Ran a B&M Clutchflite for several years in the mid 70's.A manual clutch and scattershield replaced the torque converter,for those too young to remember them.(poor man's Lenco at the time). Idid use a blanket also,but had know idea what a handgrenade I was sitting next to. The high gear clutch drum was a hemi unit, bigger and heavier than the units used today.(same factory material-bigger bomb).Being only about 24yrs old at the time,trans was always "freshened up" with good appearing, used stock parts.Traditional backyard rebuilds.
The car was a big block Nova,running 9.80's @140. It weighed 3220lbs with me in it.After 75 passes it had to come apart. When I called Vinny at Vitar transmissions,he said it was never intended for cars at that weight. He laughed when I told him it had 75 passes without adjusting 2nd gear band. Said that should have been done every 5-10 passes.
Trans was hard to keep from leaking.From what I've learned now,I am so lucky it never blew up. It had a 50lb flywheel , 5.57 gears, launched at over 7500rpm and crossed at 8500rpm. Young and ignorant! Current T-flite has all the good internals,flexplate sheild and blanket. When I look down at my feet, I realize just how "LUCKY" I was! But I do admit how fun that car was to drive! - Bill