Might be kinda long but here it goes; my friend bought a dual bolt pattern 2004R from the "real" ART CARR, he put it in his 68 firebird with a pontiac 400. He didn't hook up the TV cable correctly and it was makin his car run funny, so he STUPIDLY disconnected it!!! well he fried the tranny in a matter of miles. He then took it to a local shop and they put in new thicker cluthces, a bigger band, Billet Servo, Modified the pump to 250psi from a previous 230psi and put it back together. Then it was leaking tranny fluid, so he took it back to the shop, the shop thought the casing was cracked so they took it all apart and replaced the case with an identical one, but still leaked! turned out one of the welds on the torque converter was leaking so he bought a new one from some place in Sacrament, CA.( sorry don't know the name!) he said he paid $500 and something about carbonfiber somethine or other in it? And to be safe put in a new G.M. 270PSI Pump and some special front seal. Okay Now the tranny has some kinda problem on the freeway it has a vacuum modulator for the lockup converter, it has a vacuum line coming from the engine to the modulator, and then a wire going to the tranny. He says on the freeway when the modulator is hooked up that it makes the engine run bad on the freeway, but if he disconnects the vacuum line from the modulator it runs fine?? Well he wants to sell the whole setup to my other good friend; tranny/torque converter, Lokar TV cable, Big expensive tranny cooler with the "blue" high pressure tranny lines, and vacuum modulator lockup kit for $1200!!! Should my friend buy it or what? I think the guy with the 2004R doesn't know what he is doing, i think something is just not hooked up right, but don't know much about that vacuum modulator lockup feature, and also a little nervous about some local shop doing all that work to an ART CARR tranny which are supposed to be great from the factory. Well tell me what you think if you actually finished reading this whole post! thanks

I must of missed something, 1200 is cheap????

Lots of history already, I think I would pass.

Originally posted by Wally:
I must of missed something, 1200 is cheap????

Lots of history already, I think I would pass. Yep, $1200. is real cheap with that convertor. That's $2500 to $3000 depending on how many mods (what level) that trans is. I'd call Bruce at Performance Trans; he supplies the parts to the real Art Carr and probably is the guy in Sacramento (Performance Transmission) that sold your friend the convertor. I've had two of his trannies, one holding over 800 rwhp. Neither used a vacuum modulator though, so I'd want to know what that's about.

His number is (916) 739-0510

Jody

I live almost next to the real Art Carr and I have a 200-4r tranny rebuilt by Art. All I can say is that the tranny will take fine-tuning to work right for a particular car. I love mine but it was re-touched about 5 times by Art Carr. Make sure you are close to a VERY good 200-4r mechanic.

Theo.

Probably not a vacuum modulator, it should be a vacuum switch connected to manifold vacuum to lock/ unlock the torque converter.

Actually, Bruce does not supply any parts for our 2004R build up, all specialty pieces are built in-house. As far as the lock-up situation is concerned, some of that funny shifting may be due to using a lock-up converter with a front pump set up for non lock-up. We worked extensively with Theo's car on the lock-up mechanism, which sounds like the same set-up that you're using, and I was not really impressed with the lock-up mechanism's activation/deactivation characteristics. We did have to do some additional valve body/governor work on Theo's car to get it to shift correctly, but that's what our customer service is all about!

Originally posted by stevelancaster9:
Actually, Bruce does not supply any parts for our 2004R build up, all specialty pieces are built in-house. As far as the lock-up situation is concerned, some of that funny shifting may be due to using a lock-up converter with a front pump set up for non lock-up. We worked extensively with Theo's car on the lock-up mechanism, which sounds like the same set-up that you're using, and I was not really impressed with the lock-up mechanism's activation/deactivation characteristics. We did have to do some additional valve body/governor work on Theo's car to get it to shift correctly, but that's what our customer service is all about! Did he used to? That's at least what he told me and the guy doesn't seem to lie. I know he developed a number of the billet parts on those trannies.

Jody

Thanks for the responses. The tranny supposedly isnt' shifting funny, it is making the car run poorly after shifting from fourth to third. I think maybe the converter isn't unlocking. Maybe all that is needed is a toggle switch inline with the vacumm "switch" to unlock the converter when not in fourth gear. any more info is great!

If it`s wired direct through the vac. sw. as long as there`s enough vac. to activate the sw. it will lock the conv. as soon as it shifts into 2nd gear.

Jim

By the way, congrats Steve on the 2004R article in Chevy High Performance!

Jody

Steve,
You should take some of your excellent customer service to the TurboBuick board and help 8UWITHA6 out since he is having a problem with one of yours....
And it is costing your reputation for anyone who wants to do a little research.