Ok so I see everyone talks about the mods they have and want to do and so forth but what about the transmission? I have a 98 SSEI just bought last week and I'm curious how well these transmissions are. At what point will you need to beef up, if at all possible on these cars, the transmission and what would be the best bet? and also at what point like after you do the heads and cam and most of the bolt-on mods or what?

What I'm looking to do, probably within the next 3-4 months, is what'* posted in the " What order should I MOD my engine" section...and yes I plan on doing all that within this time frame. My Bonne has 166k miles but I want to have a strong built motor that will last for quite some time and use as a daily driver, don't really drive all that much but it will be my primary car until I get my other project car. But with all that power I want to make sure my transmission will withstand all of it. Any ideas???

And hats off to a well built and very informative site. I have read thru most of the posts and it seems like a great group of people.

The trans is considered kinda weak. There are a couple inherent problems.
Pressure control soleniods are fairly common to fail
4th gear clutch hub is not hardened

GM made many valve body updates in about 03, this usually covers TCC issues, sloppy shifts and replacing the PCS, they also put in a hardened 4th clutch shaft, taking care of the 4th gear loss issues.

Depending on where you are located there'* a few places rebuilding these that can make them capable of handling anything from stock motor to a high horsepower supercharged or turbo setup.

I live in Chicago right now but I'm actually moving to Lexington Kentucky in the next few months.