right i dont think anyone mentioned shifting into first gear at all,i know i did not ,just ocasion for .gear 2 couple times a week ,an like camaro 69 said with rpms low way under 2500. under 30 mph ,seems to be prefrence i meen you even feel 4th to 3rd ,i got to say from 3rd to second .feels even smoother .i am not talking about down shifting to 2 gear at 80 miles per hour wich i can do.with the th350,not even 50mph ,just about 30mph rmps low for like 300 .yards an ceratin cars 2 gear no like my 01 mercury 4,6 did not like it either,though i think leaveing the car in Od can use more gas on hill climbs

 

I did kinda a assume no one has slamming cars into 1st gear at 50 MPH, I do down shift my stick in normal driving. It is just habit. With the size of the 4 disc brake systems on these cars it really just does not make a lot of sense. The chance you may one day make a mistake to me would outweigh the fact your brake pads that need replaced every three years might need replaced in 2.5 years.

Also I am not saying anyone that downshifts will damage their engine. I saw maybe 6 situations in 5 years as pro wrench. I don't remember any of them being under warranty. You can compare that to 30+ 305's I had to put crank kits in due to over reving while under warranty. I still have people tell the 305 does not have that issue.

I do also think that cars with larger oil clearance in the rod bearing are more likely to have an issue. Larger oil clearances come from wear or a bad rebuild. Motors that are about to spin a bearing already can be easily pushed over the edge. So even with a stick I would not down shift a motor with low oil pressure.

 

i hear you gorn ,i guess i am just makeing it clear its not a habbit like it would be with a standard ,on ocasion only ,,though i did it alot with the lt1 ,felt like it may affect the rear more then the tranny or both ,though with the th350 i love to slam it into 2 gear at 70mph then hit the gas ,dont think the rear end likes it to much though ,again only 2 times.i did that ,i am guesing the shift kit helps

 

Drive your car in first gear at 60mph for all I care. I could not give a **** how you drive your car

 

ok if you did not give a chit ,.no need for the weird posts hear grow up man an do eveyone a favor go to forums where they put up with those stupid statements

 

So Gorn, what are the chances that A4 down shifting (at the proper speed to do so, if I recall, from 3 to 2 at less than 50 mph) at the track doing a HPDE could cause this? Still trying to figure out what exactly happened... Of course I was doing that only on some turns, not on the long straight -- which is where the engine blew! One thing for sure, I should have run thicker oil than the 5W-30 Fully Synth for track duty -- perhaps conventional or a blend would have helped me fair better that day...

 

personaly i dont know if oil would have made the diffrence,some what i think so as far as how many runs you took with the .engine,i now use vr1 raceing oil 20w50.i thought may be to thick with an.ounce of zinc during my breakin.used joe gibbs 10w30 for 200 miles changed it that at 900,00 changed it again useing a k&n filter ,dont know how many times you ran it down the track before that happened ,but its just a guess it could happen to anyone ,one any given day ,an some will say they run there car at the track an hardly .ever have trouble ,i think .unless an engine is.built for the track like it sounds you ls3 is ,could happen ,i dont recall seeing what happen with you to many times ,but i am sure if you hang out at the track it happens alot more ,i got friend races his built up 96 lt1 at the track an he is allways talkeing about breaking something ,so he one car for the track ,an one car for the road,as far as what i now use 20w50 vr1 ,no regrets ,just got an oil heater for cold starts ,the plug in dip stick ,say keep pluged in over night ,couse that was my biggest worry was that .thick oil to the top of the engine ,when it gets hot its hust as loose as any other oil to me ,down shifting i dont think would have made.that much if it was ready to go ,we all know parts get weak,an at the track guys tell me that much faster it happens,we all watch 4/th mile runs on tv .most of those guys are in the shop after one.run rebuilding something ,if they get 4 5 runs without a rebuild there doing good ,

 

Oil Thickness is based on the clearance in the bearing. We ran straight 30 weight in our race engines (no cold starts) I would never think of stepping up to a 40 weight unless unless I had a good reason to think something got stretched or damaged and I did not have the time to pull it apart. Figuring out what happened to an engine after a high RPM failure can be tuff. An air pocket in your cooling system my cause a engine to run a little hot and will eventually cause a failed head gasket under normal use. On the race track it can seizes a motor. If it was a down shifting issue you should have felt it and it would have jerked your head forward for just a second.

Chasing down what happened to a stock motor can also be a huge was of time. Any motor built on a production line can have any of a number of defect. When the car manufacture does a Cost Vs Quality they shoot for 63 Part pert million or a CPK of 1.33. Let say they design a powder metal rod. Due to the manufacturing defect the material strength vary so they design a strong enough rod to hit 1.33 CPK. This means that most of the rods are stronger then they need to be some are just strong enough and 63 part per million will fail under warranty if pushed. Rod bolts is another common area for defects. Factory rod bolts are cold form and thread rolled. The forming and rolling process can produce folds in the bolts and can be very hard to detect. In fact the testing procedure cost more then the bolt.

Powder metals and castings are the most prone to defects with forging following up. Most higher end racing parts spend more money inspecting their products for these defects then they spend making them. Machining from billet is the most defect free way to make something. There are many parts the US military require to made from billet.