I did a first read of the Munroe Powerglide book and have been watching a lot of the Powerglide videos Hughes Performance has on YouTube. Lots of great information. I have disassembled and cleaned up the parts of one of my core Powerglides and have begun to inspect and determine what will be needed.
Given my low HP engine (250-ish HP) I'm beginning to wonder just how much will need to be modified. There are a lot of things that are talked about in the book and on the videos that refer to this or that part to "be good to 1,000 HP, 1,500 HP", and so on, but considering the Powerglide came behind even a few 375 HP Chevys I don't know that I really need to do much other than a good rebuild.
It's been a long time since I drove my Mom's '64 Chevy that had a powerglide, but even shifting manually I seem to recall it would stay in Low as long as you didn't shift to Drive, so I don't know that I'd need to even do a manual valve body modification. Seems bumping up line pressure would be a good idea to help make the shift more definite and hold the band tighter against foot braking, but it sounds like raising the pressure more than necessary for the HP application is, well....just unnecessary. I do think a steel high gear clutch hub (~4" diameter one inside the high drum) would be appropriate. I don't know if I'd really be challenging the stock input shaft all that much considering Chevy used them in a lot of cars with higher HP and torque than my mild 283 will make.
I'm even questioning the necessity for a higher stall converter. I'm bracket racing and unless a different converter would somehow be more consistent I don't see the benefit or need.
I could spend a lot of money for transmission parts to build a super-duper transmission, but I try to be careful with what I do spend. Maybe my frugality is why I do have some money.
I'd rather keep it for gas to get to the track and pit passes.
I'd love to hear comments about my logic and ask that if I am WAY off base that someone would point out what is wrong with my thinking. I tried several times yesterday to call someone at Hughes Performance to ask the same questions but wasn't able to reach anyone.
Lynn