I'll start off by saying there is absolutely nothing wrong with my tranny or transfer case. Which may be why people looked at me like I was an idiot when I said I wanted to send them out to shep. My logic is I'd rather have them built when I have the money so that it won't break instead of waiting for it to break when I may not have the money to fix it. As of right now I only have 377whp but soon intend on building the block and upgrading the turbo. So my questions are, A is it a stupid move to build the driveline right now, and B is the shep drive line that much stronger than stock?

 

Yes upgrade the tranny, it is alot stronger and it will shift sooooo much better, its alot of money if you look at it, but u will love it

 

It shifts fine now, but I guess there's always room for improvement. .y main reason for doing it would be that once this is done I'm free to make a whole lot of power without worrying about blowing up part of my drivetrain.

 

bummmmp

 

In my opinion you can wait. Open a bank account just for drivetrain funds, and keep it there unless you really need it. I would seriously wait.

 

Around what numbers are people breaking trannys and transfer cases assuming they can drive? Because if I don't do the tranny I'm building the motor and throwing on a big turbo, so if I'm going to hit like 600-650whp and then need the tranny work right away, I will feel foolish lol.

 

I would build it now. That is my game plan too. Take care of the car's ability to hold power before I start making it. Plan is pretty much build t-case, tranny, bottom end. Then I will start adding power parts. Makes the most sense to me.

Besides you never know what else might get taken on when one of those parts breaks.

 

If it aint broke don't fix it.

 

This saying for the truth. Don't bother with it until you either GET to that point at least in a minimum. Unless you like spending money.

 

And I'm totally on the OP's side of upgrading it too. It just seems every time I do something thats not necessary I end up opening an entire new can of worms. My latest example is changing my perfectly good solid front motor mount for a different one and while doing so I stripped the mounting bolt. Car was down for a day, etc etc. The entire time I'm thinking, "why did I do this? the part was perfectly fine to begin with arg.."

 

I would build the T-case then the tranny. the first thing to go is the ring an pinion on the T-case and that costs more then getting the thing built. Same goes for the tranny u break something that is not a standard rebuild part then it will cost u alot more. My car ate a t-case already Im still on a stock turbo, cams, fullbolt ons. Mine was more abnormal though trans fluid got in my tcase causing the death wine.

 

All depends on how hard you are gonna drive her IMHO. I've seen stock trannys and txfr cases last on big motors where the owner is nice to em and I've seen em detonate on stock turbo motors when people drive the hell out of em. If you wanna build the drivetrain first, I say go for it.........or not

 

Every car and driver are different so I understand there are variables that play into the parts integrity, but like, rule of thumb wise, where is the post in HP that the drive train usually starts to blow?

 

500-550 according to what I have read.

 

If you are doing an early build why not buy a used 8 tranny and upgrade that on the side then when you are ready to switch over sell the one in your vehicle? Sounds like you got the cash flow to do something like that.