[Cardiac]

I have a new 4L60 in my 67 Elcamino. When driving around town which gear is recommended to use Drive(3rd) or Overdrive(4th)?
Our Buick Park Avenue they recommend using overdrive all the time, ie: Manualy shifting from 'D' to 'OD' will prematurely wear it out?
I realize these are two complete differant trannsmisions with different applications, but is the therory the same?

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Lowered '67 Elcamino
ZZ430 eng / 4L60 trans
"Canyon Carver"

 

[mike reeh]

man I dont care what anyone says, if you have overdrive USE IT!! its there for a reason..

now under special circumstances (towing, major stop & go, etc, things might be a bit different) but let me tell you if I had the LUXURY of overdrive on any of my t350 vehicles, that OD button would be on constantly

just my $0.02 thanks for listening




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Mike Reeh
Gold #34
San Diego, CA

 

[MarkM]

No offence, but if you are just putting around town at 35 m.p.h. or less, why would you need to put it in overdrive? I have a 3.73 gear and a 700R4 and only use the overdrive on the highway.

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If it were'nt for old chevrolets I'd probably would have killed myself by now! JJ

 

[BillK]

Cardiac,
The newer owners manuals suggest keeping it in OD all the time. The older ones suggested the same unless towing or other HD uses. If you use a bit of common sense and keep an "ear" out on the trans...you can probably keep it in OD all the time. If it seems to be shifting up and down a lot, then shift it down into drive to save the wear and tear, and the aggravation. My 99 Tahoe seems to do great leaving it in OD all the time except occasionally in the hills I will put it in 3rd to keep it from shifting. However, my old 85 Blazer was terrible when it had the 305 in it. It would shift so much it would drive you crazy. I just started putting it in Drive all the time except wide open road and it worked fine. I actually got a little better gas mileage in Drive !!! I think the OD combined with the 3.08 gear was just too much for the little 305. Drove it like that for 140K miles and then put in a 350. It was much better but still needed to go into drive in the hills. The new Tahoe with 3.73 gears and the vortec 350 has a bunch more power so it can tolerate the OD better.
So basicaly it will depend on your particular vehicle, the terrain, and your driving habits.
Hope this helps,

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Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md

1971 Heavy Chevy - original owner
Team Chevelle #100

 

[Cardiac]

Bill - Your comment parallels my line of thinking. Currently I'm running 3.55 gears. Since I don't have the tach installed I have to just listen to the engine rpm for shift points, which is fine by me

I jez wanna'd ta git sum other 'pinions

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Lowered '67 Elcamino
ZZ430 eng / 4L60 trans
"Canyon Carver"

[This message has been edited by Cardiac (edited 01-02-2000).]