The question is a bit of a rhetorical one. I took my car in for a strange sound coming from the shifter....car drove fine. Thought it was a linkage issue at most. Got a call from the service manager the next day and said my tranny is toast and there are multiple teeth missing is 2nd and 3rd. This blew me away to say the least. I've had more than six manual shift cars in my life and none gave me any trouble. Spent some time on the web and found tons of posts about this TREMIC TR-3650 and how weak it is. What's the deal here? Is this true?

- Is this tranny as weak as people say?

- Am I going to potentially have the same troubles again?

- Also, if I ever add a power-adder (supercharger) can the tranny handle it? TREMIC says it's only good for 360 lbs of torque on their site.

- I really want to know if I should mod this car and have fun with it or go easy on it, don't mod it any more, and upgrade to the 5.0 in a few years.

Honestly, I'm scarred that I have a time bomb on my hands and the new tranny could go again at any time. Go easy on me....this has been a stressful week.

Any insight is greatly appreciated. Good news is that the dealer is going to replace the transmission under warranty. This is a good thing. A real good thing.

 

Well, I did have a Saleen series VI on my 08 before I sold it, but I never really beat on it that hard, so that doesn't really tell us much.

I would say this. The 05-10 Roushs and Saleens with blowers were sold on the floor of Ford dealerships. With a few exceptions, they maintained the 3650 and the stock clutch, and these vehicles were warrantied from the factory just like any other. This tells me that FMC/Saleen/Roush had at least that much faith that the trannys would not fail under the increased stress brought on by these applications, or at least not in large enough numbers to make a serious dent in their pocketbooks. Personally I have always understood the 3650 to be a fairly strong tranny, if perhaps not the most smooth. Just my take.

 

The 2011 does have a higher rated tranny. But...

Its made in China
The engine is much more powerful

Hopfully your situation was only a fluke... and not a problem rearing its ulgy head.

 

Dealer just said a new transmission is on its way from Detroit. They're replacing the whole unit, not rebuilding it.

 

Hopefully you got your transmission replaced. I had a T3650 replaced in my 2003 Mach 1 at 35,000 miles because of gear grinding and a failed attempt to correct the issue with a rebuild kit.

I had no issues after the replacement (72,500 miles now), even after modifications to increase the horsepower somewhat (cold air intake, catback exhaust).

In the Mach 1, the peak torque was seen to be around 340 lb-ft at the flywheel when dynoed. The modifications I made probably added another 10 or so lb-ft and an extra 20 hp.

I also have a supercharged '01 Bullitt that has a T3650 with somewhere around 390 lb-ft and 430 hp at the flywheel . That car has 49600 miles on it. It was set up for and previously road raced.

 

I put 35k miles on mine with about 200 passes NA and 100 shot of nitrous. Put another almost 20k miles on with a Whipple. I did replace the clutch and flywheel with the Whipple (was afraid the clutch couldn't keep up). Made at least 50 passes with the blower. No issues and the stock clutch and flywheel looked great when I took it out.

 

had no probs with my tr3650 in my v6 (yes thats what i had in it) and i was between 460-500rwtq (so figure at least 500-550 at the flywheel) daily driven with no problems.