Thread: How tough is a powerglide?

Tweet

C6 should be fine Dago. Thats what's going into my 48, the rear will be a 71 f150 9 inch, and the power plant is a 429 with 350-400 hp. I've talked to quite a few folks that say the c6's are bullet proof! If you go over 500hp, you start getting out of my range of knowledge, but I'm sure one of our Ford guys will know!

I have bought a tough input shaft, an aftermarket clutch hub, uprated pump, extra reverse springs, and other tough bits and pieces. My only concern is the stock 1.76 gear set and case. Carl Munroe of TSR claims in his powerglide book that the gears will handle circa 600bhp, but in everyone's experiance is that a conservative claim, considering that this transmission is going in a 2200lb car. The tires are 12" wide soft street legal cheater type.
Could 700 bhp be put through?

My personal experience with a glide is they are much tougher than people think. I always ran a glide in my 66 nova drag car for 20 years. The car weighed 3000lbs, 525hp to 550hp small block 400, trans brake with a 5000 stall converter, shift kit, 4:88 rear and slicks. I ran the car 300 to 350 runs per season and went trough the tranny every two seasons. I used stock components. Maybe I was just lucky but I never broke a shaft cracked a case or had any issues with it with the exception of losing one set of plantary gears and went from 1:76 to 1:82's at that time.
Well that's my .02cents