I am finally going to do it. The c4 is tired and I want to be able to drive this thing more often and farther. I have a 347 with Trick Flow heads and a healthy cam, and 3.89 gears in the rear. Would an AOD hold up very well behind this combo even with the occasional 100 hit of nitrous? The tranny I am getting already has the hardened input shaft and nickel plated gears. I think I should put an A-servo in it for firmer shifts. Any advice on this would be appreciated. Also on the install, who makes a bolt in crossmember for this? Is there some kind of bracket made so I can hook up the TV cable to an edelbrock carb? And what about the shifter, can I use my factory floor shifter on the Maverick or should I get a shifter out of a stang? Thanks for any advice.
Lentech Automatics Len Bertrand can answer most of your questions on this AOD conversion! Send him a sitemail or give Len a call at the shop 613-838-5390 Richard
Ryan; Windsor-Fox (www.windsorfox.com) has a complete kit to fit an AOD into our cars. Look them up and give them a call. I think the entire kit is about $250, and it includes the throttle pressure cable and brackets, and crossmember. Good luck, let us know.
The stock AOD might not hold up that long under that power level. Modified AOD's will, depending on the mod level. No one makes a crossmember for our rigs. I already tried Fox and other joints. We would have to fab our own or move the factory mount 2.5-4.5" back. Lokar has a bracket for Holley's and probably Edelbrock's too. Don't know about the stock floor shifter. B&M has a kit to fit onto their cable operated shifters to work with the AOD. Check out Lentech trannies based in Canada. His monter Maverick is cutting into the 9's with a brutally built AOD. I considered this swap this year, but gave up when I found out all that needed to be done.
Its really not that bad. If you can weld, you can make a crossmember, I modified my linkage (column shifter) a bit and it worked great until I got headers. Lokar cable is not that complicated, but I wish I had a way to check the fluid pressure, haven't gotten that yet.
UOTE=74merc]Its really not that bad. If you can weld, you can make a crossmember, I modified my linkage (column shifter) a bit and it worked great until I got headers. Lokar cable is not that complicated, but I wish I had a way to check the fluid pressure, haven't gotten that yet.[/QUOTE] I swapped an AOD into my F100 and used the Lokar kit. It worked good except I could'nt use their directions and make it work as far as the pressure is concerned. If I set it up using the pressure method in their directions the tranny would'nt pull me out the driveway. I had to use the tighten up the cable until it's not too tight and not too loose method. If second gear ever feels sloppy stop as it's too loose. I have about 15,000 miles on mine and so far so good. You have to be real carful about the TV pressure on these trannies. Too little pressure and it'll burn up in a block clint
Having had a 347 c.i. w/ AOD (and a 175 shot), I was advised by local hot-rodders to upgrade as they said a stock AOD would definetly NOT hold up to the H.P.'s. I'd heard many horror stories. FWIW, I spent nearly $2K on my 'trick' tranny/converter/shifter setup in a 1990 Mustang Vert. Of course all the work was hired out and the cost didn't include R&Ring the tranny. The tranny took well over 100 Nitrous launches and never gave me a problem. One reason being that my mechanic installed a toggle switch for Overdrive. In order to go into O.D. I had to flip a switch - this did two things - 1) Allowed the car to go into O.D., but more importantly, 2) it turned OFF the nitrous. No Overdrive band (at the time) could withstand the extra h.p. of Nitrous. The engine probably had 350 horses n/a + 175 more with the gas. The limitation of the tranny was supposed to be 700 fw hp. The weakest link in my setup was the stock 5.0 block - good for around 575 (conservative). I even ran a few 200 shots down the 1/8th mile. It was a nice, safe combination that allowed the 4.10 gears to do their job at the track and the O.D. for cruising. Be forewarned, the AOD is a heavy beast that will slow your car down (relative to a C4). I'm pretty sure h.p.'s are robbed because of more friction in the AOD vs the C4. But - if you wanna daily driver or for highway cruising - the AOD would be fine (in my opinion). Then, there's the option to put a T-5 manual in it instead of the AOD. 'Not ss heavy or power robbing as the AOD, but it's a matter of preference - always shifting, or .... not. I'm going to get my 5th cup of coffee and stop typing now. Good luck whichever way you go.
