muncie or saginaw

I recently purchased a 74 gto. I know many of you die hard gto fans don't regard this year as a gto because of the ventura/lemans deal, but here's a question. I have the original 350 with comp cam, performer rpm intake and performer 650cfm carb. i'm in the 325-350hp range, and I'm not sure if I have the saginaw M20 or the muncie M20. can anyone help me out. which one is better?

I recently purchased a 74 gto. I know many of you die hard gto fans don't regard this year as a gto because of the ventura/lemans deal, but here's a question. I have the original 350 with comp cam, performer rpm intake and performer 650cfm carb. i'm in the 325-350hp range, and I'm not sure if I have the saginaw M20 or the muncie M20. can anyone help me out. which one is better?

Saginaw was not used in Pontiacs with V8s after '63. Too many blown up transmissions... A Muncie has an all-aluminum case, mid-plate and tail housing. Saginaw is all iron.

An article in Hot Rod Magazine, in '75, showed the '74 with auto trans to be a tad quicker than a '64 with auto trans. While there may be some GTO guys that don't consider the '74, I'm not one of them. I nearly bought one new, but I spied a '70 Judge for less, and it was too cool...

Jim

Saginaw was not used in Pontiacs with V8s after '63. Too many blown up transmissions... A Muncie has an all-aluminum case, mid-plate and tail housing. Saginaw is all iron.

An article in Hot Rod Magazine, in '75, showed the '74 with auto trans to be a tad quicker than a '64 with auto trans. While there may be some GTO guys that don't consider the '74, I'm not one of them. I nearly bought one new, but I spied a '70 Judge for less, and it was too cool...

Jim

I have a 74 with a 4 speed (hatchback) and have owned it since 1978-it did have a saginaw (broke it twice, cluster gear, fixed it once:wink:) now has a Muncie-they did come with Saginaws back in 74

Mike,

Never saw one. I don't believe I ever saw a '74 with a Muncie, either. The few I HAVE seen were Borg Warners. As far as I know, Muncies ended in '72 in GTO.

I DO recall, Saginaw being "gone' for several years, even in Chevy, and returning when Sunbird, Astre, etc. (H-body) got the V6 AND a 4-speed. I've seen a couple of '76 or '77 Vegas with Saginaw, but the vast majority of those I worked on (and that was a LOT of them!!) were the Opel 4-speed.

Most of my statements regarding these types of questions are based on what I saw as a line tech, not on what may or may not have been available. I make no claim to be a parts-wizard.

Jim