Your opinions are very appreciated. I know its already too late but i should have did some throrough research on the 96-99'* I did not know that the 96 had the 92-95 supercharged tranny. i feel as if i get the same feel as i did with the 93'* when i want to go WOT at times, the car acts like it doesnt want to go fast. I thought maybe if i had the Series II supercharger it would help a whole lot. Dont get me wrong, the car is quick but not fast like i thought it would be at times. I havent gave it a tune up and that will be shortly but the wires and plugs look fine. I test drove a 98 SSEi last week and it felt a bit quicker than my car. plus it has 92,000 miles on it compared to my 171K. I want my car to be quick also but dont want to tear anything up while doing it. Suggestions? I do want a CAI and the pulley. What else can i do to this?

you are correct the 96 has the 4t60, and was the only year the SeriesII had that trans (for the bonneville) that is. the 4t60 is less failure prone than the 65, but there are less moddable parts out there, look at it like this, the 4t60 has the factory trans cooler as apposed to the 4t65 dosent. I would say do the rice pipe, 180 thermo, 3.4 pulley and look at opening the exhaust. Basically anything that you car do to a SeriesII engine you can do to your car

The entire engine in the 96 is 99% the same as it is 97-03. The tranny is the 4t-60e HD yes, but stock for stock they seem to hold up better then most 65e HD units around here.

Your tranny isn't holding you back, unless it'* sludged to hell, which would cause other problems. Maybe the suspension is softer on yours, the throttle might not open all the way, who knows?

Also perception of how fast a car is, isn't always right.our 98 yukon 5.7L feels like a bat out of hell, but it'* huge, a truck, and pretty loud. It used to feel quicker then my car. All in all your car is more then likely fine, and it'* probably just the wear and tear from 170k miles, don't get rid of it, keep at it.

I also have the '96 SSEi, and like some of my other cars in the past....I hit the pedal, and sometimes it doesn't feel like it down shifted as quick as other times.. this might sound dumb, but it was one of my issues... I take the floor mat and drag it back into place, because it gets under the accelerator pedal and stops us from actually getting the pedal down far enough. I know...sounds dumb.. lol

Sam has a good point. The kickdown if it'* a cable on our cars going to a sensor or throttle position...could be stretched

there isn't a kickdown cable on the electronic transmissions. The throttle position sensor is on the underiside of the throttle body and when throttle is opened a certain amount the PCM gives the command for the transmission to drop into a lower gear. The older transmissions did use a cable for this purpose though.

how far open should it have to be to downshift? and how would this relate to the gas pedal, and the throttle position? how far down does the pedal usually have to be, to get a downshift?

I think you're right Steve, the 97'+ is a little quicker with the 4T65 tranny. The reason I beleive is the electrnically controlled torque converter. The 4T65 may just put 1% more power to the wheels than a 4T60. Don't quote me on this though. Ask jr's3800 he knows lots on trannies.

Might be worth checking the throttle position to ensure you are getting full throw.

i dont know how to check itand where it is.