[fiveohpatrol]

I never saw a point in wasting money on the Hammer shifter for the AOD. Mine used to be an AOD and I always did the 1-d-1 shift in it with no problem so the aftermarket shifter would be a waste.

One thing you don't want to skimp on is the converter and tranny cooler. I put in a cheap "2800 stall" converter and saw no gain at the track. I've heard of people with AOD cars going with the PI stallion converter and 3.73's getting as much as 0.8 - 0.9 seconds off their time. With just gears I cut about a half second off my best at the time. The T-5 swap was about another 4 tenths, so with the combination of gears and a good converter will set you in the same range as a 5-speed car. I realized this, but I wanted to have fun while driving too, so i went the swap-route.

Another thing is that I kicked myself for not going with 4.10's when I had the auto. So thats the gearset I'd reccomend for you. Don't worry about highway RPM unless you cruise at like 90mph for hours on end.

Your not gonna have very much fun installing longtube headers on an AOD car. I've heard horror stories about installing them on T-5 cars, let alone on ones with the wider/bulkier AOD

hope this helps