You can leave them out but will not last as long due to parasitic drag / hydrostatic lock. Granted they are on in 3rd and 4th so the issue is for 1st and 2nd where this will occur and has potential to shorten the life of the 3-4 stack.

just the plates alone no other drum mods the plates are Alto Red Eagle so theoretically should be good up to 1000-1500 but are thinner and tighter gaps must be used to prevent coning of the plates. Using the Alto A pack with no other drum mods should be OK up to about 500 HP max. Above that I would use much thicker plates double-sided and adhere to a .008-.010 gap per friction plate in the drum and run like a 7 friction stack with 6 kolene steels mixture of .095 & .106 kolene so would shoot for an .056-070 gap and with say a Sonnax drum and drum support ring could go to 1000 hp no problem.

@@TriStarWWPO thank you for the response, very insightful... i just picked up a 4l60e to replace the one thats slips when i floor it in 4th... i think it kicks down to 2nd i have not mistaken... so belt seems worn... oh and for the "hp rating" you gave does that include factory torque management or none or do you even go to negative timing when it shifts? anyways if there was a way I could pay you a tip for the comment i would!

What do you do to make the sprag hold 1000hp

@@dreece2000 less than 230psi shift pressure and race in 4th for 2003 and older 4l60e

Not sure why that is without seeing it really..... are you using the .125 Top Pressure plate ? Are all the plates stacked correctly all the way to the bottom apply plate? The steel lugs can go in to the drum multiple ways but only one is right. I make reference to that @ 19:31 in the video.