is a 700r4 worth it over the th350? i know the big up is that the 700r4 is drive by wire, but is it worth the money over a th350?

depends on what your plans are for the car. If you want to use it as a street car YES the 700r is worth it, if you want to race the car, then no it is not worth it.

As Brian noted you should consider the use planned for the car. In an all-out race car I don't think the TH350 would be a good choice either as it was designed as a lighter duty transmission.

Consider the gear ratios in both...
TH350 - 2.52, 1.52, 1.00
700R4 - 3.06, 1.63, 1.00, .70 O/D

The 700R4 will give you a better 1st-gear ratio but a bigger drop from 1st to 2nd (3.06 to 1.63 - 47%) than the TH350 (2.52 to 1.52 - 40%) while the 2nd to 3rd are not as bad, 39% vs. 35%. Big advantage of the 700R4 is the overdrive for a street car. That 30% reduction of your final gear ratio on the highway can be nice. Using an example 3.36 rear end with 26" tire it means a drop from 3020 rpms at 70 mph to 2120 rpms.

You'll probably have to have the driveshaft shortened to fit the 700R4 as well but any competent shop should be able to accomplish that.

700R4/4L60 still uses a cable, and was a pretty straight forward install over my 350, plus I converted to floor shift at the same time. I found mine out of a 92 suburban 4x4, and use the tail extension (where yoke inserts) from a car one, which gave me 2 mounting points, and made it fit in almost the same cross member position. I was able to use the rear holes, and added 2 farther back. Driveshaft was shortened, measure for your car, better to make sure it's right than go off someone else's measurement. I used a 92 or so camaro brake pedal switch for the lockup converter interrupt, though you can have a manual switch for that. Internally, a 700R4 has some things that need upgrading for performance use. There's also 2 versions having 2 different spline counts. The later ones (90-92 I think) were better. Even though my tranny had only about 25,000 on it, I still had it gone through by a pro who put in some better guts. Also, depending on your power output, it might be better off to stay 3 speed and build a TH400. Somewhere in the 450hp range, the 700 starts becoming cost prohibitive, since you need to add 4L65 planetaries and stuff.

www.700R4.com is a good site to gain info from.

i think im goin with a th350.... for many reasons... easier to put in... no body work.... cheaper... easier to rebuild... and i can also buy a gear for the rear end with the money left over:hurray: