Ordered the tranny rebuild kit for my old hydroglide and will have it in the car in a couple of weeks. This is going to take a big chunk of my $$ reserve and I won't have much left to play with, maybe a $100 or $ 200. What should I look at nxt, ignition, exhaust, intake? MSD, pems, ram air intake, or I know, shift kit! Now would be the perfect time! Any suggestions? It is a 4t60 tranny. I'll be taking her to the local strip this spring or summer.

Lose the bosch plugs you have in your signature for starters. They're a de-mod. Never run bosch. They are known by us and bosch themselves to be a problem in waste-spark ignition setups like ours.

A shift kit would be a good investment if you have the trans coming out anyway.

Mmmm I thought the 88 had the 440 trans?

I'd look at the little things you can do.
Do you still have the original Magnavox ignition system?
Any maintenance that needs to be done?
Your airbox is good to start with, no real upgrade there.

ok,ok, I'll go to the ngk tr6'*. already have k&n chrome air intake, thinking about thermally insulating the pipe and shielding the filter from the engine bay air w/some sheet metal that i have.

TR6? NO!

Those are 2 heatranges colder than stock, and you'll foul them out. You need stock heatrange or TR55 (one heatrange) but gapped at the stock .060".

tr55'* gapped at 60, is that how they come or will I need to regap them. When I get my nos will the tr6'* be cold enough to compensate or do I need to go with the zex plugs that they recommend?

Go with what ZEX reccommends.

Never rely on gapping out of the box under any circumstances. Always check/re-gap if needed.

You might want to consider 1997 or newer L67 coils to do with that and your Delco ignition swap. Especially with TR55 gapped at .060".