Which tranny is more correct for a resto?

[Jeff Murphy]

Would you advocate using a correctly dated transmission with a Camaro VIN (but obviously not the correct VIN) or a correctly dated CT replacement transmission?
Possibly an interesting debate...

The assembly line transmission might be more correct for a showroom resto, even though it could never have come in the car. On the other hand, the CT transmission might actually have been available to the car, but is definitely Day 2 (or at least non showroom).

What do you think?

[Salvatore]

They would be both wrong, so take your pick. If you blew your trans in the old days, and GM didn't fix your original, you got a counter exchange. Believe me, many, many trans. were scrapped in those days. Pick the one with the best ratio. JMO. Sam

[NCGuy68]

I agree with Sam.

The original trans should have the VIN suffex and build date stamped on it as I'am sure you know.

On the other hand, I'd love to have the remnants of the exploded Muncies I've seen over the years. No doubt I could piece together a couple of nice M22s'.

[Unreal]

In my opinion, the fact that a tranny was an assembly line part is of no particular value, as the vast majority of used parts were originally installed on the line. I think a CT would be more desirable as it "could" have been a warranty replacement. Of course, there's no proof that a CT was on a Camaro as it could have been installed on a number of Chevy models.

[68SSCamaro]

It depends on what you are going to do with the car. If you are going to show it, then you need to find out what the judges guidelines are. Unfortunately I don't think there is a written guideline for some cars like the NCRS has for the Corvette. Each event might have different rules.

If it's for personal satisfaction, then you can set your own rules and do what you want. I'm in the same situation and have decided to go with a correctly dated tranny. It's the closest I can get to what came in it from the factory. JMO.

[Mr70]

Jeff
I'm Curious,are you referring to a TH400,or a Muncie?

[Jeff Murphy]

Muncie in this case.

I know that the original owner of my Red COPO blew up several transmissions through his racing ownership of the car. No surprise given that he somehow got an M20 delivered to him by GM. In a conversation with him he told me that the rear end on the car was bullet proof but he could never get the transmissions to stay together (both in stock L-72 form and especially after he added a tunnel ram, etc.) -- I would have thought he would have changed to an M22 over the counter but he didn't remember.

I ran across an old thread about counter exchange transmissions and got to wondering what would be more appropriate for a high end resto on a COPO that didn't have the original tranny...