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I was wondering at what speed does a 2000 pontiac bonneville ssei have the most power at?

It doesn't really have the most power at a certain speed.. These are motors that have lots of low end torque, but pretty weak top end pull.

So if you were looking to find a speed range that would fair best in 'comparisons', I would start looking around in second gear. Depending on final drive ratio, it's in the neighborhood of 35-70mph. An up to snuff SSEi will be hunting for traction through first, and running out of steam past 4500-5000rpm in 2nd. Push in to 3rd and progress is much harder to come by.

I'd say the most power in an SSEi is up to 80 tops. First gear pulls pretty good, once second hits it is much more tame. In third there is basically no movement... Lol

Yesterday when I raced I was going about 55 and floored it and it had no power really then all te power kicked in and put me back in my seat. 55-90 in a few seconds if that

1st off, street racing is strictly forbidden on this forum, so i will assume this happened on a track. Second, you will need to figure out why the power didn't go down right away. Is the tranny slipping, was it stumbling, did boost not build, etc. When was the car last tuned up, how many miles on it, and what octane fuel are you running?

Jnegrea93 wrote:Yesterday when I raced I was going about 55 and floored it and it had no power really then all te power kicked in and put me back in my seat. 55-90 in a few seconds if that

The delay might have been your transmission trying to figure out what you want to do. The curse of auto transmission . My guess is it was in fourth gear with the TCC locked up when you floored it. This will happen at that speed with the shifter in D. I'm not sure if the guy that tuned my PCM changed something or if it's just normal stock settings but he always told me to put the car in 3 on the shifter if I'm going to play around on the freeway because it keeps the TCC from locking up and 4th gear is known to be weak on early versions of these transmissions.

It could be a million things really but I'd try that and see how it works.

I don't recommend leaving it in 3 if you're going to be doing things like that anywhere. That's how I killed my 96 SSEi, it over revved and broke a rod. You could shift it manually in the gear you want to start off in, but do not have it in anything but D over 70 MPH.

haro1225 wrote:I don't recommend leaving it in 3 if you're going to be doing things like that anywhere. That's how I killed my 96 SSEi, it over revved and broke a rod. You could shift it manually in the gear you want to start off in, but do not have it in anything but D over 70 MPH.

was that with the old transmission though? 1998 and newer have the 4T65-E and probably has more control over the transmission. Even still I'm in 2nd gear until like 90 mph before it shifts into 3rd so I'm sure 3 on the shifter is good for some street fun.

If say, hypothetically, I were messing around on the freeway doing rolling starts from 60mph or slower I would still toss the shifter into 3 (maybe even 2 depending on the speeds) just to release the torque converter lockup before I hit it and by the time I was hitting 90 mph put it into D so it can shift into 4th at 100+ mph. I have a feeling these transmissions will still force a 4th gear change with the shifter in 3 but I've never tried. From a dig I always leave it in D but from my understanding going WOT while the TCC is locked up (like cruising on highway and then going WOT) puts on a lot of stress

Lol over reving in 3rd at 155 mph
Most power in 4th at 162

Most torque to the ground occurs in 1st gear, at 3600rpm, if you can get traction.

I think it was near 100mph when it happened, it was over two years ago. At least I'm pretty sure it was 3. I know I had the trans replaced with another one from 96 shortly after I got the car. In my case it did not force a shift and it hit the limiter and something broke.

Ah yes it must have been 2nd gear.
Mine shifts at 100 in n 2nd but my shift point is raised to 6200 and the engine and tranny are good to 6500

freneticburn wrote:
I have a feeling these transmissions will still force a 4th gear change with the shifter in 3 but I've never tried.

My 2000 does not......... Ask me how i know

Zeik75 wrote:

freneticburn wrote:
I have a feeling these transmissions will still force a 4th gear change with the shifter in 3 but I've never tried.

My 2000 does not......... Ask me how i know

brutal. I know I have been in cars where if you left it in 1 on the shifter it would still force a 2nd gear shift at the RPM/speed limit but I have never tried on the bonneville.


looking through the transmission settings with DHP it looks like even in low (1) and 2 there are settings to force a 3rd gear shift at a MPH limit. I did notice in the settings for the shifter in 2 there is no setting to force gear change into 4th but it does force a 3rd gear shift while in 2 at a set MPH. There are no specific settings for 3 but I would assume the normal settings cover 3 and D on the shifter. Maybe someone who knows more about this can chime in. I'm curious but don't want my car to be the guinea pig

Stock my car would force 1-2 shift at 5500
2nd would not force to 3rd nor would 3-4
The engine stock is good to 5500 but I have upgraded to enable 6500
Stock the tranny is safe to 6500 but limited to 280 - 300 ft-lbs

depending on what gear you are in here is the HP/TQ vs RPM.. (2nd gear pull)

I can tell you an 00 bonne does not force a shift from 1-2 when my friend put my car in 1 at a stop light and I didn't notice until I took off lol. My car will go well into the red to 6500 RPM and the fastest it's gone before shifting out of second was 105-107. Oddly enough maybe due to something not right in my transmission if I am stopped and hit the gas a little bit then floor it the car drops RPM significantly then shoots up and I launch..

Yeah, these cars have a rev limiter at 6,000 so I don't know why your car would be doing that. They also won't let you hold redline and should automatically force a shift. I have no clue how you got it 105-107 in second. That would be like 7k RPM and your motor would be done. Besides there is NO power left in an L36 past 5500 RPM, so it must have taken like 8 years to get to 105 in second anyways.


Smells fishy.

I can upload a video. There is no rev limiter due to zzp tampering with my PCM. My car is redlined occasionally and runs like a top (for now). 105-107 was one time going down a steep hill Carl. Otherwise its the norm for tuned L36