I just bought a rebuilt TH350 for my Camaro.
Was built for 500HP and came with a 3000 stall.

Here is the deal, it has a manual valve body.
That means I absolutely have to manually shift it? Correct?

Do I want to leave it that way?
Is it stronger?

If it has a manual valve body, would they still have installed a shift kit?
I'm not sure how one effects the other.
I'm thinking in-case I want to change the valve body.

 

Valve body is the preference of the driver and what you are doing with it. Yes with a full manual valve body you will have to shift the car. I just replaced my th350 with a th400 and had an automatic manual valve body. That means I can leave it in D and drive around normally or bang through the gears manually without the lag. You can also go reverse manual valve body to bang through the gears 1-2-3 down instead of 1-2-3 up eliminating the possibility of pushing into neutral. I would also worry what else was in the "rebuilt" 350 as they have a weak sprag that will probibly fail under 500hp. (thats why I upgraded, broke the 350)

 

it was only $300 the stall is worth that.

guess, I will leave it as is and see what I think.

 

and of course the manual valve body is preferred if racing it since you can control the shifts and th350's can be built to handle power if built right. So depending on how it was rebuilt, it could live with 500hp but of course the th400 would last longer before it needs another rebuild but it's also heavier. For $300 you def can't go wrong

 

The manual valve body is a deceiving term. It's actually the same valve body in most cases, but a full manual kit uses a plate and other components to make it manual. A kit can be purchased to make it automatic again if you don't like the manual shift kit.
It depends on your engine as to whether you can drive it without shifting. Engines with lots of torque and power can start out in "D" without any problems, but not sure if that would be good on the tranny in the long run. My wife hates shifting the Camaro manually, so on the rare occasion she drives it, she just puts it in D and goes. Fortunately that's only been a few times in the last 36 yrs. that she's driven it.

 

My T350 has a full manual valve body, and I like having the control of when and where to shift. And no, it wouldn't be good for the tranny to always start it out in 3rd gear, but once in a blue moon isn't going to toast it.

 

I dont want to start out in 3rd. I will manual shift.
As you all know my car is for racing first. I will try it.
The guy said I could just replace the valve body if I wanted to.
I actually have doner trannies if I decided that is the way to go.

As always, if it will make the car faster I will deal with it.