Which would take the power better? C6? Or zf5?

 

Depends.... refine your question farther

 

Well, with the application specified, 400-500 HP about the same in tq. Which would take more abuse?

 

I've seen C6's take ~500 HP without being built, but they don't like it after a while. If you do a C6, I would have it professionally built with a warantee. But again, that's for the drag strip in a 2WD car. What are you wanting to do with the truck? Off road? Drag strip?

 

That's what I was thinking based on what I've read. It'll be a weekend toy/ driver. So it won't be floored off the line (not all the time haha)

 

With the horsepower that you are wanting to do I would recommend that whatever transmission you decide on, to have it serviced/upgraded so that you know it can handle the power. That's just me though. Plenty of people have had trucks they beat to hell and they still run. lol.

 

Whatever trans goes in I'll probably run until I have issues with. And then get it rebuilt

 

personally I'd run a AOD but thats me....

 

I'd love to , but so far all I've seen is c6 and zf5

 

with no emissions to worry about the carb swap will be pretty easy as posted above. The smog heads will definitely choke it though. How much do you want to spend? If you have the budget you could get a standalone EFI system and the right heads and make some pretty serious power if you tune it right....NOT Cheap though! That thing has Hellman's Mayonaise jars for pistons so good mpg is a pipe dream!

My buddy has a f350 dually club cab with one and he gets no more than 8 mpg empty on the hwy with 4.10's. It's a 3 ton vehicle so it sucks fuel to get it moving...

I towed that monster home from Miami a few years ago when the transmission went out with my 90 1/2 ton with a towbar. AAA wouldn't tow him because it was over their limit and the cheapest tow rate we could find was 450 bucks! I had no issues but Florida is flat and I have an F250 suspension all the way around so it was relatively safe. Braking was not confidence inspiring though...lol. I would not have attempted that in a real State with terrain like Virginia or Kentucky.
If you're gonna go with an automatic get it built as heavy duty as you can afford to as the sheer weight of an F350 will kill a stock one pretty quickly. He went to Suncoast and dropped 4500 on a new one with O/D but it's built to the hilt and will actually burn the *** end off it now....lol.