my state put 10% alcohol in the gas
    How about a discussion on that

  24. if it were my chevelle, and the budget would allow it, i would keep the th 400 and add a gearvendors overdrive…the combination is much stronger than the 700 r 4 and doesn't require the throttle position sensor…

  25. I have a stock 350 with 4.11 in the back. Above 55 mph the engine is turning over 2500 rpm. Running the engine at those RPMs for lets say a 1 hour drive to the nearbye town is a lot of work. The interstate has a 70 mph limit that I'd be afraid to run for over an hour. I'm adding an overdrive because I retain the fun low end stop light to stop light with my 4.11 but save the engine on the long road trips. It's not about gas money as Vinny jokes, who cares about gas on these old cars?

  26. my dream box would be a toploader with a 0.5 fifth gear , with 4,11s u'll be spinning aprox 3500rpm at 70mph in 4th but slide into 5th and it'll drop to around 2000rpm for cruzing . i hate spinning a big engine for long periods , use the torque :}

  27. IMO – Putting an overdrive (and/or a nice stereo) in a classic muscle car defeats the purpose of the classic car experience. If you want the comfort of a new car but with the grunt of a classic, then just buy a new generation Mustang, Camaro or Challenger. But, hey… I'm a purist.  ( My `68 Torino restoration: http://www.mechanknuckle.com )

  28. Funny thing is I got a built up Pontiac 400 and I was debating on keeping the TH400 or going with a 700R4. I decided to keep the TH400 and just go with 3.42:1 gears in the rear end.

  29. Personally I would get rid of the auto and go 5 speed because they are lighter /cheaper easy to maintain and more fun to drive ,if you want good mileage you have to change the diff ratio to go with the gear ratio in your chosen box 4.11 are great for racing but bugger all else have fun

  30. i have a suggestion for you guys: it would be sooo cool if you'd do a series like everything you need to know about cars. from a practical point of view. e.g explaining gear ratios etc. as far as i know there is nothing like that on youtube.

  31. I have built 2 cars with O.D. trans and have found that both have benefited from them. the 1st is a 1950 Chevy with a built inline 235 6cyl( about 250 hp ) a world class  T5 5 speed and 3.55 gear. it runs down the road at 2100 rpm at 70 mph and gets about 20 mpg. the 2nd is an s-10 with a 383 cid small block at about 400 hp a 700R4 and a 3.73 8.8 ford rear end. it also runs down the road at about 2100 rmp at 70 mph. the best advantage with the 700 r4 is the lockup converter. at hwy speeds it get the motor out the "droneing" rpm range (flowmaster40 mufflers) and the lower 1st gears gets this truck haul'in real quick. (p.s. the 50 Chevy has no mufflers and true duel exhaust all the way to the back and really barks ). I am a big believer in  O.D. tran's not just from the rpm and fuel standings but for the all around good drivability of them. We had the 700R4 rebuilt with the "good stuff" and a 2500 stall converter for about 850.00 at a local shop and it is supposed to be good for about 900 hp. Lets face it, we are building these cars for "us" , to our preferences, not  the next guys ideas. so to each his own. love the show and will look forward to the next one. 

  32. I liked the VS thing great idea. great implementation!!! 
    My 2 cents are that its about vehicle purpose.  I think that the 5 speed auto adds comfort to the ride where any standards add thrill.  The question is what is the build for?  Sport?
    Standard.  Cruising? Auto…..  Everything else is conjecture and anecdotal.

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