power glide vs th 350

[gary gross]

why do so many racers use a power glide 2 speed trans over a 350 or 400? with a power glide when you hit second gear the motor runs at a lower rpm and it takes so long to get the revs up. i really think that a 350 or 400 would be a faster application. ??????????

[Smittro]

Less gears = less time spent between them.

You can also set a power glide up to shift differently.

We had an old 65' f85 Oldsmobile, if pushing it, it would'nt shift out of 1st till ~ 70-80 mph.

Even more if you don't mind breaking things..

Power glide is also a tough transmission.

[whitetrashbird]

^^ What he said. Also you get a little more consistency only having one shift.

Dan

[shepss217]

typically in a lower horsepower application i would reccomend a 3 speed transmission, most of your high horsepower cars will utilize a powerglide because they can take much more abuse than a th350 or 400

[Supershafts]

The PG has 2 gears and because of that it has less hp loss, as you add gears in an auto there is more loss, you can get back the loss of having 3 or more speeds but most people don't like to buy 4k and 5k transmissions and since the PG has less gears it has less loss to overcome, however it also has a bad 1st gear compared to the 3spd 350/400 of 2.5 where the pg can have a best of 2.10 i believe... the cars using them usually use them with a high tc and that helps the missing 1st gear, also with the big hp some people like the less violence of the 1st gear in the pg vs the 3 spd which when you have 1400 ft lbs it's easier to get that now 2700 down then it is to get 3600 down.

[Smittro]

I should also add that some Power Glides were equiped with what was called, "slip-slide".

It was basicly an early version of traction control, and was supposed to allow the trany to "slip" if you encounterd adverse conditions.

The 65' F85 we had, had the "Jetfire" 330 SBO and was equipt with the slip-slide feature.

As a result you could'nt brake stand it to spin tires for a burn out.