The Turbo-Hydramatic 200-4R was introduced in 1982 as the one of General Motors first rear wheel drive, overdrive transmissions. Production was limited and was stopped in the late ’80’s. Which makes most of the transmissions for sale, rebuilt units.
Used primarily in Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Cadillac models, they also were featured in some Chevrolet models. This was made possible by the uni-bell housing bolt pattern found on some of the cases that allowed the 200-4R to be bolted to all G.M. engines including Chevrolet’s specific bolt pattern.
Essentially, the T-200-4Rs design is similar to the T-200 transmission, which only has 3 speeds, and was introduced in 1976. The T-200 was developed as one of the first manufacturing techniques as way to cut some of the cost of manufacturing transmissions for sale. That improved gas mileage when the T-200 became a T-200c in 1980, meaning the transmission had the first lock up torque converter on the market.
Realistically speaking, the T-200-4R is simply a T-200C with an overdrive section added to the front section of the transmission.
Though the T-200 gained a reputation as an undependable transmission early on in its life, most of this can be solved with a good upgrade kit. While the T-2004R was being used by and adapted to cars that demand a reliable overdrive for high performance use, too. This transmission has surprised many transmission technicians that were used to seeing the many failing T-200s.
As mentioned, a small percentage of the T-2004R transmissions went into high performance applications. Such as the Pontiac Grand Am Turbo, Monte Carlo SS, and several other G.M. performance cars.
With the proper experience it is possible to effectively identify all the built in weakness’s this unit has and upgrade it to the tasks at hand.. Non-performance models having more weaknesses than others.
The other overdrive transmission that is better suited for all swap over applications including high performance and custom street rod applications is the 700R-4 and the 4L60E.
After 30 years of personal experience rebuilding transmissions, I conclude this is an excellent transmission for the applications it came in. Especially if you purchase a rebuilt transmission with the appropriate upgrades built into it. Observations made during my career as a re-builder and want to share with you on our Blog are, for all practical purposes, the T-2004R was more successful than given credit for, and makes a great stock replacement unit when you buy a transmission for sale from GotTransmissions.com.
